Easy to say when everything is going your way of course but the best thing about yesterday was to see the lads enjoying their football

I knew the young lad was a serious talent, but I honestly didn’t expect him to explode onto the senior intercounty stage like that and to do it playing competitive Division 1 football. The GAA social podcast said he was only on the field for 14 minutes (felt longer to me). That’s some impact to come away with 1-04 in that time.

The biggest positives from this league campaign for me have been our kickouts, Bob Tuohy’s influence, and the emergence of Beirne as a real scoring threat up front.

Here’s hoping we get a fine day next Sunday and a big crowd into McHale Park for the Armagh clash.

Got the result we needed and the score difference was a big plus. There was a decent Mayo crowd at it and got behind the lads well .
No disrespect to a proud footballing county like Monaghan but I felt they lost all belief early in the second half .
I thought Bob was excellent with his high fielding and when he bulks up over the coming seasons, he will only get better . Fergal Boland was outstanding and has brought a physicality and bite to his game .
While Kobe will grab all the headlines and have a dream cameo .
Our half back line , combined with Bobs high fielding was our platform for win .
Armagh had an opportunity to beat Donegal but their shooting was off .
They will be a serious test for us next week.
I’d expect at least 3 changes to the starting team for that game .

Great introduction for Kobe, but as mentioned, monaghan were tired and spent force atbthat stage, stilk to get his shots away as quickly as he did without been blocked was impressive, great performance for Mayo but Monaghan very poor at times, Armagh will be true measure of improvements

If the GAA League Tables (https://x.com/gaaleaguetables/status/2025650459462012975?s=46&t=ykVB3m4Gr-33Rm_rENBb4A) data on Twitter is accurate, and I’ve no doubt it is, then we’ve become the highest scoring team across all 4 divisions, and 3rd in terms of score difference across the same group.

Not bad going.

Yesterday was a good day, our second highest total score in Senior football that I can find after the 2015 Connacht final.

Kobe showed his talent and while Monaghan were a spent force you can only play what’s in front of you.

We should enjoy the result and enjoy the talent in front of us while we have it.
Football must be an awful joyless game for those that seek negativity the whole time.

7 goals conceded so far in League, not good enough.

We'll take the win, but make no mistakes here Monaghan were woeful

I have to admit, I was pulling my hair out why they didn't get Aiden to stay in the box and bang a few high balls into him in the first half , I wasn't convinced that our first half lead would be enough but thankfully the wind died down.
It was a must win and we got it . Will have to up the intensity against Armagh. Great test for us but supporting Mayo is always a roller coaster!!

2-11 is a lot to concede against a poor relegated team, who were a beaten docket. While we are really exciting to watch going forward, and we have made a conscious decision to go man on man in our defensive structure, we really do need to start keeping clean sheets. Hopefully, as McHugh and Durcan blow out the dirty diesel in their tanks, we will start to do that and integrating Loftus at 6 should help with our shape.
Loftus was outstanding yesterday. Monaghan were poor, he hadn't much defensive work to do, but he was outstanding with the ball and was the main instigator in all of our attacks. he was at the start of all our best moves.

Keeping it real is what's required. There's far too much hyperbole at times. Great result against a disjointed and dysfunctional Monaghan team (from what I'm told). First division status looks virtually certain with Monaghan and Dublin really struggling. Great stuff.

@Culmore & Pebbles in fairness at least one of the Monaghan goals was a lucky one, heading for a 2 pointer that got a flick on. The other one was also blocked first time around. I wouldn't be too hard on the defence.

Totally agree @InExile

Jack Coyne was a bit unfortunate with the McCarron goal as he’d dispossessed him but it bounced back for the finish.

The second goal was also a fairly opportunistic flick when ROD was somehow caught at full-back.

Coyne let McCarron get the wrong side of him far too easily, and with too much space in behind him. It was one simple pass that took Coyne out and McCarron was through on goal, our defense was scrambling then. Coyne got taken for 2 points in the first half in identical situations, getting caught the wrong side. Go look at Monaghans first point of the game.
As for the flick on goal, I would suggest that Hennelly is not too happy at conceding that one as it went right above his head. If I was his manager I would not be happy at all. In addition to these two goals, we fumbled and messed around under two other balls coming in, and just didn't look secure. In one instance Hennelly played us into trouble and it took us 3 or 4 phases of play to get out of our full back line because of it.
These are the small details that lose you championship games, but the league gives you chances to put them right. If we are not prepared to look at these faults and address them, then what are we at? Just cheer when we're winning? I expect Boyle and Tally will have these issues top of their "To Do" list tomorrow evening at training.

FDB, Pebbles and others, in the league tables that are referenced, our TA (goals and points against) is 78, just a little higher than Donegal's, but lower than all the other teams in the division. That's not bad going actually, and 2-11 is thirteen scores against - quite low as was Dublin's of 2-9 was it?

@Pebbles you are right if you don't critically assess, you cant improve - 'zero defects' and all that Just think yesterday we did a pretty good job, considering we went man to man in an open game and those Monaghan forward can be a pretty formidable force when they get going

Plenty of criticism here of the defence - I've given the stats in the previous post which shows we are holding up well, but really Monaghan were in this game for quite a while. We were under the kosh frequently in the first half, with a strong wind at our backs. Jack Coyne won't be including the first half (or the second) in his greatest hits. Monaghan won a lot of the breaking ball, and are very pacy; this is something our defence struggles with, as Donegal demonstrated last week. Dare I say it, we were a little lucky in that the worsening weather really turned into a monsoon/hurricane for the last eight minutes or so of the first half, and our two two-pointers (the second one a monster from Fergie) were killers.

For a period in the second half too, our defence was under pressure and Monaghan forced a lot of 45s. My distant view of this suggested that Sam and Donnacha were trojans during this phase. And, as they say, we kept the scoreboard ticking over. Bob Tuohy was outstanding; he brought back memories of Willie Joe Padden, and I can't pay a higher compliment than that. Darragh Beirne could have been in line for man-of-the-match on another day. Conor Loftus really adds vision with his defence splitting passes, and Jordan Flynn had a brilliant game.

We had to move from our sideline seats at midfield such was the monsoon, and I thought we would see very little from our new perch near the Monaghan goal. Boy were we wrong! Box seats for all the wizardry of the second half including of course, Kobe. What can I say? I was there!

I don’t think there’s much point worrying about 2-11 conceded , when they scored 2-30 themselves . If their aim is to put up high scores, they will be conceding at the back. It’s a bit old school Kevin Keegan , if you score three , we’ll score four & there’s nothing wrong with that. We’ll get our money’s worth anyway!

It's another Meath ref for us this weekend, David Coldrick this time.

@FDBinashui: Yeah, I'd be fairly confident in those numbers.

StatsAndSolos (https://x.com/StatsAndSolos) with an unbelievable new website to help filter and review data like that too. You can quickly segment between all divisions, some or just an individual one and then query down on total for, total against or down to 2s, 1s or 3s being scored too.

https://statsandsolos.ie/scoring/league

Hard not to be happy with a lot of those numbers, with still all sorts of things to be tweaked, iterated and improved yet. Far (very far) from the finished product, but it's starting to take on a pretty attractive shape in parts. Hard not to enjoy the journey, which will always have some bumps and hurdles along the way.

Am I also right in saying that Mayo are the the top two-point scorers in the league so far (well, alongside Wexford)?

That, to put that into context, we have scored more two-pointers so far than Galway, Roscommon, Donegal, or Armagh?

Not bad for a team with no forwards, I must say,

Thinking out loud What will happen when u20 championship rolls around and clashes with senior championship and will beirne and kobe step down to the u20s? Fair enough early stages when league still on but if it was up to me they would be with the senior team for championship. Any thoughts?

@ Anne Marie the majority of them 2 pointers were got yesterday against woeful opposition

@Anne-Marie: Yeah. Joint top with Clare & Wexford on 2s scored. With us clear as the top scorers across the 4 Divisions at the moment.

In the 'against' column probably a small link between us being the 2nd lowest 2s against per game with the higher press and in the bottom 3 for goals against for similar reasons (though obviously more nuance on how those goals end up being finished beyond the depth of the block or where the press starts).

The 3rd highest scoring difference (Derry 1st, Carlow 2nd) so far so not exactly an awful balance being struck there (caveat of Monaghan, Dublin and even Galway being wasteful - all should really have put up more than they managed with the ball they had), but obvious caveats with things like performing against a specific team having a rough run (be it a Monaghan down a key player like Beggan or an Offaly with what they're going through at the moment) can skew those kind of stats heavily week to week.

@No doubt: You'd make a case for that going either way for the likes of DB, Kobe or Eoin. I'd probably chat to the lads themselves and go with their wishes, but I'm sure Andy and Zippy will be able to work up a plan everyone is content with.

Particularly in attack any normal year we'd be over the moon having lads like Flynn, Deane, J Holmes, B Holmes, Carey, Lydon, Guilfoyle, Flanagan, Quinn, Treacy, Forry, E Walsh, C Walsh, Thornton or Neary so missing out on 2 (even 2 outrageously talented lads) wouldn't be a nail in a coffin or anything.
[No inside knowledge on the panel or anything there, names included I'm just assuming might be and others not included that could easily be part. Just threw down a few that came to mind as eligible]

I'd like to see Cian McHale get a few starts in before the league wraps up

That's the spirit T2S. Take care would anyone try to inject even a small bit of positivity into a grey Monday without having the legs cut from underneath them.

Five of our 14 two-pointers were got on our first outing against Galway who I don't think on any planet could be regarded as woeful opposition, as much as we might like that to be the case.

FDBinashui put it very well above: Football must be an awful joyless game for those that seek negativity the whole time.

If Darragh has to go back to the 20's,he has a ready-made replacement in Cian...very close to like for like.

In the pub last night and i must have heard kobe name about 50 times. In reality monaghan had given up early in the second half. Armagh will be a truer test and there will be a huge crowd in McHale park. It is great to be safe from relegation with 3 games to go. It is an interesting dilemma for the management whether to go for the league title or give game minutes to the fringe players.

Catcol,
You are correct in highlighting the stats which show our defense as performing (and for what it's worth I do think we are improving week on week) but, context is everything. Our 3 wins have come against 3 of the bottom 4 teams in the league, Monaghan are already relegated and Dublin will do well to avoid going down with them. The only real top tier side we have played to date, Donegal, beat us out the gate fairly comfortably above in Letterkenny. No shock in losing to Donegal but I think our next 3 games will give us a real test and we will have a much better reading on our defense after those games. Hopefully those stats look as healthy after all 7 games.

Personally, I have concerns about the corner back positions from a defensive point of view. Both Coyne and Hession are excellent coming out with the ball, but in one-on-ones (which the full back line must be able to play under the new rules) I feel we are vulnerable. I'm not being a Debbie Downer, but I feel if we are to assess the team then we must do both sides of the ledger, the good and the bad.

I love the brand we are playing and would sooner see us play like this and lose, than revert to the God awful stuff of last year. The football is pure, honest, Mayo football. Attack, go forward, go for it. High energy, high work rate. Feck the consequences. That's us. We are improving game on game but our biggest tests lie ahead of us, Armagh at home, Kerry in Tralee and the Connaught championship.

A comparison of the first 4 games of this league campaign compared to 2025.

2025
For: 2-60 (66 total)
Against: 2-70 (76 total)

2026
For: 6-80 (98 total)
Against: 7-57 (78 total)

More goals against but only 2 more points in total conceded. 32 more points scored than this time last year.

Work to do all over the pitch but we are doing ok and progressing nicely,

I was thinking along those same lines Anne-Marie but thankfully you beat me to it as you're far more eloquent!

I know it would drive you round the bend trying to make sense of "the where we are at right now " , but just for a second, we hammer Monaghan but they are terrible and relegation fodder .

The might all fearing roscommon best Monaghan by 2 goals at home and Galway by 1 point and they are the world s greatest .

Maybe we dont deserve to be happy when even things are going well , people are so quick to play the "ah they are Shitz anyhow "

Armagh will be a good test , i wouldn't expect too many changes but maybe Irwin or Carr at 14 and allow AOS a rest .
Howard and Thornton must be pushing hard for start at 10 but Carney proved his worth the last day .
Coyne could be rested and Morahan given a home start either way great to have options.

Check out the Mayo News Player ratings, well impressed with them this year, as they are very honest

I am not being negative but the hype over the 1-4 is ridiculous. Been around too long and seen too much of this in the past. The Monaghan backs were in the dressing room at that stage. And what were the celebrations about.? . keep your head downo and dont draw attention to yourself!
The Rossies are waiting in the bushes ro spoil the party again!

When did you last see a teenager score 1-04 on their intercounty championship debut? Respectfully, I don't think it's ever happened, I certainly haven't seen it. I agree people shouldn't get carried away and he won't have the sort of freedom he had there the last day ever again. But he is definitely a terrific talent with lot of potential and we should enjoy him while he's here because he will be gone soon.

Impressive dedication with those comments Kilkelly. The keyboard warriors couldn’t ask for better representation.

I say let’s enjoy what we have right now and let us worry about the future when we have to. Some people could win the Lotto on Saturday night and complain that they were unlikely to win it again on Wednesday. I took great joy in just seeing Kobe coming on. I thought we might never see it happen.

Did Michael Murphy not score 2 goals against us in the league in 2009?
Not sure if it was his debut.

It is how he took the1-4 that was impressive irrespective of the opposition. There was pressure on each score and he made them look easy enough ...

I thought it was wonderful to see a young fella play with a smile on his face and celebrate. It's only a sport at the end of the day and I understood the whole purpose of sport is enjoyment, especially at amateur level. So well done Kobe because as we all know there will be plenty of downers so enjoy the good days. I'm also getting a bit fed up with all the stats being quoted here. It's the malaise of the game now and players being substituted because the GPS is saying so. I remember Colm Boyle being taken off in an All Ireland final because of stats even though he was playing well. All round a good team performance and not a lot of lateral football so forget how the opposition played and enjoy the game and result.

We got our own Super Mac.
Well done, Mayo. Good to see belief and passion in your game.
Thank you 😊. Maigheo Abú

Theres merit in alot of discussions re Kobe but " he won't get same space argument " , well hes proven against the best defenders in County, be it Callinan, Eoin O Donoghue, keegan and Brickedeen, Eoin Mcgreal , that he gets space on best of the best and turns in performance time and again.

The lads a super talent and will be a great foil to fullforward line or indeed halfforward line and this is where I think Mayo can make hay by having ROD and Kobe interchanging position from inside to out .
If Carr or Irwin can hit form at fullforward , then we get dynamic of pace and aerial ability at FF , should be a great lively fullforward line .... throw in bench options of Mchale , conroy, AOS or cillian .
Going in right direction but we move further and faster up the ladder with talent like that , so embrace it , enjoy it, its a sport, dont bring nealgative vibes to it

2017 All Ireland minor final, Clifford scored 4 goals as Kerry went 4 in a row. Seeing Kobe run through for his goal yesterday reminded me of Clifford back then. The same build, the same long, lanky limbs, the speed gliding across the grass, the ball in total control and the sweetest, cleanest strike of a ball you'd wish to see.
I thought it smart by Jordan Flynn at full time yesterday, he literally grabbed Kobe and led him straight off the pitch down the tunnel. No messing around.

Everyone is talking about the two pointer and the goal and rightly so, but look at the last point. Faced with two big defenders in front of him and the quick turn on a sixpence swivel and made space for himself and over the bar.

I'm normally not the most positive of Mayo fans. The last five years have left me verging on bitter at times. However, this season has been a breath of fresh air.
Have we things to fix? Absolutely. We're not at the level of donegal or kerry yet but so what? We're coming from a bad place but by god, we're getting there with a bit of a smile on our faces.

Some of the criticism of players is a joke. There are times when this is warranted but we need a reality check here. Jack Coyne is back playing two games. People are complaining he got roasted? It'll stand to him. He's proven himself to be an excellent defender and he's just getting back to fitness. Jack mccarron won't do that to him in the summer, if their paths cross again.

I, for one, am absolutely delighted with how kobe celebrated his goal. Big smile on his face - that made me smile as much as the goal (and christ nows, that was a stunning hit). Lad enjoying his football and playing with wild abandon? Heaven forbid. If I had a tenth of the talent he has back when I played, I'd have been delighted with myself.

Last week, we saw a poor performance against Donegal. This week a very good performance against Monaghan. Yes, the standard of opposition was poor. Yes, we shouldn't ignore the score conceded completely. But....we posted 2-30 in shite weather and won by 19 points. Are you not entertained?!!

On a final note, hats off to Fergal Boland. The lad was treated very poorly over the last few years, given the odd few minutes here and there. He never gave anything but his all. The attitude and resilience he showed to keep coming back are a savage credit to him. Just keeps getting better.

Up Mayo!

It's poor Aido I feel sorry for....a goal strike from him that rolled back the years and he's being totally ignored. 😂

Lol, twas a great finish from Aido

Kobe was fantastic.
But have been so impressed with Darragh Beirne. He looks at home out there.

Bob Touhy continues to impress. Loftus seems to have kicked on. Sam is flying. Flynn was a collosus yesterday (in that form he is a serious operator).

We can rattle most teams on our day!
Team is quite similar to last year in personnel, but there is a marked difference in our attacking intent.

6 two pointers yesterday, 5 I think against Galway. Lads would have been dropped for even thinking about taking them on last year.
3 in the entirety of last year's championship, which was deplorable. In that run we faced the might of Leitrim, Sligo, Cavan, amomgst others. So the opposition argument above by T2S is nonsense. Boland's two bombs for example are applicable in any match. Very hard to cover a lad shooting from that far outside the 45!

I sense we won't be beaten this year for lack of intent anyways, which is a welcome change

Agree with all that's been said about Kobe. He was simply outrageous yesterday. Yes, game over, Monaghan bad, defenders asleep, yada yada, he was still outrageous.

All that said, are we jumping the gun somewhat on our Div 1 retention status? We could lose the next three matches, certainly the next two. Dublin, Galway, and Armagh have a fight on their hands, but will take points over the next few weeks. Six points looks tight to stay up. Of course we can get more points, but suggestions that we blood newbies wholesale for the next few games would worry me. Beat Armagh and yes, fire ahead with experiments.

Kobe was a pure joy to watch and he was clearly enjoying it. We dont see that type of talent very often in any sport. He may not repeat what he did yesterday very often but somehow I think he will. Lets enjoy it while he is around.

What changed from Donegal to monaghan games?

1. A footballer at CB - improved the kicking game no end
2. Younger midfield improved mobility
3. Mobile corner forward instead of a big man

All if the above allowed Mayo play a faster games with more control

In the pre 2024 game, 15 scores was the magic sonumber and if 2 of them were goals, you had a good chance of winning

The new rules, changes that to 20 scores
Mayo conceded 13 scores yesterday so talk of poor defence in that game is nonsense.

Doing the basics well involves thus sort of state line

35 attacks per game
30 shot attempts
20 scores
2 goals from 3 opportunities
3x 2 pointers
25 own kick outs - retain 15
25 opposition kick outs - steal 10
Turnover possession - claim 5 concede 5
Frees awarded 10

Beating the statline above is a win, falling below it is a loss.
This is the new norm

tirawleybaron, So you think getting caught the wrong side of the forward you are marking is not poor defending? And for that to happen three times. And for the opposition score 1-2 from those three instances! And you reckon that is still not poor defending?

A number of supporters are saying that Jordon Flynn and Kobe are stepbrothers. Is this true? Jordon was also very protective of him after the final whistle.