Great to grind out the win . All the better with our new faces featuring well .
The league regardless of how we end up is unearthing a few new faces and letting us know where existing players are at , with more to return.
As you said yourself WJ , we made hard work of it .
BUT, take the win and continue to get behind the lads, think our support was mors vocal today but probably more diehards at the match today.
We may go down but we should have a stronger panel come championship than last season.
Stay positive and support the lads

Just listening to Kevin McStay, interview on Radio 1, regarding rules, and saying that goal keeper been allowed up field. Was saying who know if that rule be here in a few weeks time. Very flippant regarding rules, there here, get use of them be my bit of advice

I’m hoping we can build from Todays win because if Tyrone had brought their scoring boots we would have lost this game. A win Today was crucial. The defending was much improved tough and tigerish in the tackle. It’s our attacking play that’s awful. Too slow in transition from back to front, wasteful with the ball, too many hand passes, again pass the parcel when we get into the scoring zone. It’s awful stuff. Who is coaching our Forwards. Can we not attack at pace ? Why can’t we take on our markers and go for our shots? It’s as if the Mayo Players are being instructed from the Rochford Manual of how to score in Gaelic Football. How many times did we go backwards when a score was on? I’m afraid we are going Nowhere this year unless there is a major overhaul of our attacking play and it’s time now to ditch this useless plethora of hand passing and go back to the Traditional direct route of Fast paced kick passing to our inside forwards before our opponents can get their defensive arc back.

Result positive.. performance better.. I see Kevin reiterated his "learnings" nugget. Ah, twas a win I suppose.

We have a major issue when attacking …do u realise in the last 2 matches when on the attack, we have only kicked in one pass to the FF line…late on in todays game on the stand side….oh, and we scored from it.

Be under no illusions, Tyrone were not up to much and really we should have won by more. For example, we owned the first 15 minutes and only scored once.

I cannot understand why management don’t get them to vary the attacks…constantly sideways and backwards!

The bottom line is to have any chance in surviving relegation or going far in the championship we need to vary our attacking play by actually kicking the bloody ball in to our FF line.

I thought Frank Irwin, Jordan Flynn and Eoin O'Donoghue were the 3 best players for Mayo today.

A win is a win. Would have taken an ugly win this morning but by jaysus all the broader reservations I have about where our season is going deepened today.

Theres a trend of shortcomings that are very worrying. Still no sign we are coaching the new rules. Extremely cumbersome in attack at times. RoDs form is a worry now, without him shooting the lights out we don't have the scoring power elsewhere

Positives...
Thought the workrate was massively up today, lads putting their body on the line.
EOD got his overdue chance and showed very well.
Neary continues to put his hand up
Flynn motm for me. He has become this teams spiritual leader

Roscommon are flying it and will be a big danger in Connacht for us..
Enjoyed watching the Donegal game, Murphys cameo was something else, good for Mayo that Forker will be missing next week now..
They badly need Rian O Neill back..

Give me strength with these "learnings". I'm all for life-long education but usually it doesn't require making the same mistakes year on year on year and still failing to make changes.

Here's a learning. Learn to look up and kick the ball into the free men up front instead of taking five minutes to work it up the field and bringing the opposition defence with you. And don't give me the "conditions" excuse. It's windy in other counties too, and nearly every other team is managing it so I fail to see why we can't give this novel approach a go.

Such a stupid wreckless head hit on murphy from forker deserved red card.

On today my god it was painful to watch. We made hard work of it. A win is a win and badly needed.

Eoin o D deserves another start next week. Thought Jordan Flynn was the man of the match some player he is for us. Aido did well considering no game time.

Huge opportunity actually to beat Armagh next Saturday.

What happened to Rochy and McStays style of play from the 2023 League all out attacking football now its all slow build up cautious constipated recycle football.Its gone to shit since he came in.Thought Stephen Coen didnt really contribute much today again bar take the easy lateral handpass option as always.

Thought Donegal v Armagh threw up as much shite football as our game
Lots of lateral hand passing from both teams .
Roscommon are going well with a good panel , however they often go well in the league and are probably ahead of other teams fitness wise with a view to getting back to Div 1.
Great to hear the crowd getting behind the lads to day .

Tuamstar
Come off it now, huge difference between Division 1 and 2.Galway will beat Rosscommon by 5 plus in championship.

Sam og you do know the last two All Ireland winners came from Div 2 !

where we are with injuries , paddy and Tommy ? Diarmuid ?

If this was year one of the mcstay/rochford set up it might explain the complete absence of a game plan or structure but we are now in year 3 and there isn’t a semblance of any the management having any idea how to break down any form of defence.Jesus Christ our attacks have less pace than pension day at the post office and what is this crap with enda Hession holding the ball over his head and absolutely nothing happens after that but to rinse and repeat the the last aimless attack.we were fortunate today that Tyrone were so poor today but i would say they were quite confident at half time they would win and with 15 minutes to go it looked very likely they would win .Anyway the 2 points are very welcome but very hard to see where we will get the next 2 from on today’s display

They started with much the same team as the Galway game. Therefore using the Galway game as a baseline there was a significant improvement in effort and energy. However in the 1st half still a lot of back on forth in the D and despite all the possession we had in the 1st 15/20 minutes very few scores to show for it. Some good 2 pointers however, excellent showing by the new lads and grinding out a win is no harm. I didn't get carried away with the loss to Galway so I'm not going to get carried away by a low scoring 2 point win at home but well done to the lads for am improved performance and some new things shown.

Ya know the way there’s a stats man on modern management teams , do they like work out the amount of times our lateral passing ends up with nothing versus what the score ratio would be if we went for the jugular more often ? If the league is for experimenting game plans , wouldn’t it be fantastic to see the other side of the coin as opposed to ridiculously cautious , perhaps my naivety is showing in understanding the modern game but I’d really love to see how we’d go with a more chaotic attack of shoot on sight more often , speed up the attack , direct ball .

Does anyone know if Shairoze Akram is still on the panel. He was on the Mayo News Senior Club team of the year. Is he injured or what or maybe he can't commit to the training or maybe he is fed up not getting a game.

When we actually tried to kick pass the ball our play was much better of course but that was rare during the game.

Management need to be giving the guys confidence in going for the kick pass but they are obviously not...

Jordan flynns 2 pointer showed his class he also gave much needed leadership on the field he would be a good captain one day.

Sharoize was in the 26 for one of the previous games, can't remember which one. Not named today.

@Sean Burke: Nothing firm, but some positivity.

https://x.com/radiomidwest/status/1891164272140472794

Asked about fresh injuries from today: "No, I don't think so. I'm just looking at who else might be back for next week."
Asked about an update on Diarmuid: "Yeah, he's fine. It'll just take a little bit of time to get him fully right. You'll see all of these players in the league, before the league is out."

A win is a win, but that game won't live long in the memory-two poor teams. Many differences between our performance and Donegal, but the most glaring is how quickly Donegal transition from defence to attack at lightening speed compared to our torturous sleep-inducing sideways/backwards predictable snail-paced efforts. You don't need to be Einstein or a football coach to realise that the best advantage and best possibility of scoring, especially from a turnover, is to get to the attacking zone, as quickly as possible, before the opposition gets numbers back and get into their defensive shape. It's simply logic and common sense, so when are our management going to cop on to this?

We’ll give Galway a good rattle this year, but will fall short by a few points in the end. Galway are far more defensively solid and have very few chinks in the armour.

I get the impression its Padraic Joyce’s last year. They seem to be going full trottle to win the league, and pick up as many trophys as they can in a last hoorah for him. I think they’ll pick up 2 this year. Sneaky feeling they are goin a bit too hard too early and could plateau before the business end.

Didn’t watch yer game today, but from what I saw in last game, i’m not surprised Brickenden and Boland didn’t start. Boland is a silky little player but some of ye seriously over rate him (Ah Ref). Armagh will be tough, but yer not without hope.

Donegal are flying but can they really keep that pace up come summer... Saw exact same with Derry last year and ourselves in 23.

Delighted to hear Kevin mcstay inform us that we are not the finished article……………what a relief

Pity we can't turn Eoghan McLoughlin into a scorer because he continually breaks the line and has a point for the taking but always goes for a safe handpass. Is his confidence at zero when shooting due to previous misses or is he instructed not to shoot. Totally different when it's a goal chance as he'll always go for it. He really is someone that we need to use as part of an attacking plan. Himself, Hession and Neary were our best linebreakers and if we're not going to be big 2pt scorers then we have to look for goals.

That was the most frustrating thing about our transition today, GalsagusDearg - every time we turned over the ball and had the chance to exploit an opening with a rapid attack, invariably we checked back instead and slowed it down. It's so maddening and so counterproductive.

2 hops - Shairoze was in the 26 for the Galway game.

2 Hops. Thanks for the update on Shairoze. I had great hopes for him a few years ago but he must have gone back a bit or something.

Jees Michael Murphy looked the business. Aidan Forker, what an idiot. Wouldn't be surprised if Mayo beat Armagh next weekend.

Some great positives to build on from today;
1. Little or no shots on our goals.
2. We broke even in the aerial stakes in midfield and perhaps shaded it
3. We started to carry the ball across the middle third with great pace
4. A number of newer lads are not in awe of their opposition. They must be feeling the support of management and long may that continue

All teams in division 1 are share a lot of similar goals but they also are at very different stages in their team/squad development. Of those starting or subbed on for Mayo today, only 6 were involved in the 2021 final. We are at a different stage now to where we were then. It may very well be year 3 for the current management, but we are in a completely different position to where the squad was in 2022 in terms of age, physique, experience, and x-factor players.

If the squad/management could make the above four positives their foundation and ever present in their displays this year, then that will make for a serious start for a new squad. For me a 13 - 11 win if it could be secured the next day out will be more than fine. Perhaps there is a 1-15 scoreline in the team come championship and if so it will be good enough most days once the above foundations as displayed today are in place.

Willie Joe. I think we all agree about our laboured transition. I'm blaming Rochford based on what he did with Donegal but maybe I'm wrong. If we only took off the shakles and moved it quicker like we used to I'd be happy. Maybe mgt think the players are not good enough but I think we have definitely found a few fine new players.

@Sticks for the reeks. 100% agree.

How come Everyone except our management team can see that our build up is far too slow and ponderous??
There were several times today - especially in the first half - where players out the field made no effort to look up and kick a quick ball into the forwards. On top of that the forwards inside were making no effort to run into space for a pass. Its obvious they are not been coached in training to move the ball fast. Will it change??

Some positives and despite the negatives of which there were plenty, Armagh resorted to similar type of game as us today especially when things going against them and look to be in bad need of Rian O Neil so we could bag a flukey point or 2 next week on the road. I’d settle for an improvement, more direct play and a narrow win.

@Southmayo Exile: Paddy was always our #1 fast transition kicker (low as it has continued to be in recent years) so you'd hope his return will improve it a little. You'd imagine Loftus, Carney & O'Connor around the middle 8 could help bump it a little more as would any of Aido/Conroy/F McLoughlin's pace in attack... but given it's tactically it's breaking rather than execution (as you saw, no runs so nobody on the team thinking of that long kick) it's hard to know if they'll move the needle at all.

Starting to look like this is a hill they're willing to die on. From everything the new rules have shown in all games to date... it's certainly one that'll heavily kill your chances. Sadly, hard to see it changing much from here. I think we'll be depending on Enda/Eoghan/Paddy giving us enough strike running to try and punch... which I don't believe anyone can in this modern game where kicking will be key.

Glad to see All Star David Clarke has joined the Midwest Radio commentary team. Michael D. McAndrew doesn't always keep up with the play so well.

A more energetic performance. Eoin O’Donoghue, Jordan Flynn and Frank Irwin impressed-building up the panel for championship.

Was never as pissed off with a win. Still no sign of an attacking strategy. Comment above saying that there’s no movement from the inside line for a quick pass. Well they might have a pain in the bo….x from making the run and the ball is never kicked in. Bring back Horanball. At least it was exciting.

@Nephin: When the runners inside aren't making the runs at the same time the player in possession isn't scanning or looking up, that's not a problem with either of those players.

You can look squarely at the line. That's tactics & coached (or in this case, not coached).

33 k at shamrock rovers v bohs today , watch your house GAA .

You better believe it, Sean - contrast this with the amadans in MacHale Park announcing at half-time that anyone leaving the ground would have to buy another ticket to get back in. It’s like they’re trying to drive away the fans and, with fewer than 10k there today, they appear to be making progress.

- An ugly win in ugly conditions on actually a very sandy pitch.
- This match will definitely not be on the shortlist to showcase the new rules.
- We got the win thanks to a super performance from Jordan in particular coupled with Tyrone missing a tonne of chances.
- EOD was kept busy by Bradley but he adds a bit of steel in the FB line. Irwin did well as did Hession and Ruane did okay.
- The only forwards coaching I could see today was a) Do not shoot from 30 yards out b) Slam the brakes on once you get to the arc and c) New hand signals...I mean what was Hession at.???
- Would like to see a stat showing how many passes we take for each score and how many times each forward stops and passes back ...off the charts I would say
- It is conservative, robotic football at its very worst and was driving/is driving people mad. No wonder the crowd was small today...I don't even think.they announced the official attendance.
- Don't be expecting much to change for next week...

Mcstays comment on league Sunday that we will be ready for the new rules when we have to be is fairly curious

TSU. Oh I know that for sure. The army does as instructed by the general.

We've been calling for Eoin O'Donoghue for an age and a wet Wednesday, he finally gets a chance and he's a Motm candidate.
We finally get Aidan back and his role was to move around the middle. We have new rules to suit him as a target inside.
We take off Cian McHale our only left footed freetaker and we have no inside target play to put him on his left foot facing goal.
The huge glaring problem is we are not doing inside target play.
Inside target play is very simple.
You have targets inside, they win it inside and lay it back to the shooter.
David McBrien however at one point winning a kick inside and laying it back for a score.
Our best full back that I've seen by the eye test and we're greyhounding him into a lighter okay half back. To my eye test he nie looks less physical this year. He should be back at 3 and built like a pure stopper.
So our coached moves that I see, the hold the ball above your head indicating to hold the ball, the pass around the arc and the attacking defender finish their runs inside.

The game was like a slow bicycle race.

Olive Kerrigan. Watching Hession with his hands above his head was cringe time. He'll be a laughing stock. I'd like to know who came up with that one. Embarrassing -looked he was surrendering.

Maybe Hession was mimicking raising the Sam Maguire above his head and that it would somehow be an inspirational gesture for his colleagues. Poor Hession, he really had a great game, but who is the brain behind the madness. The same brain that believes in naming dummy teams and withholding bench information, an insult to players, their families and supporters.

As well to just give Donegal the Sam Maguire now and get it over with. At least that's what the majority are saying

We could have a ff line of Clifford Con and Shane walsh and they would struggle with the mayo gameplan.The players are all playing with fear.Its all safety first recycle nonsense.
We might not have the players to win the all ireland but management should and could be getting an awful lot more out of the group.
When Rochford was Donegal coach they were at the exact same nonsense.
Time to take the handbrake off and have a go

I thought we managed the first half reasonably well. Hession in charge of traffic clearly one from the training pitch. Well ye did want new tactics!!!

We outscored them 5 to 1 in the last 15 minutes when the game was in the melting pot.
Newer lads doing OK.
Plenty of lads to come back. Manager positive on the injury situation.
Jordan in good order. A future captain no doubt about that.

I still sense we thrive when we create a bit of chaos. I'm hoping a few key personnel back will encourage us to kick the ball a bit more.

Any win is a good win so long as we didn't get any injuries.

Hession holding the ball over his head was cringe. I think it was a signal to hold possession and pass around outside the arc. Absolutely no need for any signals, we’re experts at that.

I think we will see a lot more long ball going in when AO'S is back stationed in there . I just hope it's an accurate ball and we don't have him running corner to corner to gain possession.
One thing for sure if he makes the run and ball is not forthcoming he will be handing out a severe bollicing to whoever.
There just has to be a gameplan in evidence and not just Aiden as target each time and I can't believe we will see out the league and enter championship without one... that would be unthinkable.

Some great points above. Mostly outlining the fustration of seeing such bad football on display.

Here's another point. Towey. He didn't do much. And man-of-match previously. But from his point of view, he was given a number of terrible hospital passes. A bit like the sort of hospital passes Evan Regan used to be given and we know what happened to him - confidence drained out of him in the finish. And there was no effort to involve Towey as the shooter by the other players in any planned team attack. Or Towey playing as if accepted by his teammates as a recognised shooter.

It appeared more a case of every man for himself out there when it comes to forward play. No plan. No idea how to use team-mates.

I’m hearing the confirmed attendance today was just over 6,000. No wonder they didn’t want to announce it officially! The Golden Goose truly is no more.

W is a w.

Quietly enjoying the approach we are taking to this years league be it by accident or design. It’s Galway home in a Connaught final. We haven’t won a Connaught on home soil since 2014. Madness.

Big picture. We need a squad of 22 to take out Galway in May. Davitt Neary looks a find and he will only improve when the ground hardens. More minutes in to Irwin.
We need to persist with McHale. There will come a time this summer when we need him to kick a crunch free for us.
Flynn @midfield gives us a physical edge.

Bottom line :

Galway from 8-12 is an army of big men. We need to hammer the hammer. Flynn, Carney, Ruane, Irwin and DOC.

Our big man @14 flanked by ROD & TC

Coyne takes Finnerty
McBrien takes Comer
Mchugh takes Walsh

Hession
Callinan
McLaughlin

I’m not getting ahead of myself am I….

JP, McBrien definitely not lighter or weaker than last year. Not sure where you got that idea. Camera shot on TV shows he’s done some serious S&C. No worries there. Most FF’’s including Comer and Clifford can’t push him around which is half the battle with those 2. I think he should be FB as we’ve loads of attacking HB’s. Bric is tall but not quite as mobile or strong. Let him battle for HB and CB positions with all the others. Actually a good kick passer which people are calling for. Donnacha Mc a drop from last year so far (letting opposition midfielders pick a few points). If ye do that then need to be scoring the other end to compensate. Fouled McShane as soon as he came on the pitch for Tyrone’s only late point. Had a very good 2024, let’s hope he gets back to that.

Jesus WJ. I wonder how much longer the county board can hold their nerve with this management team if the attendance has dropped to that. The income way down and the bills keep coming.

Terrible match but a win is a win. That said Tyrone were missing 3 of their best players. In a tight game that could easily have meant a different result. But you can only beat what's in front of you. Armagh down a few now for the next game. Looks like bad weather forecast for next weekend as well.

So the game was dire but we won.
Some markers set down with the selection.
No entitlement to places
Impressed with Neary, Irwin and I Donoghue.
Jordan added a lot
Refereeing inconsistent.

Sharioze A is still involved, himself & Jack Carney togged out the back after the team went in today.
St Colmans, Claremorris are in the post primary schools A semi final which is played on Saturday also. Unfortunate the Mayo/ Armagh game clashes as many loyal Mayo supporters wont make Armagh because of it. A number of Mayo U21/minors on Colmans team.

What a shame, no marketing of college football.

Not so sure we'll see Oisín back next year after watching this https://www.nine.com.au/sport/afl/news-2025-oisin-mullin-geelong-irish-nick-daicos-comparison-zach-tuohy-comments-20250216-p5lclm.html
Looks like Geelong have big plans for him this season at least.

@Swallowtail: That should be a cracking match too.

Mullingar have their own little magician in an incredibly pacey (very) young transition year lad, Will Scahill, that lit up the Leinster Final with 2-6. Should keep it interesting. Hopefully all the training the lads have done against Beirne and Tracey all year should stand to them in locking him down.

Fingers & toes crossed already and can't wait (from technically a Gerald's fan - but at this stage we're all Mayo).

@You Three…I’ve been asking people why they think Oisin might be back in ‘25 and all I’m getting is ‘cos we heard it’. Pure speculation. I’ll only believe it when I see it or when it’s officially announced. Oh how Mayo could do with his strength and agility around the middle. We’re great for shipping off our talent

Sorry in ‘26

That was one of the worst games I cam recall. It was horrendous.
The repeated 3v3 infringements.
The repeated turning down of 2 point frees to go short.
The repeated turning down of decent 2 point shooting opportunities.
I could go on.....

What are we actually doing? If there is a 2 point free opportunity & it's outside of ROD'S range, why not do the logical thing & let Reape or Irwin take it? (Irwin was on the field yesterday). If you go short & work a 1 pointer, then you'd only need to hit 1 of 2 long range frees to get the same return.. and if you have 3 or 4 long range opportunities in a game, you surely come away with more scores than by going short. Walsh would go for it every single time. It shows the importance of a reliable long range free kick expert, so it's imperative we have Irwin, Towey or Cian McHale on the field at all times if the situation arises

The only thing we appear to have worked on is ridiculous hand signals. I felt bad for Hession..he must have held his hand above his head 4 or 5 times. I think it led to a Mattie Ruane score, but it was not a good look..

Sorry typo above!
You'd need to go short twice & score twice, to get the same return as 1 long range free. Either which way, its clear to see where the better option is.

We got the win yesterday. But I honestly can't see much positivity for the year ahead, outside of some of the new players showing well.

Our gameplan is a joke. We've coached all the flare, risk taking & creativity out of our players

Mayo county board asking people to pay twice if they left ground my god you couldn't make this stuff up , talk about not reading the mood of the room .If you paid me now I wouldn't go to a Mayo match, and that's not having a go players who are giving serious commitment to put on the Mayo jersey however watching the current style of play is as exciting to watch as watching paint dry , I watched the 1st 15 minutes on tg4 , at that stage the match was level I think, 1 point all , so it was time to turn over to sky sports as I was falling asleep.
Is it any wonder lads would want to go over to Australia to play , if I was talented enough , wild horses wouldn't keep me to play football for Mayo.

@Mayonaze heard it from a good source but sure yeah you never know until it's officially said!

I never left a game more deflated after a win. I just hope for the players sake they can put together enough performances to retain their division 1 status for 2026 and rebuild under new managment.

Our playing style is most certainly impacting on attendances. If this carries into championship, ya, we'll be down a lot of cash.
The changes are so simple and obvious.
McBrien to full back, our full backline stay.
Our centre back stays. Now we have a defensive structure.
Stop doing the finish your run move for likes of Stephen Coen. It hurts us not the opposition.
Play target man inside mixed with running game.
Go for the 2pter frees..
Take a risk with kicks inside when we get a turnover.
Keep a left footed 13 on the field.
Chaos everywhere and pass around the arc is disastrous football.

For me it is all summed up by that passage of play where we were pinged yet again for the three up, Tyrone management went mental and basically got the free. A minute later, Tyrone gave away a free, the Tyrone player dropped the ball on the ground, never handed it back. Mayo players should have been telling the ref, instead Ryan was left with a tough kick on the sideline which he missed.

I don’t know how it can be there hard not to understand the rules and use them to our advantage. Ah sure nice people in Mayo.

When a few games in the summer but going nowhere fast. Over and back the arc, not allowed to kick pass.

I was posting here months ago that when the rules were already looking like a backed by the GAA President project and positive talk in the media and GAA circles it was already time to research how to best coach and implement a playing style for the new rules.
Not what are the rules. But how do we even coach them?
Do we already need video packs, tests and on field reps for rules some players struggle with.
Let's say I struggle with solo and go ruling and on field in both defending it and attacking.
Then I as a player need on field reps specifically on that until I can't get it wrong.
You on field rep not until you get it right but until you can't get it wrong, a mindset in sports like gymnastics or figure skating.
You can't just rely on regular training matches.
There's only half a season to adapt.
A team fully adapted has a huge advantage.
We're talking several pts advahtage fully adapted playing a becoming adapted.
Mayo players used carry things left handed, to develop their left hand, okay, commendable, high level of prep.
But it's like we've just let the bloody obvious pass us by in our prep this year.

Roscommon looking good and will be competitive in the provincial this year. These new rules suit them - 5 2 pointers against a good side that is Monaghan. Donegal by far the stand out so far, followed by Galway and the Dub's showing they are not gone away.

@InExile yes they do look good but in fairness you can't judge them fully till they play against division 1 teams also Galway will still beat them by 5 + in championship.

Mixed Bag yesterday. How many times did we not let the ball in and go for the jugular. Eoin O D was solid at the back, Hession done well and ROD was livelier than the last day. Was impressed at them going short for the 2 pointer to take a goal chance. Tyrone bet themselves with some wayward shooting but I thought defensively we were better than the Galway match. Done well to run the clock out at the end and deny Tyrone the chance to equalise.
Got caught again for infringing the 3 and Matty got penalised for trying a tap and go after the mark. Was watching some other games where the ref just made them retake the kick and did not throw the ball up. Still some head scratching to be done in terms of the rules. 2 points on the board but Underwhelmed would be an understatement.

I don't think we'd have won the game without the introduction of AOS. He's the Snyman of Mayo football, But wearing the no. 2 jersey? More codology.

It seems to me that Mayo are playing an awful lot of footballers out of position. At least 5 yesterday

E. Hession, - wingback palying in the corner
D. McHugh; - halfback laying the the FB line
S. Coen, - midfield playing in HB line
D. McBrien, - full back playing in HB line
C. Reid; - wing forward -playing at MF and badly exposed yesterday - was a good addition at WF in the first two games though

We have gone from having an all action HB line to the opposite.

For me, the team should be looking like the below come championship -

C. Reape; E. O’Donoghue, D McBrien, Jack Coyne, E. Hession, D. McHugh; E. McLaughlin; M. Ruane, J Flynn,
C. Reid; J Carney, D. Neary; R O'Donoghue, F Irwin, P Towey

A bench of Callinan (FB line), Durcan (HB line), A O S (Midfield), D O Connor (HF line), Conroy (FF line)

You'd have a team to keep us in the game for the first half and a bench with real impact.
The halfback line would be well able to counter attack at pace - not something they are currently set up to do.

McStay must've been told some of the new rules are to be scrapped in advance as he's impervious to them. Canavan did conceed there'd be a couple for the bin but I'm not convinced Kevin is on the inside track when it comes to them.
I'd be fairly sure Donegal will ease up now with 3 from 3 as Derry are in McGuiness' crosshairs in the Ulster championship. I can see him letting two games slide by with the proviso that another 1 victory might be required for survival with the breakdown of the league later on.

Yesterday was a big improvement with some markers laid down in team selection.
Tyrone opted not to play ball and defend at all costs, difficult to play against.
Lowest crowd at a Mayo game for years.
Irwin has impressed me as have all the new lads.
Jordan strength gave scope to others.
Will be a completely different ball game on dry fast pitches.

Tirawley baron.your not too far off what I would say. All depends on fitness but I’d have o Shea and durcan defo starting if fully fit. Durcan for Reid.ruane and mchugh push up one and Durcan into hb line.and aos for towey.

Potentially conroy for Irwin but I see potential in Irwin if he starts having a go at his man

@Tirawleybaron like the look of that set up. The 3 man up rule means you almost need to keep AOS at midfield otherwise he wont be able to roam around to help out unless you have some clever interchange plan. Notice you don't have Fergie B in there. I know he didn't have a great day against Galway but showed well against Dublin and yesterday and he wasn't afraid to have a go although a few didn't work out.

Mayo were bad but Tyrone were very bad.
A lot of kick outs went astray. We have been in this place before with other management teams and we were losing our s@#t then too.
Galway led Derry by nine points at half time.
The game was a draw at full time.
It's the league.
The new rules seem to have everyone flummuxed.

With the new rules surely Aidan comes on on 20 mins at full forward?
He lasts the game fresher, he faces a lower game pace. He's slightly quicker relatively for winning ball kicked into him.
The pace around the middle is higher than ever, why would we put Aidan out there. He's not going to win enough kickouts to make up for his inability to cover the ground.

JP - what does "Stop doing the finish your run move ." mean. Thx

@John Martin
The finish your run move is where a defender is soloing forward, off loads the ball and continues on running in towards the opposition goal.
Stephen Coen has been doing this a lot the last two seasons. It's prescribed as a thing we do.
It has not been effective.
It would only work with a player like Enda Hession and if when they are unmarked they get passed the ball.
It's just not helped us, it crowds our attack and it loosens and defensive solidity we have.

Absolutely JP. The likes of Hession, Eoghan McLaughlin doing it, would be ideal. It's just symptomatic of our setup. Square pegs in round holes all over the field!

Thanks JP - thought it might be something like that - pace essential.

My view of that finish your run move is the player doing it needs to be a good scorer and quick in tight spaces. Able to open up space for a shot, a good decision maker on the ball to lay it off to a better placed player. I only see Enda Hession of our defenders being like that.

Roscommon are a dangerous team to write off for a Connaught title. On their day they can outscore both Mayo and Galway but I would have reservations about their defence when pressed by a Div1 team. I would always be wary of Roscommon though as they have underachieved with that group of players the loss to Clare a few years ago a particularly bad example. If Roscommon have a full panel to choose from and are on a going day it will be a very hard match for Galway, I think Mayo cannot play them unless they are both in the final.

Exactly, chesney..-discount no team- should be the mantra. It's far too soon to be thinking beyond the tough games ahead in this league. The way there's no team on zero points could mean it'll take the last game to sort it. Galway and Donegal probably to make the league final with McGuiness cursing it if it happens that way.

We've a Dublin ref for the Armagh game - Barry Tiernan from the O'Dwyer's club.

Decent up and coming ref

Willie joe. Frustrating to put it mildly. It's possession at all cost. We are playing exactly the same as donegal did under Bonner/Rochford. Enough said