The game was in the balance when Reape took that short kick out. It backfired hugely, gave Galway the man advantage, and they never looked back.

However, our shot selection in the last 15 minutes was terrible. Took our foot off the gas as soon we got back level.

We'll probably stumble into another preliminary quarter final or QF itself, and get an almighty shellacking from a top team primed for knock out football.

0/3 attempts for McStay to win the Nestor. I don't think he'll have a fourth.

And no offence to O'Shea, but I really cannot wait for Beirne to make the step up to senior. Left footed freetaker needed since 2012!

The worst part is, I think there's an All-Ireland in this team. Just not under this management regime.

It would be great if our management picked up the phone tonight and called the highest-scoring player in championship history to see if he’d be willing to help out for the remainder of the campaign. It makes little sense that he’s sitting at home at just 32 years old—surely he still has a few minutes in him to come off the bench and slot over a point or two. The new rules suit his game perfectly, and if he’d been on the bench today, we’d likely be talking about a very different result tonight.

Haven't read the comments so may be repeating points. I'm sick of saying our kickouts. If a 5/8s like me can see it well how? Just how.
Galways last score shows all we are now lacking. A block , winning 40 /60 ball. (We're not winning 60/40 ball.). Straight running at pace even after 60 something minutes and taking your score.
Think I'm finally broken. The faith is gone. Roll on club championship.
U20s and club championship for now on for me. Can't stomach any more of this tripe

Commiserations Mayo,

I think when the dust settles Mayo can take a lot of positives from that game.

Written off by most they could have won it bar a few questionable calls most notably the penalty.

Galway will ofcourse be thrilled winning without Walsh or Comer.

They have some real monsters around that middle 8.

If Mayo play like that in 2 weeks against Cavan they'll start the group stages with a win.

I agree Tony Freeman , would love to wake up one day with the news he is back in the panel but there must have been a good reason behind him taking a step back. One can hope.

That statement from McStay on 46 minutes into the podcast confirms everything I already knew.
“We have to figure out who we’re playing and when we’re playing it “. Every person with a passing interest in Mayo football knows it’s Cavan on the 17/18 when we lost. Attention to detail, how do. What was he at , at half time with Mulligan on the sideline. Eating his dinner. Why wasn’t he in the dressing room with the players shouting. We’re all Mayo people here.

I think O Connor wants to return under a new management. Maybe knows it will be mcstays last year.

Was mcstay asked about paddy Durcan or Tommy Conroy availability after the game at all?
Saw somewhere that Diarmuid was injured again, surely not he was sore after a tackle late in first half but it looked fairly innocuous.

There's no upside in losing to Galway in the way we did. Haven't been this down since Limerick in 2014.
As always not enough craft in front of goals, poor shooting; slow, laboured attacks, few looking to take responsibility for the shot. When we were on top, didn't push home advantage on the scoreboard, I swear to God it's like Mayo don't look at the scoreboard & that some day we expect to be given the cup for effort irrespective of the score. There's many many skills to Gaelic football but scoring is the most important. We need to start coaching this skill better all way down to U10s.
Feel sorry for Hession, he had a good game overall but it was him that AOS got free for the goal chance at the end. Once again, last chance to save Mayo today left to a defender to take the pressure shot. Where were the go to attacker foremost important few attacks of the game at the end? We're over a generation now lamenting poor attacking form, we need to start at the clubs and coaches to focus on attackers.

The players gave it their all but unfortunately some of them aren't good enough and I have named 3 players previously who I said should not be starting based on their play this year. The problem is management keep picking them. Why start Brickenden today and sub McHale and Neary. I'm convinced Mgt look at GPS and other modern gizmos and forget to watch the game.
McStay as a pundit couldn't understand why ball wasn't lumped into O'Shea yet no high ball at all today or all year for that matter. Just as well Comer and Walsh weren't available or we would have been destroyed. Maybe if we were hammered it would have been better and Mgt might have done the honourable thing. I'm going to reserve judgment on the U 20 forwards until I see how they get on in the semis and hopefully final. If we get Durcan, McLaughlin and Thornton back we will surprise a few teams. Mc Brien having to go off was a blow also. Anyway the All Ireland is only starting in 2 weeks and remember Armagh lost the Ulster Final last year.

Im actually going to write about a few of the positive's. But first congratulations Galway. It was Mayo's best performance in my opinion since we beat Kerry, in Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney to end the Kingdoms 30 something year unbeaten run in the championship in 2023. And that's was without some of the exceptional players that were available to us in 2023. Every player that played for Mayo today (and Galway) gave 100% , even our incredible performances in the 2016(+replay) and 2017 All Ireland finals was NOT above the level of endeavour shown by both sides in this years Connacht Final. Mistakes, failings, tatic's ,rub of the green maybe composure at the end of the day, we have to accept Galway came out on the right side of a few variables better than Mayo. I am not going to give out about our Management today, or any of our players. The performance today while it had its failings, the commitment, the desire, the work rate, the belief, the willingness to put your body on the line was as good as I ever seen from any Mayo team, while bitterly disappointed today , We just have to feel proud of the herculean effort of all involved today.

Well said,Leantimes. I agree with the sentiment 100%.

You hit the nail on the head Leantimes. This was a good performance by Mayo. It is strange how during the week people on this forum were writing off any chance Mayo had of beating Galway. Now that we should have won they are slagging off management. I am looking forward to the group stages. Suddenly we are capable of beating any team. We need to support this team and stop berating them. This is a good team that is improving.

Ya, I'd have to say I agree leantimes. I thought the game would be played at 70-80% and Galway would eventually win by 6-8 points given the big picture.
People are talking about the character Galway showed and yes, they had that defiance about them but they had an extra man so fair play to mayo for bringing it as much as they did at the end.
Unfortunately, taking scores from distance was a contributing weakness and is an are we must improve on. We had a 17 year old kicking 2 pointers off the ground during the weak.
But, you are right, now isn't the time for criticism. A huge task for mgmt now is to lift the players. McStay looked like a man in mouring after the game. He really did hang his hat on this title, so now it's his job to show the players that they were very close yesterday. Yes, most people said we were going to loose yesterday but if they did they also said 'but it wouldn't surprise me of Mayo won'
It's now about winning the next game. Take positivity in the fact that there were improvements. We have to Swallow a bitter pill yes, every Mayo person wanted ti win yesterday, but Galway have their own pressures from here on in, we have none whatsoever. Just win the next game.

Pat mac -Assuming he’s not injured in the next 6-12 months and there is new management in place next year, I have a feeling a committed Cillian will likely return to the Mayo jersey in 2026 under new management. However, I believe it’s possible that, with a few honest conversations, there could be a path back for him under the current management. He’s kept himself in great shape, and perhaps taking a a year out in 2025 will turn out to be the best option longer term for him.

@Leantimes I agree with most of that but I have to say this is the most disappointing defeat since the loss to Tyrone in the all Ireland final 2021. Yesterday everything was in our favor; playing at home, wind at our back, galway depleted due to injury, a performance/Mayo playing well for the most part and still not able to get over the line. The only thing I can go back to is lack of self belief and/or taking that extra second to think. It great to see that Mayo chaos, playing of the cuff, but if you have to play intelligent at the end of the day. For some of those goal changes if people just too one more look for a free player, took an extra dummy, one extra second to look up could I have made the difference in those tight moments. Very difficult, Mayo will have to dust down and move one to save the season. No silverware but try to get as far into the Championship as possible now and regardless of what happens to the management its important for this set of people to salvage some self believe for the future and stay on for next year.

I prefer to see Tommy Conroy back or a couple of the u20 forwards brought in than Cillian back .
@Leantimes ,, well written, our lads played brilliantly yesterday but just fell short .
Some people just love kicking Mayo players and management after a defeat.
Unfortunately that includes Mayo people too

Well said Leantimes,I was confident of victory,but I thought overall a very good game,the turning point was Connor Gleeson getting his hand on the two pointer,we were going very well at stage,in knocked our momentum

Dead right Leantimes. As always it’s the result that clouds everything else and unfortunately we are coming out on the wrong sides of close matches, through lack of composure, errors in the heat of battle and really fine margins. I thought it was a good game of football and that we played well and were exceptional for first 15 minutes of the second half, but for some posters the fact that we lost means that everyone was poor. How wrong. The full back line was pretty decent, and half back line despite losing McBrien did ok. It was well flagged that we’d struggle in the middle v Galway’s big men and it was only in the last 15 minutes that our forwards showed lack of composure. We created 3 good goal scoring chances to Galway’s soft penalty and in truth really should have won. We were playing a good battle hardened team who have been in 2 of the last 3 All Irelands. Yes they were missing 2 top forwards but we were not playing with a full deck either. The problem now is that we put so much into that game that we may well struggle to defeat Cavan in next game. Psychologically it’s a damaging loss and getting up for Cavan will be difficult. I honestly don’t think we will beat either the Ulster champions or Tyrone so qualifying for a preliminary quarter final needs a victory v Cavan. On the morning after a very disappointing loss people hardly want to look that far ahead, but life goes on and we have to go again

I agree lean times. I really enjoyed the game. Yes we lost, but Dublin lost too and no one is writing them off. The comments on this blog are so negative after a defeat, I would hate a son to have to read the critism, after them giving everything for ouR entertainment. Yes they made mistakes, but in that moment they did what they thought was right. I believe Cillian would now be too slow for this level of playing. The game is really fast and he may have made his choices for lots of reasons. Some people on this site are never appreciative of what we have and are always looking for this player or that player to come back and save their day. They all know more than management and players, wothout ever ever ever being near football at that level or never even have kicked a ball.
Yes I was disappointed yesterday, but we are all back to square one. We start again..
I really appreciate what those players have given us. Just maybe Galway were the better team yesterday. Accept that and move on.

Mayo tried there best yesterday and fell short. Mayo supporters need to understand we are a 2nd tier team. We are not up to the level of the top teams. You won,t win anything relying on 1 forward to get us over the line and you certainly won,t with a shambolic keeper. Yet again yesterday he cost us. Why was there no other keeper tried during the league. It,s a real weak point in the team

I don't think anyone on here that's fed up with the result are questioning the endeavour and effort of the players. And it's not just posters questioning Mgt just because we lost. We are questioning them all year because of the style of play, no high ball into AOS and picking the same 3 or 4 players who haven't been up to it all year and taking off players who are playing well.
But thankfully there is plenty of time to get things right as the All Ireland is only starting in 2 weeks. But will Mgt make the right choices or stick with the same auld thing. It's time for McStay to stand up and put his stamp on proceedings and forget about Rochfords Donegal failed imprint. I'm going to keep optimistic until we are down and out. We are down but not out.
Great comment from Tirawley about Reape and the kick out. He should hurry the kickouts and not give the opposition time to reset. Surely that could be coached in training. I for one never thought of it. It can't be any worse than what we are at.

Why are people calling for Cillian to come back or bring up the u20 forwards??
Firstly there's a reason Cillian took a year out.
Secondly two of the three forwards that are been named and spoken about are doing their leaving cert in a few week's. Burnout is a huge issue so why are we wanting to rush young lad's through.Let them mature and develop.Is rushing them through going to bring us instant success,not likely.Would you really want to see them brought in under the current management,I for one would not.We need a new sideline,new idea's,someone that will let good footballers go out and play football,someone that's not afraid of making a big call,a proven winner and not going back to the same few every couple of year's.If the Mayo senior football management job was a private company they would be sent packing long ago.Player's deserve better and supporter's deserve better.For year's we were regarded as the best supporter's in the country,not yesterday.We were totally outnumbered and there's a reason for that.Time for change!!!!

A huge effort from the team and we could have won the bloody match.
Let's not be too negative as I am confident that we can progress further but we need more shooters! I thought Darren McHale was very good and took his scores well.
So let's get behind our team!
Mhuigeo Abù

I read over the past days that eoghan mclaughlin was out for the year!! I actually happened to see him in person outside the ground yesterday, walking unaided and no obvious sign of injury. So he might only have a niggle. Tommy conroy with him too, again walking unaided n looked fit n in good shape. Obviously, while to me they looked fit n in shape, they might not have been match fit, a big difference. In summary, based on what I observed, I would not be a bit surprised to see both men on the field this year in a mayo Jersey.

Also, people are going on about why neary n mchale taken off. It was quite late in the game, 62 or 65 minutes gone. Its quite possible both were gassed and nothing left in the tank. They are humans, not machines. I can't recall who exactly replaced them, possibly Kelly and boland. Obviously boland is a decent long distance kicker. God, its so easy to sit on our phones typing away complaining and giving out left right and centre. We are all absolutely pissed off this morning. Mistakes have been made by mgmt n players of course. Imagine how they feel this morning? I am and always will be a 100 percent optimist when it comes to mayo football. It doesn't mean I or we cannot or should not talk about mistakes, but they need to be discussed in the right context and at the right time. Right now, them players and mgmt are hurting big time, they have 3 big games coming up. We are supporters, let's do what our title suggest and support of fellow mayo people to the hilt. Time enough for all the reflective analysis in the close season, when it's quite possible changes may well occur. But right now, let's stick together.

Lack of composure cost us the game yesterday. Not taking that one extra second to to stop and think before pulling the trigger. Two good examples were the goal chances where other players were open for the pass or an extra dummy / solo would have taken out the goalie. it also includes a few missed point changes and the short pass that cost us the black card.

Moyside - Eoghan has a quad injury, not a cruciate as was being blabbed about here in advance of the game. No idea how long the rehab is from that but, with the season so condensed, it's hard to know if he'll make it back in time. I saw Tommy Conroy walking unaided at Croke Park back in January so I'm not sure that metric is a good guide to match fitness!

Pacar I know Galway brought a big support yesterday ( that’s the least one would expect as they go for 4 in a row ) but to say we were totally outnumbered!!!! I thought there was a big Mayo support and that they got behind the team. We didn’t have much to shout about against the wind but there was a great atmosphere in second half

Pacar Agree 100% with all your comments.
Moyside Agree 100% about the players but not Mgt. They had all year to change. All Mayo people on here want Mayo to do well and will give 100% support the next day but that doesn't mean we can't criticise Mgt when we wish. It's called Freedom of Expression which the Government are trying to suppress if it doesn't agree with the narrative.

Something that struck me watching clare kerry yesterday was the fact that the Kerry lads had a lot of bite in them. Even when up 12-14 pts they were giving the clare lads plenty of aggravation off the ball. Nothing nasty but lots of pushing, holding, and demonstrating an aggression all over the pitch. I read that as giving Clare respect and maintaining a standard of play for themselves. This’ll stand to them later in the bigger games. David C is cynical enough in his play. Lots of attempts to manufacture frees and cards for the opposition.

Quad injury requires rest but can heal up quickly. It will take Eoghan a couple of weeks to get back to fitness level. I'd say min time 4 weeks so we could see him for second round.
Very unfair to single out Reape for criticism. He did make a few brilliant saves. Better return from long kickouts is what I'd be working on, as teams will continue to press up on our kickouts

@willie Joe. I'm certainly no medical expert myself. I certainly don't know what injuries either lads had. As I'm said, looking fit n healthy is one thing, being match fit is another entirely. I made my comment based purely on the blabbering on here u mentioned. Its a fine line between what supporters seem to demand to know regarding players fitness/health and their right to keep their health/injuries a private matter for themselves.

The problem is you just know we’ll drop our levels to maybe scrape past Cavan. And I mean no offence to Cavan in saying that

Some great posts on here.
Disappointed we didn't get over the line but we regroup and go again.
I've seen a few calls for the U20 lads to be brought in. I've seen a bit of them and it's a year too early in my opinion. Let them progress as they are. Beirne was in a schools final 6 weeks ago.

One thing about that Under 20 team it feels like if Lydon doesn't get the scores then Beirne will and if Beirne doesn't get them then Hurley will. No over reliance on one player. That bodes well for the future. Ryan has been carrying us for 2 years.

A tough one to take. I feel a bit for Mcstay. We did so much right yssterday and reeled them in yet only managed 2 scores from 9 attempts in the last 15 minutes. He must be tearing his hair out.

When and where are Mayo playing Cavan.

It’s the weekend after next, Blond64, but that’s all the info being given out at the moment. We’re now heading into that time of the season where the GAA will leave it to the last possible moment before confirming fixture details (while still managing to screw punters over by selling them all the rubbish tickets first).

Realistically the only thing we lost yesterday was momentum.
We must go all out against Cavan.
Score difference could come in to play.
Lucky to have a neutral venue against Ulster losers.

Thanks WJ.

Unfortunately JR. it’s Ulster winners we are meeting.

Ontheditch.
Unfortunately this is at least the 4 th time Colm has lost his composure and cost Mayo big time. I can now see why Byrne walked away. He never got a chance with this management team., and was not going to I would think. Pity I witness Byrne scoring some great frees off the ground with a very accurate left foot in the Club championship. I am not a Mayo man or do I follow any Club in Mayo , , ,this is an opinion from an outsider that would like Mayo to win something.When he got a chance under Horan he never let Mayo Down. But obviously management did not rate him.Mayo are crying out for a left footed free taker for the last 10 years. This problem has not been addressed either.At this level you can not afford to miss frees like AOS missed yesterday. Yes it was difficult but to put it wide on your own side is criminal.Still can’t get over the fact that particularly against the win Mayo did not put a man maker on Conroy. Management again at fault here. The dogs on the street know that Conroy is the best long range point taker in the country at the min.

I can't understand all the negativity following this game. We were beaten by two points by a team strongly fancied to win the All Ireland. Kevin McStay rightly points to what Armagh did last year. We should also remember that we were beaten in Connaught in 2016 and 2017 and went on to lose All Ireland Finals both years by a point (in 2016 after a replay) by the greatest football team ever. We will beat Cavan and with a boost in confidence can also beat Tyrone as we have quite a good record against them in Omagh. After that, who knows how things will pan out. Keep the faith.