Time to park yesterday’s performance, we did what we had to do.

New rules are really down to whoever can win clean kick outs and then move the ball as quick as possible up field. Hopefully we can improve on this part of our play.

Hopefully we also come up with a short 50 strategy as that looked to be lacking yesterday, Ryan had one on his wrong side and was looking to go short but nobody showed for him, we managed to fluke a point from it anyhow.

Donegal do look a powerful unit, mchugh and mogan 2 fabulous wing backs who can score, something mayo lacking badly..Langan powerful midfielder and add gallen mcbrearty Murphy o baoil etc..mcguinness will have them ready you'd think. I think mayo are 6th or 7th down the line, just don't have the scorers and very concerning defence, I cant imagine sligo running through Boyle, keegan, Higgins and Barrett in their pomp. I'd also think Tyrone donegal kerry galway final four if it works out that way.

I think the game yesterday was a decent test. Both teams will benefit from it, Mayo has ‘plenty’ to work on, Sligo will be encouraged by the performance. Mayo need to watch that malaise that seems to set in if they have a lead with a few minutes to go - back to closing out games. Also watch the kicks outs! Some nice moves yesterday however - goal chances, kicking long balls in.

Mayo "just don't have the scorers"? Mark O'Shea on GAA + yesterday was very impressed by the number of different players who scored for Mayo.
On another note, last week the only Mayo man, indeed the only Connacht man, on the GAA team of the week was Jack Coyne. He didn't get a look in in the poll for man of the match on this site.

Thats all well and good Grainne Uaile, but the fact of the matter is Rod still gets half our scores..in big games it's been very evident..a few different scorers v sligo isnt enough to suggest otherwise. Time will tell.

Like is carney a midfielder now or will he be kept there alongside matty Ruane? Flynn Doc, lots of these guys are similar..Mchale at 11 neary..it's still unsettled ..my point is to excuse the pun is we dont have consistency in scoring bar Rod..how many people will tell you if Rod gets injured mayo are in big trouble?

I have Jack Coyne my no.3. He's a tidy enough performer,in the mould of Brendan Harrison, just gets on with it. No mad charges up the field. Probably more of a half back too.
I'd like to see him get more blocks in, just be tighter when attacker is about to pull the trigger.
I've still a soft spot for EO'D 's man marking in the corner though.

Donnacha mchugh is not commanding enough for the full back position. He needs out of there and replaced by mcbrien at full back .that would tighten things up at the back .that was too big a score to concede to sligo yesterday. We wont win anything without getting our defence right.

For anyone stating that we are good enough to win an All-Ireland, given there's no stand out team, I would pose this question - how many of ours would make the Galway team? Probably Ryan. The Dublin team? Probably Ryan and Aidan. The Kerry team? Probably Ryan and Aidan.
That's the harsh reality. We can have as much fairytale stuff as we want. I think we'll be good enough in a few years but we're miles off it right now. Tony McEntee in when these boys go, with lads coming through from 20s. That's where we need to be.

@Tommy+Joe - Just two questions back to you - When Tyrone and Armagh won their recent All Ireland's did they have the best squad's in the Country? How has the Donegal squad changed dramatically in the past few years? It takes more than great players, I would argue it's about the collective effort and getting more out of what you have got 2+2=5 etc.

This is it InExile, how many players could people name from the great Greek soccer team that won the Euros?

Agree with the last post. Is Mayo’s 2025 panel weaker than Armagh’s 24 panel. I’d say no. Simply that Armagh got 1-2% more battle hardened from losing all those tight games and got some momentum. Against Kerry once David Clifford started to cramp you’re thinking Armagh will win extra time. Against Galway Armagh played their A game and Galway didn’t. That’s the fine margins. I would say that the McGuinness factor gives Donegal a shot in the arm. If someone beats them in Ulster (most likely candidates are Tyrone and Armagh(losing O Neill is significant)) then they may have a slight dip in confidence much like Derry last year. Another question is are Mayo 25 better than 24? We’ve a few new players none of whom are battle hardened in championship. Armagh had Young POTY in 24 so if one of those lads comes good who knows. In my opinion management 25 approach to player game time has been ok. A few less played than other teams but with more minutes of experience. We don’t need 35, we need 25 we can rely on.
Midfield (winning kickouts) is the absolute no 1 priority for any team so a lot of tactics need to be dedicated to that. We see teams do well one week only to be poor the next in that dept. Mayo less consistent than most there so we’ve loads to work on.

Sometimes, I get the feeling that us Mayo fans let emotion overrule any context. This isn't a nearly team anymore, it is much below that. The issues we are seeing this year are not isolated to this year, they are the same issues that we have seen since this management came in.

Comparing this to James Horan's final year is like comparing apples to oranges. That was a team that were injury savaged and dealing with the heartbreak of the year previous. This is a team that no longer carries belief that they can beat a Division 1 team in championship football.

We need to be real with our expectations and base them upon what we have seen and what progress actually looks like under this management. In my opinion, our aspirations this year stretch to seeing our younger players find their feet. That said, I have no faith that any of them will be played post Leitrim.

Couple of points from yesterdays match which I enjoyed.

On the few occasions we kicked the ball into the forwards , we caused havoc. Scored 2 goals and created a couple more goal chances.

McBrien we all know is a baller with huge power. He needs to back himself and put his boot through the ball for a point or even a goal(Galway 2023). I recall 2 occasions where he could have popped one over but turned around or played it to a man in a worse position . Confidence thing?

Not a nice sight seeing Matty pulled in early in second half. He’s a confidence player and we need him at his very best to be anywhere near the better teams.

We are blessed now we have a month until a Connacht final in castlebar, no disrespect to leitrim they aren’t in a good place. With mcloughlin, Flynn and hopefully Tommy / paddy somewhat back including attending to several issues which appeared yesterday we should give the remainder of the Connacht championship a fierce rattle - a Connacht win is a must imo as there will be nothing easy in the group stages. All teams are improving , Monaghan , Meath , Louth and down are in there as well. There may not be “minnows” per se in each and every group so being top seeds will be vital.

I'm always amazed we can keep it kicked out to Kerry, Galway and Dublin having so few players would make their team.
It's nothing like only 1-2 players whatever number it is.

Sligo looked good in the warm up yesterday - I thought our body language was negative. I never felt we were comfortable against them, even when we were nine points up. I was right on the sideline and had a close up view of the action; I felt everything we got was with great effort expended. Even though counter-attacking seems to be redundant under the new rules they did it with brio. Then again they have McEntee; oh and Kevin McLoughlin. They had us well sussed a lot of the time, particularly on kicking out.

Still, I go most of the way with the other Kevin; fourth week in a row is hard going - and that's just the fans! 2:20 is not a bad score and there was a good spread of scorers. By the end of the match we had lost a lot of our shape, but the bonus was the game time given to newbies. Of those, I must say I liked the cut of Dylan Thornton. Diarmuid too was a kind of newbie in that he needed all the game time he could get. And, what about that catch by Aido at the end! We'll have to start a video scrap book of these to enjoy over next Winter - come what may!

@Sean B - I agree we can let our emotions get the best of us but lets also consider the facts. We headed the league table this year, we made the league final against a much tipped Kerry team team this year, last year we were pipped in the Connacht final by the team could have won the all Ireland, we lost on penalties to Derry in a game we should have won. So I don't buy the argument that we are far off or much inferior to previous Mayo teams and in my opinion that excuse is a cop out. Put another way if the Mayo management job came up for grabs now I think half the country would want the position. All this team needs is confidence and self belief and this year us fans haven't contributed much in that regard.

@InEile totally agree . We are not that far off. Sligo have improved alot .

I think tiredness did play a part yesterday 5 weeks in a row . They have much needed break now .

Great to hear Paddy was there hopefully he can mald an appearance in the Sligo game and Tommy to .

Obviously meant Leitrim game. Well done again to Aido definetly gotten fitter to with age.

A couple of positives from yesterday.Aido in the form of his life and almost as importantly made no discernible errors. He is settling into this role now and seems to understand it perfectly. Dylan Thornton was a good addition. Along with Davitt Neary and Conor Reid etc gives us hope. What also gave me hope was that management were willing to try new personnel in championship who had little experience in the league.They realize that they have to take more risks ie more and calculated risks. It almost backfired and I’ve seen and highlighted errors before. But when Donncha McHugh went off and there was ten minutes left ,that should’ve prompted a rearrangement with McBrien back to Full Back.
They were in such a hurry to get new players on that they almost threw the game by not covering for Donncha. Nevertheless they got away with it and let’s hope they learned. I have hope that Bob Touhy,Tommy Conroy,Paddy Durcan,Fully fit Diarmud,And Eoghan McL and Jordan Flynn will give this team a very different complexion come Connacht Final.
I’ve a feeling(may be just bs)that management may be boxing cleverish and are going to have this team peaking at the right time.I applaud the risk taking and not showing your hand too soon.This is the last hurrah for this management team in all probability. Be brave.Be Clever.Be composed.

Any reports on club players in the first round of the league at the weekend

Don't be worrying about Donegal. If they can win 10 games over 112 days (4 in Ulster, 3 in Group and 3 in All-Ireland series) they deserve it but playing under the pressure, hype and demands of McGuinness every two weeks will see them burn out before the end. In my opinion best for them not to win Ulster.
Remember in 2024 they lost to Cork and were unable to beat a poor underperforming Galway in AISF.
2012 when McGuinness won All-Ireland the championship ran May to September; 126 days. They had 7 games only two were competitive in Ulster (Cavan & Tyrone) they then got every break McFadden lucky goal v Kerry, O'Neill hit crossbar for Cork ... I could go on.
2013 burnt out, lost to Moaghan and Mayo.
2014 made final with just 6 games in total , one was Antrim did catch Dublin but had an abysmal performance in the final.
2011 enough said.
As for Mayo sort midfield and kickouts, stay in the competition, keep winning and the breaks will come.

Exiled in Donegal..that's not a great synopsis why Donegal won't be there or thereabouts. They may not win it but it'll take a fair effort to beat them,after being stung last year...mcguinnes will be sore after that. Most teams who do win get lucky at times..they got every break? Hitting crossbars..that's football..mayo got two own goals v dublin..does that mean dublin didn't deserve to win those all irelands?

Larry David - I've deleted the last bit of your comment. Please don't direct any more comments of that type at another contributor. I know you're only new here so I think it would be worth your while reading the house rules for posting comments on the blog, which you'll find here: https://www.mft.ie/house-rules-for-posting-comments/

The overall aim of the house rules is to keep the debate fair and reasonable and a key component of this is respectful interaction among contributors. What I deleted from your comment was a clear breach of this requirement so please let there be no repetition of this.

Apologies WJ. No intention to offend fellow posters

The problem with Ulster is there are so many quality sides fighting it out. Donegal made light work of Derry, albeit a Derry side in decline, and they'll have to be as effective, if not more so, against a newly promoted Monaghan.
McGuiness probably has had to do more revealing his hand than most managers, so we're still in the area of guesswork regarding so many others. It's almost not in a teams interests to win that province all things considered.
Canavan has Armagh as worthy contenders, somewhat dismissive of his own county's chances, but O'Rourke will improve them, no doubt. I'd say this being his first yr in charge, he'd be looking at winning Ulster outright. Donegal definitely are challengers for Sam. Galway probably have the goods to upset them but they're not consistent enough IMO. McGuiness, like Gavin back in the day, has depth that few others, if any, have.

Is Bob Touhy injured or what is the situation ? Correct me if I am wrong but he has not featured this year ?

Have any members of the panel been cut since the league ?

@Mayoman51: He saw some dying minutes in R1, R2 & R5 of the league. Only 25 in total though, down from his 317 last year.

You'd have thought he'd be one excelling with the rule tweaks. I'd not be surprised if injury niggles were playing a part there.

https://x.com/TsuDhoNim/status/1904235889456459906

Canavan dismissing Tyrone's chances is nothing new. Remember '21,....bigging up Mayo,Mattie, ''footballer of the year in waiting '' and all that,and we know how all that worked out.
Take plenty of no notice.

Maybe it’s because I saw it on repeat rather than live but I don’t get all the negativity. I didn’t think midfield was as bad as some made out, Thornton I thought had a great debut, a few loose point chances aside, certainly an option for kick outs.

Neary a real positive in the half forward line, running at pace attacking backs makes a huge difference to our attack. Similarly when we moved the ball at pace, either by kicking or with runners off the shoulder we looked dangerous. Hopefully, we can see more of that style against Leitrim…but won’t hold my breath.

Ah two hops, I know... just a bit of banter. If an Ulsterman said good morning to me, I'd look out the window to make sure it was.

In 2026 a 1st Mayo vs London Connacht championship fixture since 2016 will be held. All 4 London Airports flights too a from Knock Airport hopefully.