Being surrounded by Dublin fans -at home and at work - I can tell you, they're not expecting anything from Castlebar, nor indeed from the entire season. The bar appears to be set at regaining Leinster for this year.
Just hope the fans can temper their expectations a bit and let this young Mayo team evolve before scrutinising them to death. Andy's enthusiasm in his pre match interview was very calming. Lots of that calmness please for the foreseeable.

You can watch the entire Connacht u17 development league online with full commentary for every game, alongside hundreds and hundreds of club games on clubber but you can’t watch every game in division 1 of the senior intercounty league. The second most important competition in the sport.

Even the league of Ireland stream every game in both its divisions.

What height is Galway’s fionn mcdonagh .Aidan o Shea looked small beside him on throw in .A few high balls kicked in to aido in second half didn’t stick but worth persevering with the odd high one in to keep opposition guessing.very nervy finish to the game but overall much more positive approach and those two points could be very valuable

We had a Fionn Macdonagh, once, didn't we. That guy is fantastic, tall, talented and a tough man to dispossess....and chance we'd find one in mayo...
Well done lads. Good start yesterday.

@1985: Officially mentioned (Maurice Brosnan & some Galway club programmes) 6'6", but he's so young he could still be growing yet.

Fionn McDonagh is 6 foot 5 I think I heard one of the commentators say yesterday. Saw him against Brigid’s in the Connacht club final and he gave them problems that day but they didn’t have enough back up around him. More than just a fetcher in fairness. Seems well able to take a score when the opportunity arises.

Mulhern to me is the superstar of that Galway team.
Tuesday, January 27.
TSU can you give us update on mayo players involved

Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup Quarter-Finals

DCU v UCC, DCU Sportsgrounds, 7.30pm

Wednesday, January 28

Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup Quarter-Finals

UL v Maynooth, UL Grounds, 6.30pm

UCD v UoG, Belfield, 7.30pm

TUD v Queen's, Grangegorman, 7.30pm

Darragh Beirne was impressive, it’s hard to mark fella like that. He’s got a few different strings to his bow. Cian McHale also looked decent when he came on.
Worth remembering that it’s the 2020 u17 team that was beaten by Sligo in fairly underwhelming fashion I think that are now beginning to come through, a full 6 years later. They are all 23 this year. It’s funny that we could well have 4 decent senior intercounty players from a minor team most mayo GAA folk would have written off as pretty weak at the time.
Callinan, Tuohy, Cian McHale and Fenton Kelly were all on that team from memory. It takes several years to bring these lads though and it’s probably only from age 23 onwards that most players can be trusted in the heat of battle in summer in championship.
Morahan and Dawson are also following that trend a year later I think (from another “weak” minor side that were well beaten by Roscommon).
Most will remember the 2022 minors were heralded as star studded and reached the all Ireland final by contrast. I think we will get a couple of them coming through at least in the next year or two. McMonagle, Keaveney and Hurley looking most likely from that batch at this stage. In the long run however there might not be any more senior players from that side than the much less touted team from 2020.

Great game for the neutral yesterday.
Result doesn't really bother me, when I saw Matthew Tierney and Cian D'Arcy pulled before throw in I knew we would struggle around the middle.
Delighted with the 3 new forwards and especially for our own Shay Mc Glinchey coming on in the second half.

Mayo looked excellent at times but probably no more than ourselves need to tighten up at the back.
We missed at least 5 great goal scoring chances.
Tough game away to Armagh next for Galway, but honestly even if relegation loomed it wouldn't worry, its all about championship and finding new lads

Great to be in Salthill yesterday, and even better to get the win - I don't care what kind of team Galway put out.

I love going to Galway, and making the journey on foot from the station via the coast road to Salthill. Conditions were perfect really!, and the pitch looked in great nick. The man on the mike... I'll say nothing.

We played some great football yesterday, and were about eight points a better team. Eleven points is a dangerous lead these days, and at 44 minutes, Galway had lots of time to peg it back. The funny thing was that it wasn't two pointers or a goal that sparked their revival, just a few single pointers, and lots of possession, helped by our lads sleeping at the wheel; the changes we made didn't help us in the possession game. The important thing is that we saw it out.

We went through two bad spells, came back with a goal, and then a late point. The late misses though, were bad, and could have been critical: Fergal Boland had a bad wide, and James Carr's short ball in to the keeper's hand was just what Galway wanted in that kind of game. These are the kind of scores that could and should have buried the opposition, and the misses put extra pressure on the team further out the field.

Galway's game was desperation stuff in the last quarter, but I had visions of Ballina's takedown of Westport in the county final.

Some great individual performances there; I have to praise Sam Callinan whom I had been earmarking for lesser things. Bob Tuohy was terrific, those clever knockdowns, always to a colleague showed that work has been done on the training ground. And Darragh Beirne exuded class, he looked like he had been playing forever.

I know its only January and we took a whipping from Galway for the corresponding fixture last year, but there certainly was a freshness to the Mayo team yesterday. Notably, the willingness to take ona shot, and not to recycle, recycle, recycle. Hopefully a sign of things to come

@Ontheditch: Anything in particular you were hoping for?

DCU - Darragh Joyce & Finbar McLaughlin

Darragh has been starting consistently this year, normally a rock for them at midfield with Dublin's Ethan Dunne, but the R3 game saw Finbar return for them and we had the two Mayo lads lining out at wing-back (5 & 7). Finbar's pace was a real game changer for DCU last year, he was their x-factor, so hopefully he can get back to full fitness and show that kind of form.

They depend a huge amount on O'Dell upfront and his form this year has been "mercurial", at best. If he can find the shooting boots they've a chance but I'd have others ahead of them.

(Their game the free streamed one this week on Wednesday evening - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqXuptIJqF4 - with ULGAATV offering us PPV access to their game too - https://ulgaa.tv/upcoming-games)

UL - Cathal Corless, Cathal Keaveney, Colm McHale, Conal Dawson, Cian McHale, Diarmuid Coggins, Dylan O’Brien, Eoin McGreal, Frank Irwin, Jack Melvin, Hugh O’Loughlin & Sean Morahan

McGreal started all league (key player) but has missed their two games to qualify for the QFs with a niggle and you'd fear he might miss the QF and maybe a semi after jarring the knee yesterday, Melvin a key player (looks much better to me when used around the middle rather than inside, but works his socks off in either. MOTM for me in the last game), O'Loughlin a rock at either midfield or wing-back for them when available (like McGreal was key all league in their win but has missed the Championship [and Mayo minutes] so far), Dawson a key player (scored some outrageous long rangers for them - one in particular as good a score as I've seen this year on the wrong side for a leftie), Irwin their target man inside at 14 and a constant scoring threat, with McHale normally the key man in attack with the touch of class for them.

Keaveney has been used this year as an impact sub brining that running & kicking power as space opens up. Came close to winning a couple of MOTM awards even with the late entrances. Coreless another coming in frequently off the bench, fingers crossed he's pushing back for his top form.

Caveat that we'd all have a bit of a UL bias given all the Mayo lads involved, but on paper they'd probably have the strongest panel for me. When lads like Diarmuid Coggins and Colm McHale aren't starting or even frenquently making it into the 20 used it shows how stacked they are.

UCD - Darragh Reilly, Diarmuid Duffy, Niall Hurley & Sam Callinan

Darragh, Niall and Sam all key players all year for UCD. Diarmuid pushed through to get a start for them in the last game (named at corner back, would have been nice to see where he played). Niall in particular has been shooting the lights out for them.

Very solid team, but the injuries to Barry McNulty (Leitrim) and Theo Clancy (Dublin) will have ripped a huge spine from midfield/half forward from them to drop them just behind UL for me. Still every chance of going all the way if the lads click on the night.

UoG - Conor Meaney, Dara Hurley, Tom O’Flaherty, & John MacMonagle
Tom has been a key figure for them all year, playing a playmaker role for them at 11. JMacM was a key starter for them last year, but has seemed to have a niggle keeping him out of action earlier in the year and just recently seeing time for UoG (& Mayo) so fingers crossed he gets a clean run from here.

4 home sides will be favourites for those 4 games, but I don't think any of us gave Queens much chance against UU (and even less when it was announced they'd lost two starters and less than 0 when they looked out of it at half-time in Jordanstown) so little more than a toss of a coin in a few of those games.

TsuDhoNim

Your breath of knowledge is astounding.

Fair play to you for info you provide the Mayo supporters its a credit too you.

Great rundown TsuDhoNim. That will make the games all the more interesting now. Im hoping Finbarr is back playing. Very talented if he can remain injury free
I expect DCU game on Tuesday and UL game on Wednesday will be the live streaming games from higheredgaa
Thanks again.
@westkerry was there controversy around last score for Kerry yesterday?

Great to start with 2 points. Plenty on Andy's "to do list".

Great to see strong performances from Sam and Bob. Fair play to them both. Players who might of been on the fringes of most peoples first 15. Only one way to play yourself in to the team. Make sure you can't be left out.

Ryan at 11 - A win win for us. Added creativity with more ball in hand and i'm sure he'll get the same number of scores from play at CF.

Defence - A tough day at the office but McHugh and Coyne will stiffen us.

Great to see us finally playing new rules football and moving the ball quicker. Promising that the likes of Darragh Beirne and Cian Mchale look at home at this level. That point in the first half from Beirne was lovely. Gave Dylan Mchugh the slip and knocked it over.

I see it's Maynooth game on wed that is live stream. Maybe UL cover the game?
Daire Beirne looked like an old hand. Not afraid to go looking for the ball. Himself and ROD could be a very good partnership.

Ontheditch

Yes there was some fairly controversial calls and I can understand the Rossies feeling aggrieved.

4 calls that were wrong/borderline

- Young Kennedys goal looked a square ball
- Roscommon got a 50 metre penalty which was never a penalty, Which resulted in a 2 point lead with a few minutes left.
- Last free to Kerry could probably should have gone to Roscommon.
- The last score from Kennedy just before the hooter was the correct call but the rule itself is a disaster as the TV Clock, Ref watch and stadium clock are clearly not synced.

Overall a very enjoyable game that Roscommon deserved something out of however they had a very easy attempt at 68 minutes which would have won it and they missed.

Them the breaks.

@Ontheditch: Yeah, a shame the DCU/UCC game seems to have been moved to Wednesday. Haven't seen an official announcement of it, but both the YouTube stream for it and DCU's own breakdown of their games this week back up the Wednesday evening throw-in now so I'm guessing either/both of the sides requested it (both would have had lads in action on Sunday).

A shame to have the overlap on the two streams, but great to have the option of watching both with UL showing that Maynooth game alright. A lot of talented up and comers for Kildare and Meath on that Maynooth side, so should be a real tough challenge for UL.

Thanks again TsuDhoNim. Understandable they would want it switched to wed.

The new rules are a great job, it's like watching a different sport. But there is still one area where they could tidy up things...... the 3 man breach!
It's very unclear during the game why/who/where the breach occurs, the signaling of it from the ref, and the punishment for it. Twice yesterday in Salthill Conor Lane called it and on the first occasion it led to confusion, and on the second occasion it led to a melee between both sets of players.
The first occasion the ref ran forward, too far according to his lineman, and as Hennelly came jogging up the field the ref moved the ball back out the field again, pushing Hennelly further back the field. The second occasion there seemed to be a lot of confusion between both linesmen AND the fourth official. The ref went from giving Galway a free, to then changing his mind to a Hop-Ball, to then giving Mayo the free instead. All the while no one had a clue what was going on. Both sets of management were harassing the 4th official, both sets of players were arguing and this led to a mini scrap. This needs tiding up.
I spoke to a ref this morning and asked "who calls the breach infringement" and his answer was not very convincing. It seems it's sometimes the linesman, other times the 4th official, and it's left up to the ref prior to the start of the game as to what way he wants it called! That's not good enough really and there needs to be a clear line of communication and signaling from the ref, so no one is in doubt.
The ref has enough on his plate, as does the 4th official. The simplest thing should be to make it the linesmen's responsibility. If he/she sees the infringement then they raise their flag and notify the ref. Raising the flag lets all the supporters know too.

There was no confusion yesterday about who was calling breaches. Joyce appointed himself to that role, as he does every time he’s on the line.

Yes Willie Joe, he seems to be the extra 'official' at every game

@Pebblesmeller: The signal for a breach should be clear, a horizonatal waving motion of the hand from side to side around hip level.

The first one you mention there wasn't a breach (where the penalty would only ever be a free on the 20m, a free on the edge of the arc or a free from the half-way line) but a 50m penalty for Galway delaying a Mayo free (can't remember if they didn't hand the ball back or if they attempted to block the kick, but seemed a correct call on the 50m penalty from memory) where the Ref lost the run of himself bringing it forward about 70m and then correcting it to the line umpire's mark around 50-55m up. So a mistake being corrected there.

The second one seems to have been awarded by the line umpire as a Mayo 3-up breach, but then corrected by the 4th official and the other line umpire to not have been a breach so instead the play restarts with the team in possession (us) having an indirect free. The confusion and delay contributing to it then boiling over as it did.

The rules are pretty clear on who's meant to be responsible for monitoring the breaches, in theory, for an inter-county game with the correction number of officials. The 4th official.

The line umpires can (and should, but not all refs welcome it so ends up more hit and miss in practice - at club level it'll often be the case there isn't a 4th official and a single line umpire will be given the task, but the other asked/told not to intervene [sadly, sometimes to horrid results - two games in particular from last year stand out for that issue where the 2nd line umpire was as frustrated as fans and management at the game]) step in and inform the ref if they believe a breach of Match Regulations has occurred.

Between breakdowns in equipment (e.g. a Sigerson game last week under a top national ref where umpires didn't even have flags to use for scores) to breakdowns in implementation of the rules, things can and will go wrong. Hard to know where you'd draw the line between the rule being over complicated and the execution being flawed on some of these mentioned.

Something like the rule on sidelines not barking at officials is 100% spot on in my mind, but when you see a game like Sunday you question why it isn't being enforced properly to make life easier for officials and why have a rule if it's not going to be enforced. It only starts to raise questions on trust, respect and ability to enforce other issues (4 steps, hand-passes being thrown, etc) when things start to get blatantly ignored like that.

Good summary there TSU and Pebbles.

I have been critical of the penalty for handing or not handing the ball back - way too severe. However, in the case of Galway, and the way they play and the way they are coached, that rule seems perfect.

A little off point here , as I have problem with color and found it hard yesterday to see who has ball etc
Can't for the life of me why gaa can't ask each county/club/ school teams to have a white set of jerseys. Was at a collage game a few weeks ago Rice v Jarlaths.both blue jerseys only that rice had dark shorts it was impossible to watch/ ref /play .
A simple solution. If the gaa is all for inclusion there's a start ..

Good point, raised many times without movement from GAA and the Galway goalkeeper was almost identical to rest of team

Only saw the game on TV, was our FB line poor performance down to themselves or lack of cover from half back line?

Under pressure from the performance of the line in front.
Half back line went forward at every opportunity without a care in the world. Have to be more responsible in terms of defensive duties. An experienced chb would keep his wing backs in check.
Our lead dwindled from 11 to 3. We also went through a lean period of winning ball in midfield.
Lots to work on for Andy an co.

@JR

Think we were badly missing Jack Coyne & Donnacha McHugh once they come back it will be much stronger .

Anyone got any idea of where to get a clip or full game of yesterdays match in the UK?
Thanks

Players not available yesterday are irrelevant to the performance of players that were there yesterday as coyne and mchugh may well be absent for more games at at any stage.having said that finnerty is a handful for any defender at the moment and fionn Mcdonagh’s height is a different kind of headache for defenders .To me enda Hession is more suited to the half back line .Donnacha Mchugh’s strength would seem to be more of a specialist man marker and not particularly a natural full back .it’s obvious why management want to use mcbrien further forward but to me he is still our best option at full back

Half back line we're that bit too far away from Galway, they should have got in closer/tighter, gave them far to much space for them to breach & attack or shoot, otherwise they played well..

Half back line were gone forward every chance they got. They have to learn they honour their responsibilities to the defence too or we'll have harum skarum every week. We got our two points, now learn the lesson of why 11points up became a fortunate 3 points up. Dubs will be looking for a win next weekend, they may be more clinical than Galway

I feel sorry for the Rossies. The clock stopped at 69.58. It resumed the moment the free was taken. The ball was in flight for more than 2 seconds so it's hard to understand why the buzzer didn't sound before the ball was sent over the bar,. Surely the buzzer is automatically operated and if not, it should be!

The shackles are off and Andy has a very clear attacking intent. Boyler may well have Horanball in mind and will remember better than anyone the success of his attacking half backs coming off the shoulder in the final third. Vaughan Keegan and Boyler himself etc. The likes of Durcan , Loftus, Callinan, Hession will all be primed to do the same but it's a balancing act of timing and defensive reshape

I heard or read somewhere that there were a few seconds difference between stadium clock and t.v.clock which only added to the confusion but ya tough on the Rossies, could make all the difference in the final tot-up.

Game is on TG4 player

Michael,

The clock on TG4 is not synced with the stadium clock or refs watch.

The ref signaled 5 seconds left.

The rule is daft and shouldn't have been changed.

Thanks West kerry. Now why isn't the Tv clock in sync with the Stadium clock? I still feel sorry for the Rossies

Willie Joe: Can you tell me was that the first time a Belmullet man captain the Mayo team?
Maybe Willie Joe Padden did but I wouldn't know as it was well before my time.

Michael,

Because unlike sports like Rugby we do not have the infrastructure in many grounds to do so.

In theory the rule sounds fine but without ghe proper tools its going to fail.

Did Galways purple.patch coincide with Jordan Flynn's leaving the field or was it a combination of things? Just thought we lost our steel in the middle with his departure

Whatever about the shamozzle at the time of the so called breach, it was refreshing to see Boyler stand up to all the shite from Galway's 16th ( & 17th!) man along the sideline, because if it was last year, the result would have been the 20m free to Galway, with our gormless b'ys shruggin' the shoulders along the line.

We are not going to win many matches by conceding 2-18 in the matches and Galway missed at least three more goal chances. Our half back line was too attack minded and left the full back line exposed. Daire Beirne had a great debut andtook his goal well. Onwards to mchale park and the dubs.

I’m not worried about the defence after just one game, especially with one of the best defensive coaches in the country, Paddy Tally, in charge. Securing him was a huge coup for Andy, and he’ll work out the right balance on both sides of the ball. I’d rather focus on tightening up our defence than stressing about where the scores will come from. We just need to find the right balance, and it’s still very early days.

@TsuDhoNim,
Thanks for clearing that up.
I am all for these new rule changes and indeed believe that rules should be looked at in every "off season" to see where things can be improved, what's working, what's not working, etc. etc. They do that every off season in the NFL and it has greatly improved the game.
As for the Galway sideline, it's beyond acceptable now. I was behind Joyce and Concannon two years ago in the Connaught Final and their behaviour was disgraceful. There is one thing being passionate, loud and even aggressive on the sideline, but their behaviour that day bordered on intimidation. It was clear for all to see that day that they had the 4th official and that sideline linesman on tender hooks all game. It worked for them too, as it eventually wore down Gough and he incorrectly called those last two frees which won the game for Galway.
The ref I spoke to about the breaches is on the National Panel and has done the line for all the big games. His stories are very interesting! He says Joyce is actually a lovely fella before and after the game but is totally unhinged during the game :)
Maybe we need a bit more of that?

Good to hear some of our Sigerson boys should get a run out in Croke Park to strut their stuff.
First time for some I'd imagine,a good extra incentive.

I don't think the answer is for us to ape Joyce and Concannon on the sideline. It comes back to the officiating, which was so poor on Sunday. If the linesman and/or fourth official are being intimidated on the sideline then they need to inform the ref of this, which the FRC rules entitle them to do. The ref can issue cards to those on the sideline and he also has the specific power to award the opposing team a 13-metre free every time this happens. If Joyce's antics were to start costing his team on the scoreboard he'd pipe down quickly enough but so far no ref has had the balls to do this.

Bang on Willie Joe. The new rules allow refs to penalise sidelines.

Managers roaring abuse at officials makes my blood boil. Would love to see the look on PJ'S face if refs rightly starting penalising that behaviour. I don't care who you support, I hate that behaviour. And I was not McStays biggest fan, but he never stooped to that shite.

Just a bit of context on people praising the two pointers here.

There was loads of positives from the last day but the two pointers was not one of them for me.

Four of the five were from placed balls and Jack Carney only shot on the buzzer because he had to. There still is a reluctance at times to pull the trigger and our forward play still isn’t accommodating getting loads of them shots off.

I only saw the game live and haven’t had a chance to watch it back - am I wrong? Did we shoot and miss for any two point efforts during the game ?

Predicted team for Dublin;

R. Hennelly;
J. MacMonagle, R. Brickenden, E. Hession;
S. Callinan, M Plunkett, F. Kelly;
B. Tuohy, D. McBrien;
J. Carney, R. O’Donoghue, J. Flynn;
D. Beirne, A. O’Shea, T. Conroy.

@2hops, sigerson will be at semi finals stage next week with UL and DCU likely to be involved but they could be on bench.
@FrostTHammer, Morahan did well last Sunday except last quarter when he hadn't the pace to close down Galway players soccer style goal. Plunkett roasted by the outstanding Mulhern, he's not a defender. Paddy Durcan needs footbal at half back.
Midfield and forwards look good but I wouldn't mind seeing that belmullet lad getting a run , maybe for a tiring Flynn. Andy an co know best.

I see Pat Spillane has tipped Mayo to win the league, the kiss of death? Then again probably best not to win the league in a year at home to the rossies

@Ontheditch; I'm not dropping Sean for his performance. I'm dropping him because I think UL might win their QF, which I think would mean 4 games in 10 days for him. Kept Sam cos he's had a few years to get used to the demands.

Agreed WJ, re sidelines needing to be managed by the 4th offical .
It was common practice during summer in club championship, to see the 21 m frees issued for mouthing on sideline and its a good rule if applied correctly .

FrostT , fair point re Morahan but be great to have him in team. Coyne, Loftus and Durcan would be more a kin to speed we need to Mark Dublin in Central positions and fear for Plunk and Brick against them , Hession probably has enough credit in bank to start again but can't be marking men who are 6 ft plus .