Look for the first time out I think we are happy. But it’s the same old Mayo. And we need to learn to grind out wins. (No point showing full hand now)

Thought Rob was brilliant on commentary and the pod.

A few lads showed that they've got potential to be new selection options. Happy with that.

Can't complain to be fair. Impressed with Neary and hopefully we'll see more of McHale and Morahan in the next while. Considering who's missing it wasn't to bad at all.
Re. The rule's. Keep the solo and go, the 3 up, not allowed pass to your keeper in your own half, if necessary the 2 pointer. No need for the rest.

Year 3 of the mcstay project and I have to ask the question, have we progressed? The evidence says no. Appreciating there have been retirements, injuries and a whole new set of rules, but we’re making the same mistakes, time and again. That’s as poor a Dublin team as we’ve seen in many years and I fear we’ll struggle to register enough points on the board to stay up. I don’t think we have enough quality kick passers to really take advantage of the space the new rules allow for, especially on the counter. I also think the game will be vastly different under the new rules when we get to the all Ireland series. The game in salthill looked like the old game to all intents and purposes, yet the game in Croker looked vastly more open. To be fair, much of that could be down to Armagh and Galway being far more defensive than Mayo or Dublin, but I’m not so sure. Kerry, Donegal and perhaps Tyrone, will thrive under the new rules and Galway certainly have an advantage with scoring 2 pointers. Plenty of time for Mayo to turn it around and there are reasons to be cheerful with how some newer faces put their hands up, but I’d have expected us to be a bit more polished, a bit more structured with more of a cohesive style, at this stage of the mcstay era to be perfectly honest. We’ve also developed a habit of losing tight games, which is worrying with such a young squad.

I was happy enough with to night. Level of fitness will give competition to older players. Thought they played really well as a team and didnt rely on any one to lead. They all took control. But alas in the end reverted back to the lateral play, that must be drilled into them. Its a mystery to me. It doesnt work, but we continue. We have no chance with other defensive them. New rules still leave space for this type of play. Dublin had all 12 players back, while we left everything open at our end. In this case, I do hold management reponsible. As a team, they all revert back. But still hopeful.

I would quietly content with that performance. Blooded a lot of new guys and stayed competitive right to the end. Would have been great to sneak a result but overall there’s plenty to work with there.

We all knew this would be a tough league for us given the number of senior lads unavailable. The new lads will need a bit of time to settle.

Best of luck to Crossmolina today.

Nothing new from Mayo, loose a game that could and should have been won.

I was happier with our performance than I thought I’d be. Didn’t know what to expect with all the newbies. Still we could have just as easily won that as lost it so this continuance of coming out the wrong side of tight games bothers me.
Rotten day for Crossmolina’s match. It’s bucketing and windy. Thermals and layers on. Anyone who can get in and support them. I know the weather isn’t enticing though.

We were a shambles defensively.Dublin players running straight through the D unchallenged.bugler allowed the freedom of croker and no apparent attempt to address it .Matt ruane must have set a record for passing the ball backwards and why any kickout was aimed at him is astonishing.if you don’t leave the ground it’s very unlikely you will win possession.in fairness there was some promising performances but we were so slow on the break that it allowed Dublin filter back into position.Darren McHale had to try to engineer a goal at the end .a point was of no use.are they not aware of the hooter .Dublin were average enough last night and the two points were there for the taking.the raft of substitutions looked it was a challenge game

Negative view on last nights performance and how we performed in last years championship would put us into a category of probable relegation, a narrow win v Sligo , comfortable win v Leitrim , lose to Galway in Connacht final and tamely drop out of championship after group stages .

Positive view would be we are possibly blooding some decent players in 2025 with a view of the years that follow .

Lose to Galway next week and I’d hazard a guess we will be odds on to be relegated.

Every team in the league will pencil in re Mayo - 'Vulnerable in the final quarter'. Something Rochford/McStay need to address with urgency or we will see more tight games wrestled away from us.
The other big issue, imo, is predictability in our 'plays'. More variation needed or we will become very easy to defend against.
No excuses re players not available, Dubs were experimental, but time for us to move on to Galway with lessons learned hopefully.

I suppose my concern is that some of the more experienced Dublin players stood up, ie Howard and Kilkenny but this was not the case in Mayo's case, the new guys looked good, but the age old problem, when shooting into the Hill in 2nd half, there was an absence of left footers on the Cusack stand side.

Same as ever. That was a very beatable Dublin team. But same as last year, absolutely zero evidence of a style of play from Mayo. We don't have the kick passers or the long distance shooters to really take advantage of the new rules. Midfield is a shambles, completely incapable of winning their own ball, as has been the case for years now, and nothing done to address it. And still no evidence that we are capable of closing out games.

Kevin mcstays interviews are very strange.seems to accept defeat very easily.constant rambling about learnings but for starters sam callinan is not a corner back .we keep playing a lad in midfield who simply is not a midfielder in any sense.some of our defending was atrocious.I am beginning to lose faith in this management team

Dreamy you’re fairly negative and possibly have a point but targeting our midfield and suggesting its managers fault is a bit harsh For a county who produced so many good midfielders down through the years we have an incredible scarcity of them now. As regards some of the other criticism all I will say is that it’s January and no need to panic on that front . But looking at the ability of Galway to kick 2 pointers and a great forward display from Roscommon is a greater worry Whatever about our midfield we simply don’t have the forwards to consistently kick big scores. 3 21 is some score by Roscommon Who from Mayo can kick these crucial 2 pointers Even Down kicked 4 in first half and were still well beaten That for me is the greater worry

Good game, the lads did fine, some good moves and blooded new potential. Nice spread of score as well. Points, 2 pointer, and goal. Showed most fans wanted to see. A bit shaky around the middle of the filed field in the 2nd half and Dublin upped the physicality. Dropped a good few short but good to test the range for later in the year in Croke Park. I liked what I saw!

Enjoyed large parts of the game last night but I think the new rules will require major adjustments in the way we traditionally play the game. Lots more kicking and I remember thinking after 20 mins in that I couldn't remember a free been given. Obviously they were but the tap and go just keeps things moving.
Also, wouldn't fancy being a goalkeeper at the moment. Lots of pressure to find your man from kickouts and then getting up to support in a 12v11.
Defenders will have to be able to defend 1v1. If you can't I think they will be in big trouble.
For midfield you need to be able to win your own kickouts and challenge the other team. May see a move back to the old school ball winning midfielders.
Good inside forwards are a must. Lots of room now for a quick jink and over the bar and a specialist long range shooter could be a must.
Overall I think better players at all ends of the pitch will benefit which is ultimately good for the game.
I just finished watching the Rossie game - which you couldn't have paid me to do under the old rules! Great open game with lots of good scores under pretty poor weather conditions.
For Mayo. I think we may struggle across all 4 lines with our current squad.

Mayosbiggestfan, correct need to learn to grind out result. Is that the player, lack of subs, or poor management. Either way, need to find a way, to win these matches. I would say about James Horan, really rearly lost tight matches, unless all Ireland final, that is

What's the story with lads, within range and with a momentary clear gap not taking a shot and instead offloading a side or back pass ?......"refusal to shoot" is a major problem for us too........why do fellas persist in doing this ?

Very little clean fetches on display in both games last night.
I think it was Neary that caught the throw in for the second half but lost it coming down.
Goalie with a long kick will be an asset.
Lots of talk on social media about restricting the goalie going forward.
It Leeds to too much lateral play.

A mixed bag. Both teams well short of their best 15 and both well below peak standard putting us and them as favourites for the drop I'd say. Davitt Neary looked good, a bit of swagger about him, even threw a Dub tackler off him to the ground once, defineitely not overawed. As well as 2 points hit a defense splitting pass. Conor Reid goal aside which he took well was a bit quiet for a middle 3rd player and didn't see much from Fergal Kelly. Monaghan didn't look overawed when he came on, first thing he did was win back a ball the Dubs had stoled from us. Ryan was below par with his shoting and obviously we dropped a lot short going for 2's. If you're going to try that out, the early games of the league are the time to do it. Reape was an addition going forward; I was disappointed with ony about 50% success rate with kickouts. Dubs were about the same. In Colm's case, he sometimes kicks into greater opposition traffic in hope when not other option. Surely we must be able to devise a tactic whereby when everyone covered we can overload some part of the pitch to increase the %. I prefer McBrien back in Full Back and Bric a bit further out. That said, Bric did reasonably well inside (don't think the Dubs FF line was very formidable though) and McBrien got caught out a fair bit for a player so pacey. No idea how Bugler found so much space. Maybe he's been underrated by opponents but still, he seemed to find a lot of space. The goalie up definitely helped make space for him. Boland too was mixed in his shooting but 4 is a good return. The new rules are ideal for him and maybe Towey (who showed a fiar bit of trickery) as well to make a greater impact. Irwin started fairly well looking comfortable at this level but drifted out of it.
I don't mind seeing 8 or 9 long attempts providing we improve to 3 or 4 successes per game. Overall a 3/4 our of 10 but it's the first game of the league so not overly negative with the ammount of experimentation goin on and some good players to return. If we unearth a few bolters during the league, I'll be happy enough. We might need Bob Tuohy as a kickout option the next day as he's probably our tallest fielder until Aido returns (but he'll probably stay in FF line for 80% of games so not going to fix it). I know he's been tried other seasons but still young. Otherwise try out Donnach McHugh in midfield. Mattie has a similar skillset to Galway's Cillian McDaid and they don't play him in midfield much of the time (mostly in HB line or anywhere in the forwards as needed). Maybe revert to Diarmaid as our no 1 midfielder the next day at least until Flynn returns following any post club efforts rest. We need to change somethting there and some posters are getting frustrated over time. I normally don't court the doomers of which we have a few on here but have to acknowledge at least some of their concerns when it comes to midfield, our pool of dominant ones is currently small. That said, event the best around don't dominate full games so more about kickout tactics where I think we've been continuously lacking. Interesting to see if Dubs improve when Cluxton next gets on the pitch.
While our forwards don't seem good enough to compete at the top based on this game, we nearly always do compete as a team. So the seeds of targeting 2 pointers is being sown and hopefully it will yield results when it matters, so I don't mind some failure now, just want to see progress. We could do with finding an x factor forward so experimentaing with team is even more necessary in absence of FBD. We'll have to be patient and see what happens.

Shuffle deck.
Agree on some points. Forget about league, it's more important to blood new players . Have to to disagree on Fintan kelly thought he was very efficient,has the physical attributes to make a county player, he was on the ball a lot. Young Neary will make a decent player,also delighted fir cross they will be a force in the years to come.

Yes I agree with Daveslad on all points, really impressed with Fintan Kelly, covered so much ground, serious pace, is hardy, shows the value of a few years on mayo panel, s&C etc. Neary also, something about that lad, Balsy is the best word for it as Nigel Reape commented afterwards. Well done all, can take a lot from last night. Today was special, congrats to Crossmolina, serious respect to C Loftus, showed fabulous character.

What about someone like Padraig Prendergast for 10-15 minutes?
Lars say a lad doesn't have the SnC or athleticism for 50 mins of inter county.
Well, we're as weak as needing to limit the damage at this stage with our midfield. If a lad 6'5" or 6'4" able to field has even 10 mins in them this Mayo panel needs them.
It's not alarmist, specifically in classic high fielding we really are off it. Reduce the problem a few % with a fielder with whatever amount of minutes capable of.
If not be dismissing lads either because they are considered old. We're in fill an effective jersey mode for as much time as possible.

I see its reported on the Irish Examiner with storm damage MacHale Park might not be able to host the Mayo v Galway game this Sunday on health and safety grounds.

If they reach a decision soon that it can't they might move that game to Hyde Park?

I'd say it would just be postponed like Kerry v Donegal was due to storm?

The few missing sheets should be well fixed by then, the light pole possibly bigger issue, especially if time change not granted.

What worried me the most wasn't the frustrating number of shots dropped short, our fear of shooting or the ongoing difficulties with breaking down the Dublin defence, it was the ease with which Dublin waltzed through us in the second half. Bugler had a great ould time for himself and made hay. I know we have a lot of players to come back, but it was alarming at time to see how easy it was for him. I think Reape is well placed to capitalise on the new rules but I suspect that rule is vulnerable to being axed if the chatter online is anything to go by.

Some of the very old failings were on display - a frustrating amount of back-passing and recycling, inability to kick pass, dropping shots short (did I mention that already?). At least Ryan took on the shot at the end. Our inability to close out games is still very much there, it seems. On that note, I would ban the word "learnings" from post-match interviews. I would have banned it ten years ago tbh, because if that's not been learned by now, I don't really have a lot of hope for us.

Really enjoyed Rob on co-commentary, I thought his analysis was really good. I think we enjoyed it more than he did, so I hope - despite his lack of enthusiasm! - that we'll be hearing lots more of him.

Re this weekend's game, it's a pity Éowyn didn't blow the roof clean off that stand, if you ask me. Let the insurance cover the cost of and relieve the debt on clubs. Or better still if it knocked the whole thing so we could downsize to the regular-sized stand that should have been built in the first place. (This is tongue in cheek, before someone comes for me... kinda!).

Anyway regardless of where this weekend's game will be played, we need to get points on the board. Two-pointers, even.

Agree wholeheartedly Anne Marie about the buzzwords, with special emphasis on,"learnings". Infuriating how positivity can have such a negative sheen in reality. It's just double speak and spin when analysed.