Would love to hear Boyler’s opinion on our defensive structure and why it’s so open compared to Galway, Armagh and others. We all assumed the league would be a struggle due to players like Durcan, Flynn, Diarmuid, Aidan, Tommy out and Cillian and Carr gone, but that still is no excuse for such an open set up at the back. As WJ said, Galway forwards had ‘acres’ of space. Why? It is nothing to do with personnel and absentees. It’s down to how the team is trained and set up. So there’s no excuse for it. Not in year three? It’s like the elephant in the room. Why is no one discussing this? Why are management not being asked this? Why are management not being asked about S&C? Why is this not being discussed on podcasts? These are the things supporters and subscribers to the Mayo GAA podcast want to hear. We have lads that are clearly not physically developed to a level they ought to be after 3 seasons in the senior panel.

Personally I wouldn’t want to see Flynn near the Mayo set up until March. He needs a complete break. He’ll be totally gassed physically and/or mentally by summer if McStay brings him in sooner than that and we all know what he can do. Use the league to try others. I’m ok with us not winning games but new/newish lads show improvement. I’m not ok with us losing because we are physically bullied and more so, strategically outfoxed.

Sort out the bloody defence!!!

Totally agree with Maynoze ,no defence and no S+C ,no structure to team whatsoever. Worst performance i have witnessed in decades.

Yes I agree with Mayonaze a terrible 2nd half. Rutherles/leaderless on and of the field!

On today's performance its unlikely we would have beaten a 4th Division team?

On a positive note the newbies played well in the 1st half. Wonder where we are going with this management team?

Nil fhios agam!

Boyler said the result was ‘unforgiveable’.

Where are our leaders? Who on Monday will be fucking out lads in training, demanding more?? I don’t really see many. It’s sad. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t know if this Mayo team have the right characters. Paddy Durcan maybe? But he’s out.

We lose or draw all the close matches. We’ve not made the last 8 two seasons running.

Tyrone in two weeks. We need to see some fight but most importantly we need to see a proper defensive shape emerge and we need dogged ‘defenders’.

Not sure about the structure stuff. It's come up here a few times but you now need at least 3 real defenders in the full back line not lads who may or may not be half backs. Chris Barrett clones if you like! The days of a marauding5 full back line are over. Anyone who has watched games recently can spot this a mile away. Same in the forwards you need lads who can finish, not so much win their own ball but take a step and shoot. Think that's why Paul Towey has shone at times. You can also afford to shoot more and if you miss the ball is likely to be kicked out to midfield, where it's typically 50/50 and if you win the ball and are back on the attack again. Also need to get the Uber cautious shite out of our system. Personally I love the new rules it's bringing the game back to its roots and back to the game I grew up playing and loving. Every team had those jinky forwards, a big full forward, ball winning midfielders and teak tough defenders. But I think we (Mayo) have strayed a long way from those types of players and more towards 6'1 clones who could be anything. Not sure there is a quick fix for this either as it seems all the lads in the fringes or development panels are much the same. However, I think there is scope for unexpected teams to do well this year as they might just have players to suit this new way of playing.

Mayonaze - Kevin is regarded as “nice guy” who could only sing the praises of Gough after he rode us in the Connaught final last year. Our management have no cutting edge. I’d put money on it that all they will do some video analysis “things to work on” soft shite talk. And then head up to Tyrone in 2 weeks. If Joyce took a hammering like that today I’d say there would be blood on the walls in mchale park. Our management just look like our players atm, going through the motions.

Tyrone playing in McHale Park. Hopefully a big improvement on today

I remember people delighted on the blog here last year when the connacht c'ship draw was made. I got slated for saying we'd struggle against Sligo. If anything, I'm now more convinced. We won't just struggle - we'll lose. We are so far away from the top table and it's frightening how fast that has happened. Galway will will Sam this year. As terrible as we were today, they won comfortably while pulling up.

Same shit. Different days. Just back in home here up in Armagh. There's no spark on our home turf. I was saddened to see "the faithful " exodus before the final whistle. Everytime a Galway man was substituted, Joyce made it his business to acknowledge the effort and to shake the players hand. Mcstay stood like a gombeen with his hand on his substantial forehead shielded against the sun. Mcstay did not acknowledge his players efforts. Do one thing like you do everything

I can’t say I have much love for Joanne Cantwell but the fact that she called out what McStay said in his post match interview is shocking.

She checked with FRC and match officials and they completely disagreed with what Kevin said in his post match interview regarding 3v3. Like what is actually going on?

regarding improving our 2 pointers, stats cant wait to see Paddy Durcan back in Mayo jersey. Can't really see Tommy Conroy improving that stat, but might improve play inside arc. Aidan O'shea wont improve our shooting for out side arc, but think team missing him for sure, seem very predictable at moment. Had one goal chance today and butchered it.
Glad to see Eoghan McLaughlin back,
Only player have confidents scoring is Ryan O'D. That very damning with this more attacking format. I said it after Monaghan game, we must be a better team at getting two pointers, or be in for another short year.
Second week in a row, no impact from bench, another worry.

I was worried this new format, would damage mayo, more than most teams in division 1. Even Roscommon look to have ability to use format to their advantage. Need forwards, who confident once they shoot it goes over.
Goal chance in first half, dragged wide from great position, and another shot or two, were really unforgivable misses.

Spin and am attempt to absolve oneself from blame@Green&Red. If the new rules are here to stay you need to either comply or die.

It's so bad at the moment, can't get any worse..........Forget management, if the captain and his players have any gumption, they'll try to sort it out.

Lads Ryan O'D has dropped off a cliff in terms of his performances. He surviving on his reputation alone. Constantly getting turned over, poor shot selection and execution. McGrath just has to look at him and he wilts. Lot of pressure on Towey now for the rest of the league.

Agreed it's very disappointing but this talk of management out is a complete waste of time. It's not going to happen until at least the end of championship, so bin it. ROD's form is worrying but it is only the second round of the league, as in recent years picking the AI winners after 2 league games is a fools game. Criticism of managements understanding of the rules is justified, unacceptable to enter a competition not knowing the rules and working on the assumption that they might change. If we are going down, I'd love to see us go down playing ball, let the forwards loose. Rather see a long ball turned over than us running into 3 backs without an exit strategy

We were beaten in midfield in the second half Mathew is gone back a lot in the last two years. Cant win our own kick outs.no power all over the field

Tyrone looked pretty useful in their opener, but absolutely awful against Armagh. I'd be inclined to think there's a couple of teams holding back in this league. Donegal looked very sharp at times against Dublin and might just ease up after securing div 1 status further on. It's going to be hell on earth from here on for Mayo but I do recall Dublin losing their opening 3 games quite recently and going on to contest for honours.

Just sat down to watch it, hard to get some games live.

Only 44 seconds in, Morahan just kicked a lovely score, ball went the length of the pitch. It’s funny to see though because as soon as Reape caught it, Brick took off up the field, he was ahead of the ball nearly the entire time. When I was young lad it was drilled, let the ball do the work, now we have a full back running the length of the pitch.

And if Coen hadn’t bent his run towards the ball instead of clearing out space the hand pass was probably ok to Reid through on goal.

The ref imposing some new rules, but others such as hand the ball back not given, seemed to forget some of the old rules too, plenty steps taken.

League game, early February, hopefully we can improve on that.
Just one thing on player welfare. Doc shipped a heavy late tackle, clearly in pain from the contact. Yet was left on for a further period of time when the game was obviously over. Struggled off with the arm hanging limply . Only just back with limited training done. He could be out for a while. Just can not see the point of playing him at all at that stage of the game.

Fuckin hell, just seeing the Doc tackle, what was the ref doing? Should have been a straight red. Just before it he missed the Galway player throwing the ball as well, McStay then said in the interview no issue with the ref! What goes through his head at all? Player clean taken out of it, should have been ripping the head off the ref, if it was Joyce we wouldn’t hear the end of it.

He never went and consulted his umpires. The ref has been rubbish so far in general. McStay should be making a huge deal of issues like this. Stand up for your players. Can only hope the fact he stayed on for a few minutes that he isn’t as bad as it looks.

Sorry WJ, didn’t mean to add to your moderation duties, just shocking annoyed with that passage of play that lead to Doc getting cleaned out.

@MayoMayo1 I usually enjoy reading some of your analysis of the game but referencing the refs performance over the woeful team performance is pure shite. A similar reaction to the mayo person that confronted the ref at the end of the game. Utter madness. If he’d directed a few profanities or realities towards McStay and crew I’d still condemn it but I could understand. To any mayo supporter criticising the ref, wise up and stop embarrassing yourselves, the ref was not the problem.

The first point of the second half where Shane Walsh strolled towards the arc, settled himself and stroked it over the bar said so much about where we are a the moment.
1. How was that allowed to happen? Where was leadership on the pitch or on the line roaring for cover?
2. If the ball had broken to the other side. Is there any player on the mayo team that would have done the same. Slotted it over? Probably not. A small forward would have run towards him, now to far out to shoot and another 3 mins of pass the potatoe would begin.

Our failure to get tacticians on the line has cost us so dearly over the years. Kerry, Galway, Dublin,Tyrone, Armagh, donegal identify weak areas and bring people in to change them.

People on here called for a plan b under our last 2 managers, we don't have a plan A now.

We have no defensive plan as illustrated by that point I mentioned for example.

Naming names of who should be brought in now is pointless because it won't happen but there's a glaring one I have mentioned a few times on here that could work with the forwards. He has done something we badly need in the management set up, and that's win all irelands...

If Reape is going to go forward now he needs to be encouraged to shoot more. He has the distance. There's four or five lads in our forwards that don't.

I'd rather see him shoot than coen running blindly and recycling. Every opposition team in the country has us figured so mgmt need to change things drastically now or limp out of the championship again and step aside.

According to McStay DOC was heading for a&e after a cheap,late shot that went unsanctioned by the referee. That makes the ref a problem.

It absolutely does make the referee and the linesman a problem and it is completely acceptable to highlight this, and the fact that no sanction was imposed in this instance. It was a late, dangerous challenge and it put a player in hospital.

No one is blaming the refereee for us losing the game but to say his performance cannot be questioned is ludicrous. Is he in the room with us or what?

The lack of response from Diarmuid's teammates told its own story, mind, as did the fact that he was allowed to play on.

The hit on DOC deserved action at the time, however, it was not the winning or losing of the game. The refs performance wasn’t the reason Mayo lost. McStay is virtue signalling, he left DOC on the field for a considerable amount of time after the hit, that was McStay not the refs fault.

"I think if someone gives you the statistics on the two-pointer, I think it’s 0.2 on average per game. It’s kind of negligible."

https://www.mayonews.ie/news/gaa/1694645/kevin-mcstay-and-andy-moran-give-their-views-on-gaelic-footballs-new-rules.html

Never like to see a player hurt but the hit looked shoulder to shoulder, it also just took place after a Galway player got cleaned out late under the stand after clearing the ball. Not condoning it but there was a bit of heat in that whole passage of play from both sides

McStay was a never a great man manager. I don’t know James Horan but it always seemed ye’re lads would run through a brick wall for him. When ye bet Dublin in ‘21….the way Mayo lads embraced him it was like a father figure.

Don’t want to be speculative here, but it was gone toxic between him and our established players in Roscommon in his last season. New players to the squads dont speak up their just happy to be there. But between Co board reviews and established players stepping away for ye….its looking very similar.

Have to laugh at the posters talking about the body language on the side line. It used to drive me cracked. QF replay ye embarrassed us something horrid. Kevin standing with arms folded licking his bottom lip like a spectator…we’ve seen it all before here. Ironically smiling and having the craic with Cillian O Connor after that game drove alot of us demented. Times seemed to have changed in that regard though.

The two point rule can have a massive bearing on games. If a weaker team/underdog are against the elements in 1st half there is the potential for them to be significantly behind by HT. If there is any slight reduction in the elements 2nd half, the game is over.

Boyler said it yesterday on the post match pod, as soon as Walsh kicked that score after HT it became a massive uphill task for Mayo.

The problems with the game in recent years was massed defences and lateral and backward handpassing. The aerial battle in the middle had also declined.

3 up/3back is the best rule. Tap and go is also very good and the kickout rule is positive. The 2 point arc for me is too much of a change. It’s not the game we know.

And if they persist with it, it’ll be sure to create a major issue in championship when a player is on the line/edge of the arc. Is it 1 point or 2!? It’ll be disputed.

I thought Brickendon improved a lot compared to the Dublin game.
Not a lot one can do about Walshes point after the restard, he was basically a free man.

Reading all the comments while there are many good points let’s not over react. Watching Galway yesterday it’s clear they are on a mission to put last years disappointing all Ireland result to right and they are going for it from the start of the league. Thier level of aggression , physicality and overall application was at championship level ( the bit of DOC while a bit late I would argue was no worse than you will see in many championship games during the summer). We are in rebuild , trying to find new players to step forward and also behind the curve from a new rules perspective . My concern is we don’t have the players to return that we think we do , we have lads returning from injuries , and others at the latter end of their careers.
As it has been highlighted earlier we are debatably a top 8 or 10 team with Galway a kick away from SAM. That’s the reality and we have to accept it, suck it up and build back from there. Let’s see how the summer develops and reserve judgement on the management in my view . Let’s not hammer all the players also , let’s encourage them to push on and focus on Tyrone and get the win we all need .

"Gizmobobs" your correct, I commented after Monaghan game, and what was he thinking. Anyone could figure out 2 points arc, is a game changer, and we need to figure out a way to get max. out of game, under these new rule, and not bury our head in sand, saying that wont make a difference.

@mayotillidie agreed.

Posters on here calling for the 2 point scoring zone to be scrapped are going to be disappointed because its proven to be a huge hit with almost everyone else so its here for the summer, just because we don't have the shooters or the coaching willingness to adapt to it is not a reason for it to go.

We are going to need to learn and adapt fast.
If we don't have 4-6 lads who can stroke over 2 pointers we are at nothing this summer.
They and the 3v3 inside are here to stay whatever about the rest of it.

Let's see the coaching team earn their corn now, Armagh seemed to learn a lot and adapt to the rules between week 1 and 2, we need to see similar signs of lessons quickly learned against Tyrone

The problem is that the county board are to blame for the state of mayo senior football There is a few problems
1 The appointment of Stephen Rochford in Kevin Mcstay backroom it seems he is running the show & not Kevin Mcstay his old fashion tactics are outdated and aren't fit for purpose in this modern game. Mr Rochford has two much influence.
2 under age football is hugely important for players coming through to play senior football. The appointment of Peader gardener at under 20s manager was a disaster he had no managerial experience as a head coach at any underage level in club football and the county board give him the second most important job at under 20s in mayo football. He has let go very promising footballers that had performed at a high level at under 16 & minor level .which will impact the senior mayo team in the next three to four years.That is unforgiveable.
The county board Aren't fit for purpose.
For mayo football to be successful in the future this county board have to go & replace by Football people that know what there doing.

Agree wholeheartedly with the West Awake above.
Gardiner shouldn't even have been under consideration for the U20 role, never mind getting it. But our star struck county board fawned all over him (his Mayo Mindspace didn't hurt his case either!) and the fact that Cafferkey and Higgins were on board too meant there was no way a more competent and experienced manager, but with a lower profile, was ever going to get look in. I'm still in shock at their abysmal performance on the sideline v Sligo U20s last year. They were absolutely clueless and all stood huddled like sheep, whispering behind their hands to each other, while Henry was totally in control of his Sligo bench, subs and communication to his players. He schooled them big time.
Gardiner and Cafferkey got in on the gravy train by taking the Mayo Ladies job, but bailed on that rapid once the U20s came up. They were shite with the Ladies too.