Quick question
When Rafferty caught the ball that was going somewhat over with 5 mins left and he fetched it,why did the ref call it and why he got the free,
TG4 was no help when you don’t speak Irish ?
Genuine question does anyone know why?
It’s hard keep up With new rules

WJ I hope I don't get in trouble for this interms of singling out players but ......Jack Carney.....The Tache has to go!!!

Irish tommy- the ref gave a free in to mayo for a second for a player passing it back to the goalie but he made a mistake as the Armagh defender was in the small square with the goalie.umpire told him his mistake and he rectified it.

Listening in to Midwest from Thailand. Would hate to be a Manager. If we do well in the league, we have peaked to early. Not so well, we are doomed. Mayo seemed to have lots of chances with poor shot selection. We are making progress and 2 big games to come. Nearly showed great composure taking his goal and we need more of that in front of goals. We need self belief!

Spell check!! 'Neary'

Great second half display at times with players just going for it. It was a strange one at times with most of these league games the same IMO. Glad to see Neary playing with such derring-do! Some positives, surely, for us all to applaud.

Hopefully we now keep playing in that traditional high pace Mayo style..
We know how to play that way and teans don't like it when we play that way.
It wasn't all running either, we mixed running and kicking.
The big change was we attacked with pace and direct.

One fan's summary of League so far - we have seen it all from Mayo! but direction is positive
– Dublin game: good overall performance, bad result
– Galway game: poor overall performance, bad result
– Tyrone game: mixed performance, good result
- Armagh game: great overall performance, mixed result

Quite a similar game to Dublin v Kerry last week. In first half, Kerry had the wind and built up a big lead. Dublin against the wind played slow possession football which ran down the clock but at half time the experts were giving them no chance. Second half a different Dublin with the wind. More adventurous and clocked up the scores while Kerry struggled with the elements. Same yesterday evening. Armagh good in first half as Mayo played slow possession based football. Again a very different second half as now with the elements and having to go for it, Mayo were much better. Only difference is that the dubs held out for win, while we conceded 2 late points. I wonder did the Dublin players just ignore Dessie and play their own game in the second half, something that was said ( in my opinion most incorrectly) by some on this blog yesterday. Games are of 70 minutes duration. The time to be judging performances is after the final whistle.

Armagh will know they got out of jail yesterday after being 2pts down and almost out of time. Bolands mistake and reape missing at the end were criminal but hopefully a lesson learned. Again I have to mention neary for the goal.i Think it was one of the best I've seen for ages in the way he got control of the ball and the ice cool finish at a time when the team was under pressure. Well done lad.

I disagree with the notion that either Mayo or Dublin ignored their management. Dublin ran the clock in the 1st half vs Kerry and went in 11 down. Won the game. Mayo players reviewing 2024 wanted a more defence structured approach so possession probably part of it, i.e. not getting turned over. Also the league is where ye try out stuff. Nothing hits home with both players and management than tactics not working. Some players would analyse games (O Hora would be the exception), we’re living in a tech age. They all look at the other teams and what they’re doing right and wrong. The new rules mean having to figure out how to adapt. On one level McStay is right that not all these rules will stay. I know a few get annoyed hearing that and perhaps he should have bypassed that point but bottom line is we want improvement and we want to se the team achieve maximum potential come championship. If we fall short due to other teams talent pools can live with that so long as we max our potential. There’s still a strong panel there. We should be supporting our team. The league is for experimenting.

There's no doubt the player personnel are there. The proof is there in Armagh winning out last year. Who put them ahead of us in pecking order last year?
There's no team around like the Dublin team our great panel duelled with. It's like last year, wide open for whoever comes up with the best plan and gets bit rub of green.

Really heartening 2nd half performance last night. I was really pleased with Jack Carneys aerial performance in the second half. He has it in his locker and gives us a chance to compete for that ball and I think his progression this year would be a huge positive. Enda Hession also I think has really hit the ground running in 2025.

Also really positive yesterday to see St Colmans reach an All Ireland final yesterday. Perhaps reinforces the lads coming through 18-19 are of a higher standard than previous years. I thought T Hession looks a composed footballer for a defender and MNoonan reads the game well at centre back. Hopefully there’s another win for them in a few weeks

I'm a fan of most of the new rules but definitely not a 50m punishment for not handing the ball back to your opponents. Ridiculous that a lapse of that nature in the opponents half can cost you the game. Passing it back should be OK and let the referee decide if you deliberately throw it away or not. Also not clear on why a line ball can be played after the hooter sounds. It's not like a disciplinary thing like a free in or a penalty.

@JoeG: I'd imagine (with 0 knowledge) the thinking is it's too easy to delay the clock by putting a ball dead, where the ref will no longer be in a position to let that last ball play out. By at least giving the opportunity to convert the dead ball directly (as Turbitt so beautifully illustrated) it means you can't just welly it out into the crowd in a dangerous position and eat up the last seconds with little to no risk.

Vague memories of the replies to the initial FRC survey including a few mentions of Maurice Fitz's or Ciaran Mc's sideline long range kicks as the type of excitement folks wanted to see more of. The allowance of that 'one last pop' seems to go with the overall intent of the rule changes there. Niche, but even just an extra 1 or 2 kicks like that a year will be worth it for a highlight reel.

Problem with that is there was a clear push on the mayo player to get the sideline ball which suddenly seems to be accepted no more than the outrageous treatment of Aidan o Shea.it’s past time that referees were called out on this .our lads in media like David Brady and mcstay himself have never highlighted it

OK Tsu but it doesn't sit right with me. Full time should be full time, end of.

Just on Stephen Coen....not noted for his scoring prowess, but he has leadership skills and when our players were afraid to take a shot on in the AIF in '21 he was the man that stepped up and landed a big point. Did us no good in the end, but yesterday wasn't the first time he banged over an important one. He gets a lot of stick on here so no harm in flagging a positive.

Mayonaze, I'm with you on Coen. He's one of these lads that will be more appreciated in years to come. He brings a huge amount to the team and he steps up, often when others have shied away.

As a matter of interest and I have no particular view on Stephen coen but what is it that he brings to the team.i see this mentioned all the time without any elaboration on what exactly it is .

Kerry v tyrone live on tg 4 at the moment. Great chance to see Kerry in action prior to our clash with them on next Saturday.
Hurling game was rained off

We can all see why Coen has captained Mayo at both underage and seniors before. He’s a lad that does a lot of thinking on the pitch and mopping up messes sometimes. Does the simple things well and rarely makes a mistake. Also steps up more often than most when the chips are down. Eoghan Mc in contrast has explosive pace which is great to watch but is wasteful and he lost a ball soloing at pace yesterday. Skills (admittedly more challenging when running at 30kph) and match intelligence have both let him down despite some X factor with that pace. I’d prefer Hessian or Callinan to him as wing back.

A Kerry win would be the preferred result for me here... maybe won't be as desperate for points next weekend.

Just a comment on the ref, I felt he had an 8/10 performance. I agree on the push on McHugh leading to the sideline score, also a push on Neary in front of the posts went unpunished with Aido penalised for a follow up foul tackling the defender. The other free against Aido was actually a pull back for an advantage to Armagh not against Aido. They had 1 or 2 similar calls against them so I’d say only about 5/6 mistakes of note and 1 of those he corrected via the umpire. Refs often don’t get credit but this lad had good control of the game bar the Neary push which was late on.

I'd echo that about the ref, Shuffly Deck. He didn't get every call right (what ref possibly could?) but he got most of them correct and he was consistent and fair throughout.

On the game yes the performance gives us great encouragement. It was needed to lift some of the gloom around here. It wasn't perfect there were mistakes but allows us to be much more positive.

On a lighter note I agree with the poster on Carneys Tache - it has to go. Should WJ do a poll on it should it stay or should it go .....

On Brolly, I remember a football manager years ago been asked after a game to comment on the referees performance. The replay came back 'As a rule I don't comment on referees and I am not making an exception for that p***..!!)

Hi WJ
I posted a comment there but it doesnt show. I could be in moderation for my comment on Carney's tache !!

Carney should be in moderation for his tache!!

Thanks, Thedarkyfinn - it was in the bin for some reason (I've no idea why) but it's back up now.

Spotlight - you're probably right there. Certainly the tone is very different depending on the result, which is only to be expected. What's also telling is that some people only bother to comment when we lose.

On the subject of the unmentionable, I'd be grateful if everyone would just stop mentioning him. Posting insulting comments about him serves no purpose. As I said earlier, the best option is to ignore him altogether.

Hope this isn’t against the rules willie joe but i’m a big fan of carneys tache.

Well done Mayo boys. All out for Kerry now.
Jack..tache or no tache, delighted you are back. Keep it!

1985. In answer to your question about what Stephen Coen brings I would think an obvious answer is leadership which has obviously been recognised by a number of managers Anyone who captained an AI winning minor team an AI winning U21 team and a Sigerson cup must have serious leadership qualities. That is some achievement for any player but for a fella from Mayo, not flush with too many national titles it’s fantastic

Like many posting over last few weeks, I
was very dejected looking at Mayo performance particularly this lateral passing around the arc. Yesterday was no better for first 40 minutes.
But then the transformation to the Mayo we loved for most of last 15 years last brought joy hope to the heart . Scintillating stuff for next 30 minutes and fully deserved the draw a fair reult imo. But the sad part of yesterday was the way they played in first 10 minutes. Fully in control but the back and over lateral stuff killing them. Had they played then like they did in final thirty Id say they deserved to win. But playing like they did in first 10 deserved to lose.
But whether its the players or more likely management why cant we return to what we do best all the time ie fast front foot running kicking and passing. There will be errors and wides but what harm. At least win or lose wed enjoy watching it . and tbh better chance by far of winning. To be honest the chaos of the last 30 minutes is what makes the game attractive, a chaos Mayo always thrive in.
Hope management especially can see the same but wouldnt bet on it.
Finally Mc Stay seems to be very reluctant to embrace coaching the new rules like a lad who believes they'll be dropped. They wont.

Bit of a breeze in Salthill! Think Donegal might have quite deficit to overcome in the 2nd half but if that wind stays as strong they'd fancy their chances.
Rewatched our game earlier and the first half was like watching poor old Clark Kent getting bullied........thankfully he took the glasses off at halftime.

Wow! Unless my rusty knowledge of Irish is letting me down, Galway’s eleventh point scored just now is also their first one-pointer. Salthill and the new rules are not good bedfellows.

I think Salt hill just helps to emphasize the difference that the wind makes now in games, with the introduction of the 2 point arc and we don't get many windless days in Ireland. It's turning games into two distinct halves and sometimes a version of 3 goals & in. It was introduced for the right reasons, but has many unintended consequences. It is skewing games into onesided halves, shifted the defensive blanket to the arc and devalued the worth of a goal. It needs to be adjusted at least. I don't think it brings a lot to the game and feel that the other rule changes were sufficient for improvement, except for failure to address the elephant in the room, the handpass. I personally would bin it as I don't feel it bring enough to the game to override the negatives. Also, I don't our game needs 3 different types of scores.

Easy now, Mayo lads and lassies. We haven't done that well. Could have won, not should have. Look at Galway!! They know how to play the rules. And Donegal!! just ..like us...get as far as where they could take a shot and like us back it goes and the chance is gone. Galway for Nestor and maybe Sam. And if they do, good luck to them. Forward is the way, and Joyce knows that and his players learn from him. Still "Up Mayo" forever.
Up Mayo.