Mayo will have to change it up on Sunday. Leaving O Donoghue in the corner is not an option. He either needs to bring McGrath out where he wont be comfortable or give Sean Kelly a defensive focus. I'd also play a twin towers ff line - bringing one out for the Galway kick out and make Galway have to rejig their defence so Glynn or Mcgrath will have to be changed to avoid an aerial mismatch. Having O Donoghue and McHale out at half forward gives Mayo some kicking options to let high ball in for a change.

Colm Reape
Jack Coyne
David McBrien (On Finnerty)
Enda Hession
Fenton Kelly (On McDaid)
Donnacha McHugh (On Tierney)
Stephen Coen (On darcy)
Matthew Ruane (On Conroy)
Jack Carney (On Maher)
Jordan Flynn
Ryan O’Donoghue (on Kelly)
Darren McHale
Paul Towey
Frank Irwin
Aidan O’Shea

Subs
Adrian Phillips
Eoin O’Donoghue
Sam Callinan
Paddy Durcan
Eoghan McLaughlin
Conor Reid
Davitt Neary
Diarmuid O’Connor
Fergal Boland
Dylan Thornton
Tommy Conroy

You mightnt be far off in your thinking John Paul, the 8 midfielders starting in the league final that baffled us might have a been a precursor to a future date with Galway, we all know our midfield hasn't been functioning so I suspect plan is to get as man of our taller lads in from the start and try contest as much as possible as gleeson will be going long on everything, if I had to guess I'd say Irwin and DOC will start to help round that middle 8 along with Flynn, Ruane and Carney and AOS drifting out occasionally for the odd relief ball.
So I think we might be able to break even round the middle of the park with all those bodies sharing the load.

However the upshot of that is we are robbing Peter to pay Paul somewhat, in that that would probably mean sacrificing footballers and scorers to accommodate all those big men. It means the burden on ROD would be bigger then ever to supply 75% of the scores and as we've seen in the past Johnny McGrath can give him plenty of it.

I still maintain there will only be a kick of a ball in it either way. Let's face it you'd be giving us a better chance then Cork v kerry or meath v Dublin and look what happened in those games

Not the team I'd pick myself (there are 5 lads listed there who are not performing at all) but I predict it will be as follows based on all the above....

Reape

Coyne
McHugh
Hession

Coen
McBrien
Eoghan McL

Irwin
Flynn
Ruane

Carney
Diarmuid
Neary

AoS
RoD

I've seen Coen do a job on Tierney on one or more occasion so he gets that assignment.
Mchugh on Darcy instead.

Yeah Mind the House, Coen fine for Tierney, I'm in danger of jinxing myself but I don't rate Tierney particularly highly, I recall Durcan in particular running the legs off him on several occasions.

I'm inclined to go with Eoghan McL somewhere from the start too, he is incredibly frustrating at times and his ball skills are still lacking but by jaysus if Durcan isn't there he remains our best man to break lines and remains our most likely goal threat

The young Meath corner forward(can’t remember his name) who got man of the match at the weekend reminds me a lot of Niall Hurley. Would be a major curve ball to throw Hurley in against Galway on Sunday but surely worth a go. Other counties have u20 players involved with the seniors.

Can we stop putting Ruane in midfield, his best position in wing forward and can get those scores.

@Bate the Blanket yeah agree with you on that!

It would be great to see Durcan on the bench at least ..

I'm still going with a close score at the end
.
Hopefully the weather stays good till Sunday to !

Bate the blanket I couldn’t agree more .if ruane isn’t scoring a few points per game then he contributes very little as a midfielder and being taken off against Sligo and Leitrim is not a good sign going in to Galway game

Can't have Coen starting. He has gone back since the All Ireland final against Tyrone which ironically was his best match. He started every game this year and hasn't put in a good performance. He doesn't stick tight to his man, slows the play with his sideways or back passes
(probably what Mgt have instructed him) lacks pace and too easy for forwards to get around. Bring him on near the end when players are getting tired and pace won't be as big a factor.

Team to start will be as per Leitrim.

Subs ditto, but may include Paddy and Tommy. I know some say their season is over if they haven't seen action so far, but I don't agree. They've been given as long as possible to rehab, Summer is here, the ground is good, and they have gained a month extra by having an easy passage to the CF. Both are the type of players who can come in and make an impact, and this could lift the crowd. The crowd could be very important; Galway will bring support and noise.

We must match fire with fire.

Team:
Reape
Coyne - McBrien - Hession
Callinan - Coen - McLaughlin
McHugh (on Maher)
Diarmuid (on Conroy)
Ruane - Flynn - Neary
O'Shea - Carney - ROD

The round Robin draw tomorrow could put all predictions up in the air. Madness really but we genuinely could end up in a situation where losing a provincial final suits better. It's absolutely crazy stuff. If it was politics they would be talking about double agents in the gaa trying to bring down the association. What the hell is going on and are we ever going to hear from the powers and why they can't allow an extra week or two.

Is the under 20 final on any tv channel tomorrow, anyone know

Team named for 20s final , game streamed on TG4 YouTube

Culmore - it's on TG4's YouTube channel so I'll embed it directly here on the blog as well.

Thanks WJ, 20's will be a nice appetiser for Sunday.

They will, for sure, Bonni! Don't forget the Minors on Friday either, that's another appetising amuse bouche ahead of the big one.

Definitely a feast of Mayo football this week WJ. Will be in Cork city on Sunday so will need to seek out a good pub for the match if anyone knows.

Reape.
Tiernan, Brady, Heaney.
Parsons, Seamie O Se. Pat Fallon.
Willie Joe, McHale
TJ, Flynn, Colm Mc
Carney, Aido, Irwin

Go big or go home

How could I forget Big Bird!!! :)

Bench
Big Bird Barry Moran
Jason Gibbons.
Enda Sheehy.
Pat Harte
Fergal Kelly.
James Gill.
Dylan Thornton

And Sean and Greg Maher

No doubt - The draw will have zero bearing on Mayos prep. We can only win Connacht this year so must go all out to try and win it.

This Amuse Bouche lad Willie Joe. I have not heard of him before, maybe one of the Bouches from Ballina. I hope he goes well and isnt ate alive by Big John Maher. As for lads talking about putting Coen on Tierney I wouldnt be so sure Coen has the legs for it these days, Tierney is going as well as i've seen in last few years and I expect a big game from him on Sunday. Galway underperformed in last years final and were lucky to get the win, it remains to be seen if we will bring our A game to this match. Mayo at home in front of a fanatical and baying crowd with no Connacht title in years, Its asking a lot of Galway to go there and win but we will give it a right go.

@Chesneychet

I do enjoy your posts and always look out for them !

But to say it will take alot for ye to come to Castlebar and beat us is laughable tbh ..

Our form the last 3 games has really not been great ... while ye are clear favourites to win and rightly so .

It's more the other way around it will take alot for our guys to pick themselves up after the last 3 poor showings .

But my God I hope we throw everything at ye .
And hope we don't let ye bully us around the pitch either .

You are favourites on Sunday no doubt about it and I expect you to win you are also serious contenders for Sam while we are miles off being contenders for Sam atm .

Hopefully it's a good game and no injuries either side but come on even you must know the odds are totally against Mayo for this one!!

@1985 Greg Maher went to his eternal reward in 2016 a fine footballer he was too in an era where we had an embarrasment of riches in midfield. May he rest in peace

The late Ted Webb was a fine footballer

Going to have to bite the bullet and just buy sideline tickets now
Season tickets have to be redeemed by 10am tomorrow and all that’s showing in stand still is section 109.
Don’t think I’ll renew next year now

Glorydays yea I knew Greg Maher had passed away .i remember hearing it on way to croker.he was unfortunately very unlucky with injuries and I think he only ever started two championship matches one being the 1989 all Ireland final but a good footballer and himself and Michael fitzmaurice were a good midfield partnership in 1985 minor win

Season ticket holders were given the option to purchase sideline or stand tickets for the sligo game but stand only for the galway game (and bad ones at that). Is that just another way for the GAA to gaurantee an extra fiver from loyal supporters? I think il give it a miss this time

@KM79

I kept checking all week.
As of yesterday they were offering some seats further back than row F but still not further back than N or O..Also only sections 101,102,108,109.Take 5 mins each time you want to check so I reckon I've wasted about 2 hours at this nonsense this week.
All this time I could just go on Ticketmaster and buy seats wherever.

I've bit the bullet as you said and took row N in 108,not going to get much better as a season ticket holder.crazy stuff and as I posted previously that's the end of me and season tickets,I'm out.

We're a far cry from the days of gillets,umbrellas and suitcases!

No longer have the option to buy sideline now ffs
Will end up paying for stand and going to sideline

So long as your eyesight is decent anywhere in the stand is OK so long as you're not behind one of those fecking pillars. To be honest youd think with the money it cost we'd have got a modern stand not something straight out of the sixties.

@KM79 ah that's shite don't blame you for not wanting to renew the season ticket next year .

@KM79,

That's terrible,they are trolling us at this stage. My plan was to get sideline tickets but the atmosphere is way better in the stand.

On a more positive note I think Mayo will sneak a win on Sunday.
As others have mentioned the crowd will make a difference so if the lads are putting up a good fight on the pitch they need the noise behind them.

Mayo by 2.

Another season ticket holder that feels shafted here.
Myself and 2 friends are season ticket holders and none of us will be renewing next year.Its a slap in the face to genuine fans.
As for the match we need to stop messing about with our key men.
Mc Brien at 3
Callinan at 6
Flynn at midfield
And for God's sake launch a few missiles in on Aido at ff.

It seems fairly certain there will be no Tommy or paddy . Massive

Crowd factor , Galway selling more tickets , will be similar ratio to last year 3:2 in favour of Galway , so no advantage there either . Galway crowd in way better spirit too , we are in depressive mode .

Heart will always say Mayo but I think this one is beyond us . Those making a case for us are not really being realistic ( I’ve tried that in my head too but we just don’t have the same level of player available to us ) but shocks do happen , Meath were 13/2 I think to beat Dublin . Galway by 7

McGrath has Ryan’s number which is going to leave us very limited in the scoring line . If comer starts we are goosed as we’ve nobody capable of nullifying his influence . I see people saying bring Ryan out to the 40 and either force j McGrath out of position or get Kelly to focus on him , don’t think either works to our advantage , Kelly well able and will have Ryan pulled up the other end too , McGrath follows him out and shur it’s the same job he has . Nah this is not shaping well in my head at all the last couple of hours . Hopefully the draw is kind to Connacht losers and we can even hook a few if it gets beyond us Sunday and rest them for the AI series .

@Sean Burke
Do you have a link to Galway selling more tickets?

I don't think that kind of info is out there except for hearsay and a fella told me kind of thing.

Ah lads come on this isn't Dublin 2017 we're facing. I keep hearing about Tierney. What has he ever done against us in championship? Sweet f all. I think he's a good player mind, but not the second coming of christ. Comer too has had moments against us, as has Walsh. But not massive factors in deciding the games. It'll probably come down to how we handle Conroy, McDaid, Kelly, Maher & Finnerty. They're the key cogs at the minute. Darcy was like Fenton against Roscommon. We should be running the legs off him & Conroy! Get them out of their comfort zone.
The closer this gets, the more confident I'm getting. If we even have a semblance of a kickout strategy on both sides, I think we could open them up. We had them beaten last year but didn't kill them off. That was a common theme last year. If we have them by the balls this time, there will not be any relenting

@Sean Burke fully agree there sadly.

Little surprised with choice of referee

If we go standard with Coyne, Coen, Ruane midfield and Mchale at 11, then it's game over before it's starts.
We need to reward performances and exert the best out of lads whilst rewarding bravery and application.

Coynes been off the boil , put Mcbrien to 2, Coen hasn't the pace and keeps showing up in fullforward line .start Kelly and or Eoin O D, tigerish tenacity, Gary Ruane used mark Meehan out of it but yest wouldn't be man you would start every game.
Chris Barrett had Comers number everytime , jimmy Nallen used leave Michael Donnellan sitting , Ray Connelly had John Donnellans number , Fergie Costello had Derek Savages number, it's horse for courses .
Midfield has to see flynn and Carney to compete physically and Diarmuid in the 12 role.
Flynn in the dedicated midfield role is far more at home than trying to be fire fighting at 12 and still trying to be a midfielder, leave him does what he does best, he's a superb aerial fielder .
There's a role in this game for Conor Reid too .
Eoghan Mac at wingforward could well work in this game , he and Neary could do a job in the 10 role.
Diarmuid and AOS can alternate fullforward to halfforward whilst giving them something different to think off. Just go hard, give it all but refresh the team, play a team to play progressive fast football whilst playing as if their lives depended on winning
....................Reape
McBrien.....Mchugh.......Hession
Kelly..........Eoin O D .........Sam
...............Carney.....Flynn
Eoghan Mac.....Ruane....Diarmuid
Irwin.........AOS.........ROD

Physical big fast team who are determined to win breaking ball and compete

How many likely to be there on Sunday?

@seanBurke. They've got to you. It reminds me of one of my youngsters when things get on top of them at school and I bring them for a 99 after work to make them feel better. So do you want sprinkles with yours sean?

Self-deprecation is not to be confused with self -doubt. No harm downplaying oneself at times in this egocentric world. There'll be nothing between them at the hooter.

have to disagree with you Outside of the Boot -
E OD and Callinan, wouldn't take a shot at goal if their lives depended on it - they have no business being in a half back line.
We would be far better off with Hession and Mcloughlin in the half back line - they will be able to put Galways half forwards on the back foot.
I would play a twin tower midfield but I'd have O Donoghue and Boland in the half-forwards to kick it in to them and play off them.
Having O Donoghue tied up in the corner by McGrath is a waste of our best player -
having a twin towers ff line with no one out the field to kick it in wont get us anywhere either.

Mayo need 23 points (or so) to win.
We dont have a goal scorer and only O Donoghue has shown a consistent appetite for 2 pointers.

For me, Mayo scores come from a spread of scorers if they are playing in the right areas
1. McLouglin and Hession breaking lines creates a goal
2. O Donoghue and Boland looping around the arc gets 3-4 2 pointers
3. Flynn and Ruane bursting through the arc gets 3-4 points
4. A few high ones into O Shea and Irwin gets 3-4 points

All of a sudden you have 20 points and a chance to win if you get some impact from the bench.

Cant see enough scores coming from a running game that has your halfback line and no one to kick the ball into the FF line.

(No doubt ) A sprinkle of Tommy conroys form of 2021 will suffice , instead he won’t even be togged . So our ice cream is very plain , it’s even melted and made its way down the cone , cone is soggy with watery ice cream now dripping out of the bottom. Our ice cream days look grim .

Where will we get the twin tower midfield

Thought this would be a nice easy one for me, as I think Galway are v strong and on paper we should be 100% bate out the gate.

Also I don't see the McHale factor as an advantage. And to be able to spring Comer (one of my all time favourite players) from the bench...the writing's on the wall.

So the tummy is settled, a nice flat line on the monitor.

...then you read some of the comments here and they point out quite factually in the big Mayo - Galway games it's always down to the wire. Often just a kick of the ball. We are also deserved underdogs, which ironically suits the Mayo mentality, it's the favourites tag we struggle with. And then you look at some of the other results around the provinces and ...

Beep! Beep! Beep!

The tummy monitor kicks off and I'm reaching for the Rennie.

Lay off the ice cream analogy lads... I'm melting here!

@Coilltemach , Rennie will be no good for me come Sunday. I will be reaching for several Creamy pints of Stout, win lose or draw. My niggling gut feeling is we will win this one.

@Bonni Boyler hope to god your right ..! Enjoy the pints !

We got the mark ups pretty well last year apart from Finnerty and later Walshe's introduction. They also didn't have McDaid so he'll have to be minded. Also what we subbed off you'd be hoping all those last the full match

Scorers for Galway: Rob Finnerty 0-8 (5fs), Shane Walsh 0-3 (1f), Damien Comer and Connor Gleeson (2fs) 0-2 each, and Johnny Heaney 0-1.

Scorers for Mayo: Ryan O’Donoghue 0-6 (4fs, 1m), Mattie Ruane 0-3, Tommy Conroy 0-2, Donnacha McHugh, Fergal Boland, Jordan Flynn, and Cillian O’Connor 0-1 each.

Galway: Connor Gleeson; Johnny McGrath, Jack Glynn, Seán Fitzgerald; Dylan McHugh, John Daly, Liam Silke; Paul Conroy, Céin D’Arcy; Johnny Heaney, Seán Kelly, Kieran Molloy; Rob Finnerty, Damien Comer, Cathal Sweeney.

Subs: John Maher for Molloy (21), Shane Walsh for Sweeney (33), Matthew Tierney for Heaney (52), Seán Ó Maolchiaráin for Fitzgerald (65), Daniel O’Flaherty for Daly (70+1).

Mayo: Colm Reape; Sam Callinan, David McBrien, Rory Brickenden; Eoghan McLaughlin, Donnacha McHugh, Jack Coyne; Stephen Coen, Mattie Ruane; Jordan Flynn, Fergal Boland, Jack Carney; Aidan O’Shea, Tommy Conroy, Ryan O’Donoghue.

Subs: Diarmuid O’Connor for Boland (45), Cillian O’Connor for O’Shea (54), Enda Hession for Flynn (58), Conor Loftus for Coyne (65), Bob Tuohy for Carney (70+1).

Too many lads out of form this season and hard to see where the scores are going to come from. Hoping they can raise their game been a local derby and if we are still in it with 10 minutes to go we might just about nick it. First 10 minutes will be a good indication if we are going to match them.

We were heavily reliant on ROD the last Final @ Thedarkyfinn as Galway were heavily reliant on Finnerty / Walsh.
Would hope to see scores from a range of lads including AOS, Ruane, Eoghan Mc and Neary etc.
The matchups for this one will make for interesting viewing. Don't agree with Boyler for once, think we should play ROD at 11, for me is the best playmaker on the team. Pull Mc Grath out of position. Maybe bring AOS to midfield for half the kickouts. We have been Very predictable in the style of play up to now and its too easy for teams to setup against us. We need more than a little touch of chaos to win this one.

Management on the sideline will have a big say Sunday with matchups and substitutions and the timing of the substitutions. Hopefully Mayo will give a performance for the supporters to raise their voices

Well they are both tough enough group stages for us either way win or loose Sunday.

Fecking brutal draw

Brutal draw is right.

@You Three yup I actually went oh Jesus out loud ..!

I still say we throw everything at them on Sunday though.

But a huge carrot for winning Connacht would be having the Dubs in McHale Park to kick off the AI championship

We got our ' handy' draw in Connacht... it's time to step up now!

The Lord save us and bless us.
Nothing soft in either scenario.

Preference for G4 and feel it needs to be, Kerry are very happy...

It such a shame, and so avoidable that this draw should have been done after the Kerry Clare on the 4th of May. Not showing the respect the provisional title deserve. Be a big debate on what easier draw, etc. So ANNOYING, just GAA been lazy

Tirawley, I like what your saying but in this instance we can't fight fire with fire. Galway will burn us if we go one on one and roaming halfbacks.
This is a game for defenders to defend and win breaking ball and attackers to pull up their socks and attack. Halfaback lines duties are simple defend your own man and space , win breaking ball and ensure there's no easy punt passes feeding into their fullforward line . I wouldn't care less if any halfback crossd the halfway line . Keep it compact and feed the forwards . Too often we crowd ourselves out with wrong players forward but yet they don't do primary job of defending . Eoin O D. Sam and Kelly are tenacious and will kill for ball whilst playing it simple and effective. Keep the ball moving no need for 30 yard solo runs only to loose possession .

Forwards should show their worth and if not good enough , fair enough but a straight shootout with galwways class will only see one winner but that's the beauty of sport , differing opinions and nobody will know the result till games over so let go for it

As I said earlier in the week its stupid to hold the draw ahead of the provincial finals. I actually feel sorry for Joyce and McStay this evening. They know a win sees them in a savage group and it may be more convienient to lose but I dont see either manager going out to lose a Connacht final so the chips will fall where they fall. The GAA never misses an opportunity to make a bags of it. Powerful day today, Met Eireann forecasts light winds at present for Sunday. Lets hope that neither team suffers any injuries no matter what the result is.

At least there will be good competitive games to look forward to in the group stage regardless of Sunday's result - and surely we'll get out of the group. So what's there not to like!! Imagine being stuck in group 3 and have nothing but uninviting games to look forward to. Group 2 also weak - I wouldn't like to be a Kerry supporter for example!

On another note, given our president had time to make controversal interventions earlier this year, surly he could have made far better use of his time sorting out the timing of when the draw took place. For the life of me, I cannot understand the need of having the draw so early.

The Dubs supporters can book hotels in Galway and Castlebar for Saturday the 17th . They can then cancel one booking on Saturday night. The same for Cavan but they wont be booking hotels!!

The Rossies can be booking hotels in KIllarney for the same night now.

So holding the draw early suits supporters from Dublin, Cavan and Roscommon only. Doesn't effect anyone else (because of the way the draw panned out)