Thanks Willie Joe. I don't know how I'd survive without the blog, ha!
I don't contribute much these days, but I do enjoy your blogs, and those from the various other contributors too, esp from our friends from Galway, Dublin, Kerry etc al
I was very impressed with our lads overall yesterday, and I know one swallow doesn't make a summer and one game doesn't define our year, but after watching up close yesterday, I believe we have great options now, esp down the middle, for the year ahead.
Of course some of the usual suspects impressed, and Ryan was deservedly Motm, but I feel we now have the right guys in those central positions - 3, 6, 8, 9 & 11, with lots of inter-change options available and guys to come back too.
It's a nice complaint, but i wouldn't like to be picking our team come championship!
A couple of guys caught my eye yesterday, Frank Irwin showed he's well capable of engine room duty, and also, I feel Donnacha McHugh is the man for full back, an should be allowed the rest of the league at least, to develop more there
We've often been accused of not having enough punch up front, but aside from ROD, Darren McHale impressed as did Flynn and Towey and later Boland. With Tommy and others yet to return, I feel things are looking brighter in that forward department.
Thanks again Willie Joe,
Maigh Eo Abú!

@john Geraghty - to echo what you said.
There are times when I don't read the blog (usually after a painful loss) and there are times when I do. Commenting can often be to vent to other Mayo fans. There are times when I've very much disagreed with Willie Joe.
At all times, though, this has been an amazing resource. It is testament to your work WJ that this place exists and so many people log on to see it.
The match day reports go up after good and bad days. Thankfully today is a good one.
We're lucky in Mayo to have a passionate fan base. Yesterday at the game, that fan base seemed to reignite, after a long period of dampness.
Honestly felt like the first time pre the awful final of 21 that something stirred in a crowd at McHale Park. I realised yesterday that we need that badly. I think the team do too. Let's get back on the mad train. Let's try our best for a gang who undoubtedly try theirs.

Thanks again WJ and as John said,
Maigh Eo abú!

Positives:
Huge intensity desire and commitment to wear the jersey, all before the ball got into the players hands.
Donnacha mchugh getting experience at full back man marking the best player in the country, and not doing anything wrong. I suspect the McHugh / McBrien positions are fluid and we could see McBrien going back to 3 in certain matchups, but it's great both lads getting a lot of experience in both positions. We can now decide based on matchups who plays at full back or 6.

Jack carney is a rolls royce and his ball skills are probably the best in the squad. His hand pass to Paul Towey for his goal chance late on was absolutely out of this world. He's always shown glimpses of brilliance and I feel his fielding is getting even better.

Rod and AOS are some tag team and will only get better with more game time together. O'Shea is an absolute magnet and just sets the defence 5 yards deeper and two yards more narrow with his presence.

Sam Callinan looked fit and sharp for the first time yesterday.

Bob Touhy getting game time off the bench, would give him a start as he's more than good enough to play big minutes for us this year if we need him.

Davitt Neary, Diarmuid O'Connor, Tommy Conroy, Paddy Durcan all to come back. Davitt Neary minor hamstring injury but will be fine, probably another week off. Cian McHale finger operation so looks like his race is run for this season really. No word on Conor Loftus.

There could be a master plan. We've not seen the hidden hands of any team yet IMO. It's probably going to be one hell of a championship.
My four semi finalists are Donegal Armagh Galway and either, or, Dublin and Mayo should the cards fall that way. Kerry will probably win it after all that.

I meant that my analysis tends to be wrong. Last sentence should read either Kerry or Tyrone will probably win it after my bluster!

The supporters were up for it yesterday, especially coming down the home stretch. The pitch held up great yesterday, considering the time of year. Fair play to the MacHale Park groundsman.
I just can't develop any grá for the stand, it's so poorly designed (e.g. the poles being the main issue) and hugely contributing towards the county board paying off debt until the 2050's.
I don't think we have any anything near the quality of players we had between 2011-2021 but at least there was fight and a bit of mayhem in the lads yesterday.
Up Mayo

Donegal and Galway doing us no favours today

@km79
I kind of figured that might happen! Looks like we'll have to look after ourselves in the coming weeks.

If donegal lose both games before playing us they might need the points too
Not ideal
Derry definitely will

Yep those scores definitely not in our favour at the moment. I think we need minimum 1 more point

And our score difference is poor

Hard to see a way back for Donegal now.

Would be interesting to see at the end of the matches if this is the tightest spread of Div1 points, or how it ranks.

There is hope yet
2 draws would be ok too

Thinking outside the box of an alternative keeper, what about Diarmuid O Conor?.
He has the kick out as he used to take our 45s .he's brave , good under high ball, a major asset when keepers attack, passing accuracy, line breaker , hasn't the legs of old for outfield so just thinking outside the box whilst I have every faith in Reape, when Reapes fully confident and on top of his game.

Wides are killing Donegal, count is now 14/6. They could still win it though!

And they have! Good result for us.

Fair play to donegal
As for the other crowd…..

Derry gone now basically.tyrone win not brilliant but 1more point should see us safe.if we play like yesterday we should beat Derry

The Dans are never going to do us a good turn Km79!

Tyrone caught not with three up and Galway get the draw with last kick of the game

Never mind last minute 2point free for galway rescues a point for them.good results for mayo

Much better

Good bless Galway and their two-pointers! We have the head-to-head on Tyrone so that helps us. A point from either of our two final games should see us safe now.

Great set of results

They simply have to get rid of the two point free for technical infringements though. It’s way too severe a penalty

Thanks shane Walsh for that 2 pointer!

I listened on Galway Bay FM...some drama in Tuam..fair play to Shane Walsh.

Exciting finish all round, game in Derry will be a great test without it being must win. Donegal could do us another favour by beating Tyrone, mind you, we can all guess that there will be another twist or turn before this is finalised.

If Tyrone win their last 2 games and we loose ours are we not relegated.

Probably the results we wanted there n galway and derry, wins for tyrone and derry which looked v likely with 5 mins to go would have had us sweating again. As it is derry and tyrone both look doomed now

The sickening thing was seeing John Concannon vindicated in his antics, on the pitch in the refs ear all the time and the ref just done what he said at the end. He's some dose of the sideline

I have to say it's been a brilliant weekend of football, all 4 division 1 games were crackers

Jr Kerry not fully safe either.they have Armagh and Galway last 2 days.id expect them to win one of them though

Any update on the mayo ladies v Kerry game

...felt very strange celebrating a shane Walsh 2pointer there I have to say

It's going to be a very exciting championship, there really isn't a whole pile between any of those top 8 teams on a given day

There is James but it's not pretty.
Mayo 10 behind.

Thanks 2 hops

Mayo ladies are in transition

Good win for the hurlers though.
So 2 outa 3 ain't bad,I suppose.

2-8 to 0-4 FT James.

Because it's Mayo and, well, ya never know.....we could end up in a league final again a week out from a championship game?

Supermac, Concannon was dead right, Tyrone were down a man on a black card, and he came back on during the last play, and went straight in defence, leaving 2 Tyrone men up top..
The officials ( who had a terrible day) didn't spot it so no better man than Scan to nicely remind them of their duties..
All in all a great afternoons entertainment, great crowd in Tuam , and we were delighted to see our own club man Brian Mannion introduced by PJ to make his debut.
Tyrone probably deserved a win and will battle to the end of the league...

Thanks Willie joe

Very doubtful now joet , both Donegal and Galway have a 12 point reach max where as we have 9 point reach max . If Tyrone beat Donegal next day and we beat Derry , maybe but lots of other perms would come into play , like Armagh v Kerry and who are both playing in the last game etc etc

Does anybody else struggle with Stephen Coen's selection. He's tough, honest, a leader, fairly efficient, comes up with the occasional big play. Gets burned for pace, not his fault, it is what it is. His reading of the game is of the highest level and coupled with his courage, this makes him our best winner of breaking balls around the middle. I have always felt his only position on the team would be centre half but with McBrien, McHugh in the mix...So what about wing back, it gets him to use his undoubted strengths but also could expose his weakness. Paddy, Sam, McLaughlin, Hession in the mix for wing back too. Thoughts?

Final Whistle pod from today's LGFA game against Kerry is up now on Patreon. Mike's on it with Nóirín Moran and Mayo manager Liam McHale.

Predicted Team for Derry:

Reape
Coyne McHugh Hession
Callinan Coen McLaughlin
McBrien Carney
Ruane D McHale Flynn
Irwin O'Shea R O'Donoghue

This is a must not lose for me. Don't lose and Derry can't catch us.

Strongest foot forward for me again.
Carney and McBrien are the guys to go head to head with Rogers and Glass.

With McHugh's form, Mcbrien switched to 6, Irwin an afloating 8 yesterday along with the variety and interchange of play from Ruane, Carney, Flynn and AOS yesterday, the spine of this new look Mayo side is in great hands.

Not to mention the return of DOC who can easily play 6,8,11 given his versatility

The only thing I can get up on the podcast WJ is “ Mayo ladies draw with Kerry Feb 24”

My early thoughts for Derry
Vahey(needs a game incase Reape gets an injury throughout season)
EOD
McHugh
Hession
Callinan
Mcbrien
Morahan/mclaughlin
Carney
Ruane
Flynn
Irwin
Neary
O Shea
Rod
D mchale

With boland
Coen (played every game so far.needs a rest)
McLaughlin
Coyne
Touhy
Towey all ready if needs be.
And hopefully maybe 1or 2 of the injured players make an appearance on the bench

I'm not sure I understand you there, Citog - what's the problem you're encountering?

Looks like that alright Sean but stranger things etc etc.

Looks like we can chalk down the Donegal points if we need them, Doesn't look like they any intention on going hard next few weeks :)
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2025/03/02/jim-mcguinness-we-will-not-be-thinking-about-the-league-final-we-will-be-thinking-about-whats-best-for-us/

Just a note to say congratulations again on yesterday's game.

It's a funny thing as hard as it is to lose there's an auld infinity with another Atlantic county and I'll tip my hat.

I'll be honest I thought Kerry would win but in truth we are not firing at all and something us missing.
Possibly Jack has stayed on to long who knows.

We will have a say in the summer but will the cannister come home i have my doubts.

Its a long road yet WestKerry.
Remember the day we gave ye a beating in Killarney in the group stages of the championship?
It was at a lot later stage of the year, and it ended up meaning feck all.

I wouldn't be too down, West Kerry - you were missing a number of important players yesterday and, if you had Seán O'Shea on the pitch, that late two-point free would have sailed over the bar, which could well have decided the game in your favour.

In his post-match comments, Jack O'Connor referenced playing five weekends in a row and he's right that it's a very big ask of amateur players. Kerry certainly looked a bit leggy yesterday and this contributed to the outcome. I still can't see you being far away when the major issues are decided in the summer.

Imagine sponsoring a competition that everyone seems to want to avoid winning.At this stage it’s all a bit farcical

https://www.rte.ie/sport/football/2025/0302/1499782-joyce-3x3-rule-must-be-enforced-in-black-card-scenario/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0jMip1YTIxRBaci0F492cfWmS6uwrj8s6ltmOVkF_x90YMP0qs9tgmez4_aem_Rtog34eypvgxBnaKUYhHBA

Not a word out of him last week though

Km79..
" we got the benefit of it last week" as stated in the article..
He also said it on Galway Bay fm last week that the rule needed changing..

He's dead right to Tuamstar. Black card is meant to be a punishment/deterrent. Shouldn't have to adjust other rules to lessen a punishment for another infraction.

Great weekend of football Pity no one wants to get to league final. Ironically it’s only in Div 1 this happens. As long as team avoids relegation it has been a good league. Either scrap the league final proclaiming top team in league as champions. Sponsors and Gaa won’t want that. Alternatively push the championship out for at least another week. It’s a joke having to play first round of championship the week after league final as we have already experienced. The other divisions are different in that all teams want promotion and also want to avoid relegation so they will be going flat out to end of league. May yet be an issue for us. Donegal won’t burst themselves v Tyrone and I’d expect Armagh won’t be too pushed about beating Kerry which means we may need to get something v Derry to be sure of safety. While we are head to head better than Tyrone and Kerry our score difference is poor in the event of a number of teams finishing on same points.

Put the League winner straight into All Ireland Semi- Final. Make it mean something or adjust the timing of championship. Its hilarious watching teams just want to do enough to not be in a League Final and not get relegated.

If was CEO of Allianz Ireland I would be summoning the Croke Park bigwigs to my boardroom this morning. No coffee, no biscuits on offer but I would certainly be asking just how much bang for my buck am I getting here? Sponsoring a tournament which has been relegated to a pre season competition where rules are trialled, managers openly state they don't want to reach the final (let alone win it) and it's final is rammed in close to the 1st round of the Championship!
I always really enjoyed the league because there was an honesty about it, a freshness. You'd see a few new faces and you knew you'd be competitive because on any given day one team can take down another. travelling around the country to different venues you won't go to in Championship. However, with the condensed season, the removal of pre season competitions and managers being under more and more pressure to win come Championship time, the league, it's importance and it's place in the game has been demoted. There should be a minimum of two weeks between the league final and the 1st round of the Championship. There should also be an incentive to win the league, eg a holiday away for the winners, a bye in the 1st round of the Championship or whatever. Otherwise, we could very quickly lose one of only two National competitions that are up for grabs.

The league is brilliant and the format is brilliant. Just simply need to drop the finals and make it like a proper league. Finals have been retained for financial reasons but thats not sufficient reason and the way it is now is very unfair. For example tyrone or derry may now be relegated because donegal "throw" the game v Mayo.

Or else we just perform better on the day and beat them on merit. It has happened before .