Just listened to the pod there and discussion about the 3 games. Would summerise as a mixed bag so far as;
- Dublin game: good performance, bad result
- Galway game: poor performance, bad result
- Tyrone game: mixed/poor performance, good result

Lads, it's league football in February. We don't need to be a full rattle until the middle of April.
Time yer run lads, time yer run.

Hi WJ. I’m having trouble trying to listen to this podcast. Will only play for 5 minutes and then asks me to “Become a member”. I am and bank card is in date. Any idea why.

Hi Nephin - that's odd alright. I can see you are a member so it should play. Can you try deleting and reinstalling the app? Sometimes that kind of shock therapy works. Start by logging out of the Patreon app, then uninstall it, then restart the phone and then reinstall the app and sign back in.

Let me know how you get on, we'll get it sorted one way or another.

Thanks so much WJ.

Hi WJ, I tried that and it’s still saying for me to subscribe and pay again.

I haven’t changed bank cards or anything so can’t understand why it wouldn’t be working.

Hi, is there any supporters bus going to Armagh on Saturday?
Mick Byrnes bus isn’t going.

Micheal Moran. Give Corduff Travel a ring, they might know of any buses going

@Micheal Moran all the Byrne babes grandad's now.

Thanks Nephin - it’s obviously an issue at the Patreon end. Leave it with us and we’ll sort it.

Thanks WJ.

I detest the slow build up as much as everyone else but looking at it from management perspective I'd imagine there afraid of the counter attack. If you have the ball the opposition can't score. Say the ball was kicked in long 15 times and only sticks 6 or 7 times well that's 8 or 9 extra chances the opposition have to score maybe taking 3 or 4 scores they wouldn't have got if the build up was more slow lateral crap. They'll tell us they're not in the entertainment business more a result business but one thing is for sure it's a hard watch... Ok I'm ready... Go easy.

2025 will be last year of having all Quarter-finals & semi-finals of the Connacht football championship in the same weekend in 2026 All Quarter-finals & Semi-finals of the Connacht football championship will take place in seperate weekends. Mayo vs London & Roscommon vs New York with the Connacht Quarter-final in 2026 with 2 teams of Leitrim, Galway & Sligo will take place last. A different country then Dublin needs to win Leinster football title it's overdue for years now. 2026 Connacht football championship Knock Airport will run flights to all 4 London Airports & all airports in England, Scotland & Wales of course publish online about Mayo vs London Connacht championship game in 2026 in the coming months.

Playing with the wind, deliberate build up is a disastrous tactic. You go full throttle once you can win the ball back...and that's not easy because opposition will be playing the possession games.
New rules have a bit of ironing out yet, and two pointers will be easier come championship time.
Problem with us is we haven't a 'full throttle' game. Will we have it by April, hopefully Durcan, McBrein, Callinan, McLaughlin, Ruane, Carney, Flynn will turn on the burners and make Mayo great again

There’s a touch of “the emperors new clothes” about the new rules. Because we’ve already decided 1 year in, that Jarlath Burns is the greatest president we’ve ever had because he gives good speeches, and Jim Gavin has won 5 all Irelands so can’t be questioned, all the changes have just been accepted.
In the viewing of the first 3 rounds I don’t see any particular uptick in quality. It’s essentially turned the game into half pitch basketball.
Managers at the top level are always going to go safety first, that’s why we are now seeing this ring of steel around the arc, that’s going to get worse as jeopardy increases, leaving 6 players completely out of the game. The long kick in will be rare and prob only used by those who have a specific advantage there. Holding the ball outside for longer and trying to setup a 2 pointer rather than kicking it in, is lower risk higher reward, basketball.
The excitement of a tight game with 2 minutes left and a team 1 point up is gone. A team can’t push everyone up, and if the opposition have the ball you can’t do a damn thing about it. So a team if ahead in a tight game will now be planning from about 5 or 6 minutes out to shut up shop.
The FRC chopping and changing rules on a whim between games is outrageous and adding to the chaos. And yet to criticise them is suddenly see as sacrilege, see my opening point.
And the biggest issue of all, the club game, whatever about tinkering with inter county, there’s no way in hell they should have touched the club game this season until they had figured this all out.
I manage a junior team, I am dreading this season as it’s already fecken chaos with training and the league hasn’t even kicked off.
In junior league there’s a ref, that’s it. Our divisional board is asking for at least 4 volunteers from each club to help the refs. It’s a joke that the GAA have put referees, players and clubs in this position.

My Uncle in his 70s is delighted with the new rules and he was absolutely sick of how lots of games were the last 10 years.
The quality is a lot better.
There's far less blanket defensive games or very patterned slow play.
There's more catching of kickouts and more kicking.
There's better discipline.

@jp and Eastcork exile. On the positive side, there is the option of quick break and it can be rewarding for teams with good ball winners in their front line.
On the other hand, I would be very concerned about East Corks point on the possession game. As the championship unfolds and the stakes get higher, with a 12-11 advantage, we are likely to see long periods of 'Keep Ball'.
I agree too with East Cork, when you bring the new down to club level, they could have disastrous consequences.

I'm actually not against the new rules. I'll preface my comment with that. What EastCorkexile said above is very important to note.
Above any year that needed the pre-season competitions, this was it. It needed them to test the rules out there in a competition that wasn't season defining.
Instead, the league has been totally devalued and made a mockery of. It's been used as a testing ground. Rules are changed on a weekly basis, with no communication to us.
I hugely respect Jim Gavin and Jarlath Burns but, as EastCorkexile said, they seem to be beyond reproach - regardless of how valid any criticism might be.
Teams (mostly those that aren't Mayo) are adapting and negating some of the most positive ideas already. Even ourselves - we were aware of what to do when we went down to 14 on Sunday. Hell, we were even able to tell the referee the rule on having 2 back when down to 14. In that sense, we have to give credit to McStay and Co for brushing up on things.
In the main, there are some very useful changes proposed but we seem to have too many to even count on a weekly basis.
Maybe the rule changes will be to the benefit of the game but let's have an honest discussion about them.

Honest discussion is welcome.
My own view overall is it was a difficult project of work and they've done well the FRC considering the scale of the challenge.
Like, what was the desired outcome? My Uncle and others like him eing happy once again to watch their favorite sport.

Nephin - check your email, we’ve a solution that gets you access to the latest pod. This is only a workaround but it it’ll sort you for now.

@Eastcorkexile: "And yet to criticise them is suddenly see as sacrilege, see my opening point."

Might be worth looking around a little more, you might be missing some of the feedback.

Plenty of criticism around for:

- 12v11: Allows too much defensive/slow play reducing entertainment. Highly likely to change imho
- 3/3 exemptions for black/red card: Strips the gains of having a numerical advantage considerably. Highly likely to change imho
- 3/3 breach brought outside for 2
- 40m restarts
- 2 point arc
- 2 points for frees
- Frees being brought out for 2
- No 4 point goals
- 50m penalty in general
- Handing the ball back for 50m specifically
- Athletic demands
- Too many rules too fast
- Too many challenges for club refs

(And plenty more for the slips and obvious mistakes they've made on communications, document control, [lack of] referee engagement, interactions between FRC/Rules Advisory Committee or FRC/refs falling through cracks and missed deliverables [GPS data])

As someone who likes most of the rules (not a fan of handing ball back, 3/3 taken outside, black/red cards minimised and still unsure of 12v11 but probably siding against it more the more games I watch) I'd love to see a lot more constructive criticism. Sadly, there has been relatively little (Cahair O'Kane & Maurice Brosnan shining out for me there given their fairly analytical approach to it).

A disappointing amount of the dissenting feedback seems to oddly focus on the individuals involved (wouldn't be a huge Gavin fan - clearly a clever man & very good manager, but his records come with a huge asterisk for the questionable financials & advantages involved - so can say with certainty he'd have zero impact on my view of changes) or simply aim a push back to all change (valid if you felt the game was perfect - though there'd be a minority in that camp in recent years) rather than aiming to improve/remove/include a proposal (lots of room for this for another couple of weeks - if someone has thoughts, positive or negative, it'd be absolutely worth getting vocal about them).

Hi Willie Joe. Just checked the email. I don’t see anything there. I wonder if I cancelled the subscription completely and started from scratch, would that work. Don’t worry about it for now, as I assume you’re busy. It’s not an emergency. You might have more time at the weekend.

I think the only free should be allowed bring out is a foul on the player inside.
To stop teams late in games winning by 2 deliberately fouling knowing there's only 10 seconds left.
Otherwise one could chew up the last few mins of the clock if leading comfortably with fouls for 1pt. You're deliberately preventing a teams ability to kick the 2s and 3s they need.

Hi Nephin - it went to the email address you registered on Patreon. I can send it to the one you use here if you want. It’s no trouble and it’s a really good pod, which airs many of the frustrations fans are voicing about our playing style, so I wouldn’t want you to miss it.

Do please WJ. I forgot I was having trouble with the other email. Sorry about this, I really don’t want to be a nuisance.

Details on the U17s and U20s Connacht championship fixtures.

https://mayogaa.com/2025/02/20/connacht-u17-championship-fixtures-2025/

https://mayogaa.com/2025/02/20/connacht-u20-football-championship-fixtures-2025/

I have been to MAYO first three matches and i dont like the new rules especially after last sunday. Too many rule changes. The one rule change i would make is to keep the goalkeeper in goals and stop this nonsense of goalkeepers going up to the forwards. Also kick outs to pass the 45 metre line and no pass back to goalie allowed. It is daftness what is going on at the moment. If the goalkeeper wants to play in the forwards let him become an outfield player.

Nephin - I've just mailed you now. No need to apologise - enjoy the pod!

Unfortunately the league, although it brings together the top 8 counties in the country, is not given the respect it deserves. Staying up, so that top opposition for next season is maintained, is the limit of ambition for most counties.
The biggest problem I see with the new rules is the 12 v 11 facilitates the possession game. Once we are into knockout stages or critical stages of the league, my fear is that you will see more of this keep ball tactic.
I definitely agree with too much to quickly when you filter it down to club and underage. Any referees on here with opinions would be interesting.

If the goalkeeper goes past the halfway line, should that then release one of the opposition 3 players that are staying up that they can go back past halfway so the goalkeeper can be tracked, is there a negative to that idea?

Reading all of the commentary on the new rules i think there is one fundamental change that is the elephant in the room...its the over use of the hand pass facilitating a game that can look closer to basketball than football....
What frustrates me and I assume most supporters is the 4: 1 or 5:1 ratio of hand passes in a game to foot passes and the limited use of the basic skills of the game of foot passing, shooting and good fielding of the ball and scoring.
I don't want to see the ball being held for up to 3-4 minutes in long passages of play by teams hand passing laterally and boring all and sundry before finally someone tries for a 2 pointer or makes a line break or is finally dispossessed.
I don't have any obvious solutions, but imagine a game where the ball had to go forward and teams were limited to say 5 passes or whatever and then had no option but to attack the opposition and go for it?

The only solution to handoassing would be a kicking only game. However with kicking only I think the kickers would need more space with 13 a side. Otherwise it's a game of crowd the kickers zone. 15 players crowd around the kickable section of the field the kicker is in.

Up and running Willie Joe. Thanks for all your help.

@Tommy132: It's certainly one of the potential options people mention frequently. There will be pros and cons to any idea (the existing one has plenty of its own and the other popular alternative, no passing to the keeper outside of their rectangle with conditions, has plenty too - no silver bullets).

For that one, I'd imagine the main (potential) concerns would be:
- Losing space with an extra defender other rules have tried to open up
- Messier application of the 3/3 rule for officials, dynamic changing from 3-up to 2-up per play
- Very messy situations where a solo ref has to clearly see the timing of when a keeper crosses, not just that a breach has occured at a given moment

No dealbreakers there, so I'd imagine it's a viable option, just nothing in it that would make me prefer it to 'no passing' (slightly my favourite at the moment, but fine lines) or a more permanent 4back/3up (where the keeper is one of the 4 & taking the place of an outfield teammate rather than dragging a forward back with them any time they advance).

@JP, think there is something there....how do we limit the time in possession that a team has, like in the NFL...now that we have a timer clock , could you envisage a game where the max time a team has in possession is 60 seconds from the KO or first time gaining possession to then use the ball to attack the opposition or have to turn it over to them? It would certainty change the whole focus on the game to attacking football if a team had a limited time in possession....probably totally unworkable in the current game but i fear the new rules will have limited impact in moving us away from this hand passing possession game...

Good to hear it, Nephin. Apologies for the inconvenience.

I feel some years ago we lost the plot and gave the advantage to a swarm of defenders around an attacker, TV people christened it Turnovers.
I understood that 2 defenders tackling at the same time was a free.
Things went downhill from there.

@Jr: "I understood that 2 defenders tackling at the same time was a free".

Nope. Explicitly allowed in the rules.

"22. TACKLE Football: The tackle is a skill by which one or more players may dispossess an opponent or frustrate the opponent’s objective within the Rules of Fair Play. A tackle is aimed at the ball, not the player.

A tackler may use the body to confront the opponent but deliberate bodily contact such as punching, slapping, arm holding, pushing, tripping, jersey pulling or a full frontal charge is forbidden. The only deliberate physical contact allowed is that in the course of a Fair Charge one player only with at least one foot on the ground , makes a shoulder to shoulder charge on the player in possession."

It's gas how the bit about punching, slapping and arm holding isn't really seen as a foul nowadays.

Jr, agree totally. Player goes into tackle and more often than not is fouled. Free against player. He will not attempt it as often again. So you end up with the sideways possession. If players were positively afforded the opportunity to get past opposition player, it would be far more exciting. How many players now even attempt to take on an opponent?

I bow to your superior knowledge TDN, but if it was applied properly a lot of the frees would be to forwards and the game would not be in the state it is in now.

Does anyone know is there live streaming of the St. Colmans game on Saturday. Thanks

@Jr: Absolutely. The tackle is one of, if not the major issues in the game. No consistency, no proper rules (and if a ref actually applied what's written in the book we'd probably have riots) & seems to mostly be called on vibes.

It was the one thing most people hoped the FRC would do a ground-up job on. Sadly, it seems to have been sidestepped entirely. Missed opportunity. Though to be fair, I can't even begin to imagine what a proper wording for it might look like so hard to fault others being in the same boat.

@Southmayo Exile: https://www.youtube.com/live/z9kmpB1Q5ck?si=1Ihn-6ow6EV3PNtP

I remember a few yrs ago there was much talk of outlawing the 3rd man tackle and I actually thought it was to come into effect. Its a simple enough rule change more than 2 players tackle the ball carrier its a free to said ball carrier.

@South Mayo exile - I believe its being showed on TG4 Youtube

Worthwhile having homework done on the referee in relation to the two man tackle. I think there is some personal interpretation allowed with referees, and the main thing is they are consistent. Most refs to not tolerate a player being isolated and you can be slapped and poked from all sides without being 'fouled'. Anybody with homework on ref v Armagh.

Enjoyed the podcast WJ. Thanks for sharing it. I imagine it just sorted me out for this particular episode. No apologies necessary, it’s not the end of the world.

That’s right, it was just a workaround but good that you got to listen to the show, glad you enjoyed it.

It will be interesting to see how Roscommon gets on in Navan.
Pairc Tailtean is one of the best winter pitches in the country so it should be suitable to fast football.
I expect them to beat Meath.

Armagh are one of the most physical teams around and the Mayo forwards can expect plenty of "Slaps" in the tackle.
Interestingly tho they don't like it so much when the opposition gets stuck into them,but I can't see Mayo doing that which is a feature they lack.
Jr fancies the Rossies in Navan,I'm not so sure..Meath were quite good in Newry last week..I expect them to win on home soil

@Artie Quinn agree think Armagh can be very physicsal we are lucky Rian O Neill is not available otherwise we would be in trouble. I think we might just pull off a sirprise and edge it by one or two.

With Rossies v Meath will actually go Meath..think they will pull off a surprise also.

A lot of talk that the oNeils won't be back this year.

Armagh naming a full team and subs 2 days out from game :-0 Those dastardly nordies!!!

Yeah rian o'neill apparently not coming back at all this year, which is a massive blow to them. He is one of those rare maverick footballers, who will provide the difference in the biggest games. Apparently he is very difficult to manage, always making trouble, so geezer probably finally got sick of him.

Mad that they continue to leave Soupy Campbell on the bench, but then again done them no harm last year, if he was in mayo he would be playing every minute of every game

Mayo failing to announce trustworthy panel of players not helping with attendance imo. Doesn't exactly do anything for reputation of management either, not that they give a toss.

I see an article on the Independent today where an ex hurler laments the lack of a settled team especially the spine.
Does it ring a bell?
After Armagh it is time for our management to make up their mind on a Championship team.
Sure a fit Durcan can come in or Conroy.
Get the spine right as early as possible.

@JR agree.. Hopefully Conroy is near recovery.

We are not missing many players now bar Durcan, Conroy and one or two others so hope to see a much improved perfermance tommorow.

Even with the team McStay names it will be a dummy team as usual and we will get 2 to 3 changes just before throw in and no subs announced until tommorow it's soo stupid it's not like it makes one difference!

Settled spine of an effective summer team.
1. Colm Reape
3. David McBrien
6. Enda Hession best ball player and quick
8.9. Mattie and Jordan
11. Ryan O'Donoghue
14. Aidan O'Shea