All very sensible views on the pod there....
I agree Mayo favourites for the final...
Should we even turn up after our shambolic performance yesterday!! ?

I wouldn't be so downbeat if I were you Tuamstar. Comer available transforms Galway. Always turns up for Galway.

To be honest, even if Comer was buried above in the graveyard at the Hyde, he still contribute 1.3 against Mayo.

JB good one..
In fairness to Comer he was some difference yesterday, won the game on his own..
Has become our most important forward undoubtedly..
Let's just hope for our sake he stays fit...

Nice to beat da rossies but poor standard of football. I think we have fallen back a lot. Galway no better. Connacht football is in the doldrums and Sam won’t be crossing the Shannon anytime soon. Happy Sunday everyone ;)

Comer, and Kelly make Galway tick. Hate Comer, but reason for that, is more often than not, does serious damage against mayo. Don't have a defender to mark his power and directness

Terrible coverage of Mayo and Roscommon on Sunday game.

What kind of highlights was that???

Sunday game showing some bad Roscommon wides, very poor under no pressure. Hard to watch for purists now the aul footie.. Every team inside the 45 and over and back handpassing.. Hopefully new rules under Burns will make it a more entertaining spectacle.

The mayo v Roscommon game was shown live I suppose.Cora and enda mcginly both identifying our problems in midfield

Weird highlight tho I agree.. A few interviews followed by some scores... Fuckin rte, clowns. And that Ger canning, fuck me will he retire

We're wondering here if they lost the tape! All the match footage they showed wasn't from the main camera. Whatever the reason, it was a truly bizarre segment.

Rte do some bizarre things WJ, add that to the list.

Met a Roscommon defender tonight in Navan.
He was glad he wasn't marking Ryan O Donoghue,
He said he is like an eel

Is the opposite of a naysayer a yaysayer?

He's a brilliant player..unfortunately we've only one, the fate of the team depends on him too much, poor enough outfit apart from rod, paddy and maybe boland... Apart from that.. Struggling

@Great ball Tommy conroy in fairness to him 2nd half did stand up and is coming back into form he just needs more confidence back in him.

Hard to know yet clare if he'll come back to his 21 form..needs to drive more at defences, 2 handy points V the rossies is no indication.. But I hope you're right.. Maybe as Gooch said after the injuries etc, bit of confidence shook, but need him at full tilt.. And getting goals.

Great to see Tommy conroy kick those points today but Ryan o Donaghue is irreplaceable for us .His ability to win ball to link play and most importantly score consistently is vital

@Great ball he's no where his 21 form just yet for sure.

But I completely agree with the Gooch you can't get an injury like Tommy did and not have your confidence gone one of the worst injuries you can get in gaa.

But he will come good.. Today will have given him a boost.

If we can beat Galway it could build momentum in the round Robin.
The players who featured well were Bric, Coen, McHugh (subbed!) Hession, O Hora in his cameo, Boland, Loftus and the entire FF line. Aido did not get enough support for some of those kickouts and Ros were more ravenous so that needs to remedied. Also did Aido need to go out? quite possibly as of the rest, only Tuohy caught a high one. Flynn may be better with 2 more weeks. Really hope Paddy was just a knock.
I put some of our kickout problems down to Reape just not spotting the runner especially to his right and would prefer Robbie. That said I still don’t see a kickout strategy to counter the press. We need one. McStay pointed out we were unlucky on a few but Cluxton sometimes gets close to 100% so what are the Dubs doing to increase their chances? It’s not 100% down to Cluxton.
Ros defensive setup caused us problems in the 1st half..
The main positive was Loftus who looked very up for it and can compete with all 3 HF’s and may be the better option the next day with Flynn at 80% maybe 90 in 2 weeks and Diarmaid not expected to play 70. Ruane tried hard and expect him to improve with every game. Not convinced by Carney or Tuohy yet so maybe revert to experience.

Also wondering if some of those students are still doing exams. If so I wouldn’t judge them too harshly.

Willie Joe looks like wrong Roscommon crest as well!

@Shuffly Deck: "...so what are the Dubs doing to increase their chances?"

They've got a deadly dangerous inside line.

Teams tend not to push up on them (as) aggressively as they're terrified of being opened up at the back. With a 6'6" high fielding tower like Fenton, along with multiple fast break runners, they're always likely to break a high press and when they do have tended over the last number of years to punish teams considerably.

It leads to things like Kerry dropping Dara Moynihan off Brian Howard (Cluxton > Howard was the vast majority of that 100% restart AIF) completely so he could drop back and sweep.

Another "curate's egg" performance-patchy, with some good and some bad. I wouldn't be writing off Galway, as some seem to be doing, as they will improve, with their returning injuries players getting up to match fitness and sharpness-we will hopefully improve as well and we will need to. I would be worried about our full-back line, especially trying to contain Comer and we could also be in trouble in midfield.

Completely agree with other posters about the Sunday Game coverage. It was a ridiculous mishmash of weird camera angles interspersed with various interviews-it was terrible. Was ours the only game that got this treatment?

Good job I recorded the live RTE coverage than relying on the Sunday game highlight. This the RTE stats much to improve on moving forward.

1st half
Possession 50% each
Wides - Roscommon 4 Mayo 3
Scoring chances - Roscommon 0-8 from 13 shots Mayo 1-6 from 11 shots
Own Kick out won Roscommon 8 of 10 Mayo 7 of 11
Overall Kick outs 21 - Roscommon won 12 and Mayo 9
Turnovers- Roscommon 7 Mayo 6

2nd half
Possession 51% Ros to 49% Mayo
Wides - Roscommon 5 Mayo 1
Scoring chances - Roscommon 0-5 from 14 shots. Mayo 0-9 from 13 shots
Own Kick outs won - Roscommon 10 of 11 and Mayo 6 of 10
Overall Kick out 21 - Roscommon won 14 and Mayo 7
Turnovers - Roscommon 9 Mayo 8

So my understanding of the draw from here is that the Connacht final losers will be in the same group as the Munster final winners, and vice versa. So the incentive to beat Galway is to most likely have Clare rather than Kerry in the group. Since the third seeds will be something like Derry, Donegal/Tyrone, Monaghan and Roscommon, a group with Kerry, Donegal and Cork, for instance, would be a big challenge to qualify from, never mind top.

Apologies if I’ve got this wrong…

Great third quarter saw us through, wonder is it a management S&C plan for this year, target the third quarter.

Roscommon well on top in the second quarter, seemed to win literally every breaking ball. I think to have any hope of a decent season, we need a fully fit Diarmuid and Paddy in the starting 15, not just because they're two of our best players, but also for the experience they bring
.
Great cameo from Conor Loftus, if he's on that sort of form, I'd be questioning why he's not a starter. They're one or two that are, that I'm not fully convinced by. Maybe him and Diarmuid could have a half each in two weeks time

InTheCity - the groups are not predetermined so there will be a draw. We can't be in the same group as Galway now, but could draw Roscommon again

Good spot, Gizmobobs! They really can't be bothered at all.

Can't help but be excited for football with this weather , hopefully be decent weather in salthill and we can express our skillsets.
I'd be inclined to think hession for coyne, hess be the man for o currain.
Mcbrien on comer, Sam on Walsh and brick on finnerty. Finnerty is accurate but won't fancy running back with brick.
Paddy, coen and mchugh in halfbacks .
Flynn and ruane midfield, Loftus and mclaughlin to give us more zip and line breakers at 10 and 12, then same inside line but with cillian and Carr to make imapats off bench .
Loftus probably won't start and starting Carney or tuohy be safer options . Carney gives plenty grunt but think we can overrun Galway if we go more athletic in tuohy ar 10 and flynn midfield, some bench now when you consider the seasoned and proven pros we have to come on and make impacts

@InTheCity: As Wide Ball mentioned, pretty much an open draw for the group stages. The only exception is "Teams who have already met in that year’s provincial final cannot be drawn to the same group."

That leaves us (going on expected winners wihtout any shocks, a very bold prediction) with:

Connacht winner with a 33% chance of Clare, Louth/Kildare, or Ulster runner-up.

Connacht runner-up with a 33% chance of Kerry, Dublin or Ulster winner.

Huge reason to go all out for the win in Salthill just glancing at the alternatives there.

Both Connacht winner & runner-up will have the same odds on 3rd seeds (no exclusion from us meeting Roscommon again in the group stages - so likely 25% chance of Derry, Roscommon, loser of Tyrone/Donegal & Monaghan) & 4th seeds (25% chance of Meath, Cavan, Cork & Westmeath most likely).

13 sides already guaranteed to be in Sam, and still waiting to know the last 3 spots between Cork/Louth/Westmeath/Offaly/Kildare/Down/Fermanagh. Cork need any 1 of Dublin/Armagh/Louth to win, Louth need to win themselves or both Dublin/Armagh to win & Westmeath need all of Dublin/Armagh/Louth to win.

@TsuDhoNim - To add on your piece above.

The 3rd and 4th seeds are not quite set yet.

If either of Dublin and Armagh lose, then Monaghan would drop down to 4th seeds.
Both of them lose and Roscommon would also drop down to 4th seeds.

Rossies tired and their play was confined to slow lateral build up in the second half, which we were able to contain.
Long kickouts were generally broken down and mopped up by the Rossies, some Lucky, some good play, but Mayo came to grips a bit with it.
Loftus scored two great points, but otherwise was lost in defense. One bad turnover which could have been costly. No more than impact sub
Touhy was a clever substitution. Caught one great kickouts and generally looked hungrier than when picked to start.
Lots of 'good' performances, a good tough group in qualifiers will benefit the players. Big advantage going in as 1 seed.

Some of the stats here would confuse an actuary! Don't know how you guys do it.

Ontheditch - I wouldn't say Loftus was lost in defence. There was one time he chased down the Roscommon ball carrier, forced him to turn back into traffic and after we won the turnover Boland got his second point.

He did wait on a ball at one stage and the defender got in ahead of him.

Thanks for coming back on the possible group draws. I’d misinterpreted the fixtures list on the GAA website. A clear advantage to the Connacht winners given the list of likely first seeds versus second seeds.

Is Lee still bringing the togs and gear to matches or is it a hape of sandwiches in the bag