Good win for us. Sligo aren’t a bad team. Should have beaten Galway last year. IF we somehow manage to win a Connacht title it will be a great year…that’s where we are at in this present time unfortunately.

If sligo had more belief in their forward play they would have won today they didn't use the wind in the second half until the last 7 minutes of the game when they scored two two pointers which brought them within one score. Aidan O'Shea was outstanding today and was the difference in us getting the win
But we do have a huge problem in the form of our goalkeeper is playing
He had a poor league campaign and was poor again today his kicks outs have been poor for a few games now and could have cost us again today he needs to sort out his kicks outs and stop making errors which could cost us in future games.
The management team need to sort this problem out as soon as possible or else we could be in big trouble.

Any know for sure where the Galway v Roscommon game is?

And no, its not on the Connacht Gaa website, i checked, or the Gaa website itself

Salthill I’m nearly sure

Great day in the bronx...
Carnival atmosphere at the game which makes the whole game put into perspective.
Galway resting the likes of Dylan Mc Hugh, Conor Gleeson, Liam Silke, John Daly, Shane Walsh, Damien Comer, the O Neill brothers etc meant PJ put a lot of trust in the rest.
John Maher injury i think was more of a kick to the ankle than a twist..
Just on information, Galway weren't cleaned on kickouts, in fact Flaherty got a lot of short ones away, he impressed and kicked a wonderful 2 pointer.
Two week break to the Rossies which will be a massive step up..

@Tuamstar Rossies could well beat ye.
Though hope it's ye in the final so we can hopefully get ye back for last year .

Sligo do deserve more credit they have really come up and could win Tailteann cup.

That was a square goal in and that 2 pointer was inside the arc at end for Sligo also!

Two points from Sligo game, 1. six new players all played very well.
2. One long ball into full forward line, goal from O Shea.

@tuamstar. Come on now. To the eye test that was a spanking on the long kickout. Btw if comer rests much more he'll be retired.

We should be happy with the win yesterday. We are getting changes, which is good, but we need to convert them. Again we fell back into the trap of the last few years of letting teams back into the game when we should have been out the gate. Full respect to Sligo however they showed well, have some talented players and the management team have done a good job.

New York impressed me last night, putting it up to Galway for a long time. Caveat was that Galway played a lot of their second team. The immense strength of Galway's squad is so impressive. I feel the lull at the end of their league campaign will only benefit them where it really matters - championship. They're the most balanced team in the country. While everyone is talking about donegal, kerry and Dublin, Galway will go and win Sam.

Glad of the win and it did have some enjoyable moments, if we were clinical with the goal chances this was over at half time. Putting these chances away has to improve going forward. The other areas of concern along with our kickouts and movement for them is Matties form and the Mayo news reporting Jordan has an injury (no details on it though). Also no 2 pointer, you'd feel a couple are needed in every game to improve chances of winning. Nice to see all the debutants albeit a bit surprising when some saw no league time.

Tommy+Joe, we heard that last year. But they went on to choke in the final every bit as much as we have done.

Galway are gunning for the All-Ireland this year. Nothing else will do. Their fans won't be satisfied with a provincial title. Their management has been in place for a few year now so it is all on the line.

Meanwhile, so many Mayo fans are satisfied with a decent run, a few wins here and there and a few days out. There should be no question that this is last dance for this management team and only an All-Ireland will do. However, the same old loser mentality is pervasive.

In 2025 there is no standout team and no team that we are not capable of beating on our day. It is there for the taking. Why can people not see this.

We should be able to rest many of our key players and return refreshed to connacht final, all guns blazing. Galway v Roscommon will be a thriller, though Galway have such strength in depth.
Credit to Sligo yesterday, they certainly exposed our weaknesses and given us plenty to work on.
The inter county season is tough now, many players looked tired yesterday and it's early in the championship.

I have to disagree with Ger's view on the pod, I thought Mayo kicked the ball in quite a bit yesterday and I was generally quite pleased with the attacking performance. Sure, they squandered three or four good goal chances, but the positive for me is that they were creating those chances. Mayo moved the ball at greater speed than a lot of the league games and we got some very nice scores from ball kicked into the forwards and worked quickly from there to a shot.

The kicks inside were rarely big high bombs on top of the full forward position, which is good, because those kind of tactics are no longer useful, defenders are too athletic and it's too easy to defend. You might get a goal chance out of it if it's a one-v-one in acres of space, but other than that it's not a clever use of ball. The angled kicks into players on the run we used yesterday are much better.

I think yesterday's game was one where it would be very hard to come away feeling positive no matter what happened. Hammer Sligo and the narrative would have been about how big the gap in class is. The reality is Mayo never left third gear and tacked on scores to keep it comfortable whenever Sligo had a good spell. The defending was not great and that is something they need to improve, but the bottom line is that they won and didn't pick up any injuries. These provincial games against D3/4 teams are for getting through, not for using up energy on big performances.

@Ex-Pat; I agree with your post. The mentality is all wrong and it seems to be reflected in the team's performances too. There is no standout team in 2025, but the winner will come from Galway, D'gal or Kerry. Mayo have the squad to be contend but management aren't getting the best out of them - particularly in defence and midfield.

Am I right in saying that the Donegal and mayo panel's are largely unchanged since 2023? Yet two seasons ago Mayo were considered much higher up the pecking order than Donegal, who looked a mess. What has changed? Management. Jimmy McGuinness has shown how beneficial having the right leader can do to a team's morale, belief and performance levels. I have very little faith left in our set up. I walked out of Machale Park yesterday thinking there's no way Mayo should be 14/1. They went out to 22/1 last night.

I also have issue with McStay (who I was a big supporter of for years) stating that Division One retention was essentially be-all end-all. I'm paraphrasing. I just don't buy it. The majority of us supporters prioritised paeal expansion and strengthening our depth as being the number one goal of the league. Of course, if we could do so and 'stay up', all the better. Mayo experimented the least of all Division One teams. Our disastrous start to the league meant that pressure was on management to get results and as I said before, Mayo hadn't the luxury of pulling up the handbrake a bit for the Derry and Donegal games. We went all out. Then yesterday they play Dylan Thornton, bring on Conal Dawson and Niall Coggins but Frank Irwin who played throughout the league, stays on the bench all day. It's a head scratcher.

Why does McStay believe staying in Div 1 is so crucial for Mayo? Why wasn't he asked by a reporter his opinion of the last two All Ireland winners both coming from Division 2?

I'm just not buying the spoof anymore and don't be fooled by a provincial title this year. It certainly won't satisfy me. There's only one trophy that counts. I'm concerned by our poor performances in defence and in midfield. In my opinion Mayo have regressed the past 3 seasons. We are further away than we have been in over 15 years and I think the buck stops with the management. I hope they prove me wrong and get to the business end of the championship, but everything I'm seeing tells me otherwise. I go back to my point on our panel. I genuinely don't see much difference between the table available to to Mayo, Galway or Donegal. Unfortunately we just aren't getting a tune from ours. Management's fault? Players fault? Perhaps a bit of both, but look at the mammoth changes in Donegal from 18 months ago to now... It all comes from the top.

Was a bit surprised the pod didn't focus much on our defence. It's a glaring issue now for us. The new rules mean that you get found out at the back if you aren't a good 'man-marker' and it really suits the type of defender who likes to 'play from the front', because with so much space, once the attacker wins possession it's much more difficult to stop them. Who are the 6 best 'real defenders' in Mayo?? I'm not sure they are on the pitch or even in the panel?

Callinan is natural 'baller' but he's not a natural defender. Coyne didn't do much yesterday. McHugh who has been very good for Mayo had a bad day yesterday and got caught up one high ball in particular that should have been bread and butter for him. McBrien....I just don't know. He's a proper footballer but we were cut open a few times yesterday. I'd still prefer to see him at 3.

Mayo used to be great for producing tight, nasty defenders. Where are they?

EOD and Akram were peripheral throughout the league. Ivers was on the bench several times. Aside from Eoin, who got a token game, the others saw nothing.

Wouldn’t judge our bucks by yesterday too much , it’s very obvious tiredness has crept in , we have a nice four week window (sorry Leitrim ) to work on things , to give lads a breather , I hope they have discussions too this week get the heads right . If Tommy and paddy are training let’s hope they get to stretch the legs against Leitrim , excellent type of game for such .

We are in the Connacht championship at this moment and will be till may weekend , we can reevaluate the next stage competition in time . A Connacht title might not mean much to some of you but I’m sure players in Mayo hold them very dearly .Galway are going for 4 in a row and by god they’d love to win it in castlebar. Personally I think it’s the most important Connacht title in years for Mayo . I could highlight a lot of reasons for that but I’d bore ya , I’ll put it this way , you don’t want to get used of not winning Connacht titles .

Mayonaze

Can’t disagree with much you said around mgmt. When Kevin got the gig a few years ago there was a lot of talk about “to many cooks in the kitchen” which resulted in McHale leaving as he felt he wasn’t been listened to.

In Donegal everyone knows who the boss is, and McGuinness leads like a leader should lead. Seriously demanding of high standards, not afraid to cut players (Cassidy in 2012) and builds his players up to believe they can do anything. They eat from the palm of his hand.

On the flip side, we don’t know who is actually the manger in our set up. If I see another camera pan to McStay on the sideline with his arms folded whilst Rochford and Mulligan are shouting in, it will drive me crazy. Even against Kerry, his lack of fire on the sideline was very evident. And his post match interviews of late seem angry and frustrated. The pressure seems to be really coming through on him.

@Mayonaze, it's financially very important to be in Division 1. The hit to gate receipts would be severe for a season in Division 2, and that's assuming you bounce straight back up.

Seán - obviously we don't want to get into a habit of going long streaks without a provincial title, but you get the point I was making. Winning Connacht this year and losing in the last 8 would not be a successful year from my perspective. It would be progression from last year but that wouldn't exactly be hard! If Paddy and Tommy are back and going by the group stages (I wouldn't expect anything from them sooner than that regardless of whether appearances are made in the provincial series), then we have to believe we are contenders, but as things stand, the way we are playing, we are miles off because of our inability to dominate midfield and a defence that's not hard hard to tear through.

Has Bob Tuohy disappeared off the planet? His brief blitz of impressive form in early 2024 seems a distant memory.

I’d have to agree with sentiment around perplexing decisions by mgt in terms of players. I’ve lost all faith in them at this point that they have a plan and all I’m seeing at the moment is a short summer. On the pod McStay says they have time now to get back to training and they’ve a lot to work on. It’s year 3, they shouldn’t be at a stage of development that there is a lot to work on, after a championship game v Div 3 team

Mayonaze to add to your appeal to find Bob Tuohy, where’s Rory Brickenden gone?! Sam Callinan could be about to go next, I feel his burst is not evident in his play now. Lads look like they are regressing

Final point, can we stop hanging our hat on Paddy Durcan especially to come back into the team and resume his form line from 2017-2021. We’ve had so many examples of cruciate victims needing at least 1 year to get right. Never mind Durcan being 31 this year and having other injury niggles the last while. At this stage I’d be sticking Diarmuid 6, put McBrien to 3. Make our defence as solid as we can

I sincerely believe we are contenders if we max our potential, like you my worry is we won’t max out but we have to keep believing we will . Last year was very disappointing from that perspective we were well capable of beating both Dublin and Derry but failed through not playing to our potential imo . Despite the narrative of no strong sides , maybe there are a lot of strong sides , just cause we don’t have an out and out front runner by a margin doesn’t mean all the sides have gone backward .

To win big games a team is going to have to score big , we need that drilled into the plan , you’re going to concede more under new rules that’s obvious .

@fourtyfive, the ship has sailed on the gates already, the crowd yesterday was atrocious, under 10k.
On top of that you've hundreds of season ticket holders who surrendered their tickets the last couple of years. The cost and style of play likely biggest factor. We have been for the most part a hard watch.

@Sean Burke, agree. There's feck all between the teams now, no stand out team like Dublins team of recent years. Armagh, won last year sure, ARMAGH! Old Moore hadn't that one in his almanac.
Look at the confidence and belief McGuinness has instilled in what's essentially the same Donegal panel of last few years. And Harte to a young Offaly squad.

Mayonaze,

Well written piece,
You could add Paul Towey (who can kick points) to the head scratching decisions not getting any game time yesterday.

When Mayo host London in the 2026 Connacht football championship it will going over to England for the Connacht Quarter-final of course. The Quarter-final stages of the Connacht football championship in 2026 will be played in seperate weekends. Mayo vs London & Roscommon vs New York the game between 2 teams of Galway, Sligo & Leitrim will be played last. Both Connacht semi-finals in 2026 will be also played in different weekends. New system coming in. Late April or Early May start. In the National Football League Quarter-finals & Semi-finals will be back. FBD League will be also back in 2026 of course too.