Very good and honest interview with Stephen Drake..
He basically states that he didn't put enough effort in in his early days with Mayo..So proud of winning 2 County Finals with Ballahadreen.
He states that it takes up about 40 hrs/ week to be on a county panel.
Probably more for a manager.
I hate to hear criticism of any footballers or management

Enjoy your retirement Stephen .
A really honest footballer who always gave 100% .

Well said Jr, congrats Stephen on a great career

Happy retirement Stephen. Definitely the best voice on the podcast too. Hope to hear more from him over the next few years .

Enjoy your retirement Stephen. I always considered him a better player than some who got a lot more game time than him for Mayo but that's life. 40 hours a week is some commitment for County players and it defeats the whole ethos of the GAA. If this continues it is professional in all but name. Maybe the Revenue Commissioners will save it yet with the opening of the can of worms.

Interesting comment on the podcast on what success looks like for 2025. A Connacht title and all-Ireland semi final would be progress after the last three years, in my view. If we are going to bring on new players during the league, does staying up in division 1 look particularly likely? Hard to identify two teams worse than us with the current injuries and losses to the panel.

It would be progress, but to look at it from another angle, anything less than a last 4 finish would be seen as a disappointment. I don’t really care what happens in the league provided we see lads being given a proper chance, something we failed to do in the 2024 league. Look how it benefited Galway. The fact that those selections were forced upon Joyce is irrelevant. I don’t think McStay used the league well last year, at all. There was far too much emphasis on ‘2 points’ than on blooding players, testing them out and trying new tactics/strategies. When we did reach 6 points, and were deemed relatively ‘safe’, the team selections were quite baffling.

A provincial title would be nice but for me there’s only one trophy that counts. How Mayo do when knockout football commences will be the real barometer for how 2025 is judged. As I’ve said over and again on this blog, Mayo should always strive to win the All Ireland. Yes, some years we’ll be blessed with a more talented bunch of players but the role of the Mayo manager is to maximise what he has available and the goal must always be to win an All Ireland. It needn’t be an objective that’s openly expressed, but privately at least, everyone in the squad should be striving to finish on top. There have been plenty of examples down through the years of counties winning Sam where on paper they wouldn’t be widely regarded as being the best. Tyrone in 21 and Armagh last year spring to mind. Don’t get me wrong. They were both worthy and deserving champions and in many ways earn greater credit for achieving ultimate success when few would have given them much of a chance at the beginning of the year. Nobody gave Tyrone a sniff of an All Ireland in 21 when they shipped 5 goals in Kerry during the league. And Armagh were seen by most as a team that couldn’t do it when it mattered. An average bunch. They’ve Sam in their possession now. So my point is, Mayo need to always approach each year with the goal of winning the All Ireland. Anyone who hasn’t shouldn’t be involved and for supporters, anyone who says they’d be happy with a Connacht title..I just don’t get that mentality. Ok, you can perhaps reflect on a season and say, we won the Nestor Cup and lost an All Ireland semi final but blooded some new players and others really progressed, which leaves you more enthusiastic and bullish about the forthcoming season but ultimately the overall goal hasn’t reached and there has to be disappointment. Any year Mayo don’t win an All Ireland it’s a failed mission.

Watched the All Ireland over again last night.
Superb athletes on both teams
Before the game Tonas o Shea said that Ulster teams are a different animal in an All Ireland final, how right he was.
We should have beaten Galway, we are not chat far away.
Retirements might just work in our favour.

Absolutely Mayonaze. The players & management should be targeting the All Ireland, even if they don't say it in public.
You need to aim high or you simply won't get there!

Always admired your mindset mayonaze , in my armchair psychology mode though unfortunately it’s easy to detect you have been brought up away from Mayo . I can’t articulate exactly what I mean but I’m always of the belief there’s something amiss in orthodox born and bred mayo people when it comes to genuine belief and confidence in winning an all Ireland . We were slowly getting there as a collective in 16/17 but 2021 then put us back a thousand years , it ripped the fooki n soul out of the belief /confidence , it put a halt to the gallop . It’s completely wrong to write mayo off winning the all Ireland in 2025 but that’s what we will do , we don’t need national media or social media to do it for us , we will do it ourselves before the ball is thrown in championship 2025 . I must underline I’m not suggesting we all go round shouting mayo will win Sam . Look at Donegal , they have said very little but they are managed by an absolute genius when it comes to belief and confidence, he will already have them 100 percent believing they will lift Sam Maguire . Hell zone in on that ff line and make them believe they are unplayable, he will convince them they are the best in the land , mcbrearty , Murphy and gallen in fairness won’t need much convincing if they get a bounce out of new rules which I suspect they will .

For those who are in complete disagreement and will argue we don’t have the players now , perhaps you’re correct and it’s nothing to do with the belief system or perhaps maybe take it on board and try approach the season in a different mode , we are trying since 1951 to win the bloody thing so maybe just maybe it is something to do with belief/confidence . It’s really not that highly skilled of a field sport if we are honest . If you can get the s&c right to put yourself in the top few teams , you won’t be far away .

On a side note I’m very disappointed James Carr has opted out this year , there are certain styles I think the new rules will favour . It’s just a personal opinion .

@Mayonaze: Not sure the numbers for Galway would agree too much there.

Lowest total panel of players used (27), lowest total number of starters in the league (23 - including both missing regulars McDaid and Comer only drags them up to match Derry's numbers in either of those so not down there purely due to injuries), second-lowest number of lads getting an hour or more game time (23) and the highest number of lads starting every single game (7). Of those 7, they missed a total of 19 league minutes between them (out of a potential total of 3430 - and 13 of those were Dylan McHugh in the final game). No other team in the country got close to those type of figures, or should want to.

They fairly flogged everyone that was fit with little rotation (most I spotted were forced by a new injury or someone returning from an old injury), getting lucky not to pick up more injuries along the way.

They'll be delighted with lads like Fitzgerald or Mulkerrins forcing their way in as starters who wouldn't have been immediate picks for fans at the start of the year, but not sure I'd be happy with selections like theirs if I was a Galway fan (I'd 100% be furious about it if Mayo did that). I certainly wouldn't be praising them as an exemplar (Mayo's rotation and depth of panel was orders of magnitude better in terms of statistics - though obviously we'd all have our own takes on who might have seen more minutes [CO'C & Towey to the fore with Hession, EO'D & Loftus sometimes mentioned, though without seeing training it's impossible to know who was showing well from week to week] - where we were either the best or 2nd place in each of those measures).

Sliding doors and all that.... but Sligo hold out seconds longer, ref gives a 50/50 call the other way against Mayo or Heslin doesn't get the rush of blood for the cross-field pass and we'd probably have seen PJ making an exit and an overall disappointing year for the tribesmen. Fine margins rolled in their favour and they could have ended up winning Sam - the joys of the game.

Very interesting Sean & I somewhat agree. I would also say we might big up our own lads too much, despite not having achieved the ultimate glory. Which is absolutely fine too, but perhaps that's another reason we just don't have the killer instinct! In Kerry, you're a bollix if you don't win Sam. Heck I saw some people calling for Jack's head after this year, despite him winning an All Ireland, losing the final in 2023 & losing a semi this year in extra time. Even Clifford gets stick if he has a bad game, despite him being a huge reason they won the 2022 All Ireland.
That's a mentality we just don't have, but we need! Ruthless, win at all costs.

Mayonaze says:
January 1, 2025 at 1:29 pm
It would be progress, but to look at it from another angle, anything less than a last 4 finish would be seen as a disappointment

Disappointment it would be but if don't reach the last 4 in 2025 it will be 4th year in a row that Mayo have done that and pretty much confirms the level of the current group players and highlighting how far off they are from 2012 to 2017.

@Tsu the point I was trying to make is Galway got through the league quite successfully despite missing several key players. I don’t have the stats like you. On the flip side, Mayo were negligent in their lack of game time for numerous players. You mentioned the key ones.

I have this picture of you in front of a screen with numbers, graphs and algorithms ;) like that dude in Good Will Hunting! ‘How d’ya like them apples!?’

@sean, yep growing up in Galway city but spending huge amount of time in Mayo I’ve always said there’s a big difference. The passion in Mayo is county wide and the percentage of Mayo people mentally /emotionally involved with the fortunes of the senior team is at a different level than in Galway. Sure, there are areas in Galway that are football mad but taking the county as a whole, there are swathes of hurling areas and in the city (while Gaelic football is huge now compared to 25 years ago) there’s still a different mindset. Less emotional investment. Is there a greater natural self confidence? I’m not so sure but winning does boost that for sure. But definitely it’s always been noticeable for me that the psychology of the average Mayo supporter is more fragile and it was like this in the 90’s so it’s not a new phenomenon. The Mayo support is more emotional and prone to extremes, both hype/joy to despair an negativity. The ‘journey’ over the past 15/20 years has only fuelled that further. One big win will change much of that. In fact, winning the All Ireland would be such a massive life-moment for us that it would change everything in terms of our outlook. After the euphoria ;which would last a long time, there’d be a weird sense of ‘what do we do now?’. We’ve been in the road, the quest, for so long. Invested so much time and mental energy. Sure, we go at it it again, but things will never be the same. Especially for those of our vintage and older who have been on board the Mayo ship since we were kids in the 80’s. And in a really peculiar, messed up way, we might even miss that ‘quest’. That Mayo for Sam shite, which we both love and squirm at too. Anyway, I’m gone way off point here!!…. The Mayo psychology goes up and down. We can’t change that. That obsession is sky high compared to many other if not most counties, a result of us going to close on so many occasions. But we are mentally wounded. We have become particularly touchy too. Like a self conscious hormonal teenager. Craving positive attention but not really sure how to handle praise and incredibly snappy at the first hint of criticism.

For years I wanted Mayo to change. To take on a more self-confident , arrogant, steely approach, like Tyrone. Or even better like Kerry. And that mentality is more inclined to result in success and more so, it rejects failure. That’s key. We give far too much praise to teams and players who’d be regarded as failures elsewhere. That’s that harsh truth. You put on a Mayo jersey and you’re a hero in the local town/village. You’re nothing in Kerry until you’ve a pocket full of medals. Kerry isn’t a good comparison. Even in Galway, and I know this, players on the county team don’t get nearly as much attention or praise. … the All Ireland minor final, in 2022. The amount of attention our team got was insane. Pullouts in local press. Interviews. Player Bio’s. Podcasts etc. In Galway, most people hardly even knew the game was on bar the hardcore support and the local press had minimal focus on it. Two bunches of 16/17 year olds going into it one team relaxed. The other ridiculously hyped up. We all know what happened.

But while I say this, I also love the way Mayo is so passionate. We just need to find the right balance. The opposite was in 2021. I walked down Main Street in Castlebar 2 days before the final and hardly a flag or bunting to be seen. It was sad. I always think, when it’s the final, put up the flags and enjoy the excitement. But don’t put players up on pedestals until they actually win something!! And stop being ‘ok’ and so accepting of failure. Stop calling players ‘greats’ or ‘star’s’ when they’ve no medals.

Thesis over! Happy new year and Up Mayo!!!

Ps: an important point I forgot to make and something that really frustrates me is that Mayo have all the talent required. We need to believe more. Demand more. We should have tonnes more All Irelands. It goes back to my original post that we should always be striving to win the All Ireland and this mentality of being ‘happy’ with a Connacht title etc or getting to a quarter or semi, that somehow that’s a successful year or cause to be content. That’s just total bullshit in my opinion. It’s a losers mentality and I don’t get it. We are football mad. We produce brilliant footballers. Why shouldn’t we be winning??

And the other thing that often bothers me is this shite about Galway producing more natural forwards. That’s just more bollocks that has somehow seeped into many peoples reality. Take the last 25 years. Kevin O’Neil, Cillian, Mort, Ciaran McD, Andy (and he started as a back but won POTY as a forward). Mayo produce loads of top level attackers, but maybe they’ve not always been selected/available (KON in 96/97 was a glaring loss) or they’ve been on teams that what forever reason failed to get over the line.

Kevin O Neill in 2006 Hillgate SF against the Dubs was sublime. Watched it back there over Crimbo.
First touch 20 seconds on the pitch, point. What a Legend.

Didn’t mean to disrespect this thread and not mention Stephen drake . A solid footballer , top of the class club man , always admired that bunch of ballagh footballers, they won the county twice but they were a cohort of them in and around county panels minor to senior too , Andy of course , David drake are the most well known but you also had the likes of the kilcullens , the man the post is about , Barry Regan etc , you could debate all day that some of them should of been given more minutes for mayo but Shur look what’s the point at this stage . They were a serious pool of talent that came through and a sound bunch of men too with the exception of the rossies like Conway ( that’s a joke btw ) . Enjoy your retirement .

Mayonaze and others - in relation to talent, it's not everything.

That semi against Dublin in 21. Remember after Eoghan was carried off, we should have been blitzed, even if Dublin were melting down at that stage. Aido off, no Cillian, and Oisin out injured. That was the talent gone. What did we do? We took it to them, ground them down, Diarmuid got a boot to a wide ball, Conor O'Shea got us the crucial 45, Darren Cohen popped one over; a lot of guys chipping in, and increasing the momentum bit by bit. Tommy of course got a couple of glorious ones, but if my memory is correct, didn't score until the 69th minute.

Star performers, I love them, but they're not everything.

Just looking for some info. Is game v Monaghan ticket details available yet and if a team will be announced prior to game.

Sorry, just saw ticket details hidden away on the Mayo gaa website under news.

@Catcol. Absolutely. Passion, guts, desire and an unbending willingness to do what’s required are hallmark traits in most champions.

The Team that defends best wins the All Ireland and while the new rules is heavy on offensive play the team with the best defence will still win the All Ireland in 2025. Mayo in most All Ireland finals since 1989 the lazy remark was they didn't have the forwards to win when in reality it was conceding soft silly goals in finals that proved most costly.

Happy retirement to Stephen Drake enjoy it!

As to why we haven't won sam yet I seriously believe now it's down to mentality. After all the losses&heartache we have suffered the nerves always seem to go out the window for our guys in any final more so then any other team reaching a final. That's understandable with our history.

I do also really believe that once we finnally get over the nerves in a final and cross the line the sky will be limit.

@Catcol
Our Senior record in 2021.
After 7 wins on the trot we had real self belief that day.

As Kevin said recently on the pod about the league it's where we get our confidence and momentum.

SENIOR
Competitions: National Football League, Connacht Championship, All-Ireland Championship
Year: 2021
Total Win/Lose/Draw: 8/1/0 (9)
Home Win/Lose/Draw: 3/0/0 (3)
Away Win/Lose/Draw: 3/0/0 (3)
Neutral Win/Lose/Draw: 2/1/0 (3)
Total score for: 17-170 (221)
Total score against: 11-112 (145)

Thanks FrosT. For sheer brilliance and fluency, the second half performance against Galway in the CF at Croker was something special.

Anyone know how the challenge game v Roscommon went? Heard it was yesterday or is it today!

@clare - Didn't know there was a challenge game v Roscommon but i wouldn’t be too concerned no matter how bad the results are this time of the year.

Roscommon beat Galway by 18 points in last years FBD in January then went on to lose 8 of the next 9 competitive games they played.