Just for the sake of accuracy WJ the scores in Lahardane v Ardnaree were the other way round. I know the result is still the same.

Did anyone notice any player.standing out in any of the games, especially a player who wouldn't have been on the Mayo panel previously ?

Cian McHale introduced at half time in BMD v Kilmeena gave an exhibition on scoring..some left peg

Not a great weekend from a ‘Mayo’ perspective. Watched the three streamed games and standard was fairly average. Lots of hand and kick passes going astray and from fellas you’d expect better accuracy from. Not great overall.

Thanks for that correction, Nephin - I've changed that result in the piece now.

Sound job WJ. Do you know if Tommy Conroy lined out this weekend.

Good win by Ballina they were annoyed after their showing in Connacht last year for sure . Be interesting to see how they go this year .

Evan Regan is magic when he gets going.

Knockmore & Bellmulet look strong to .

Ballina be strong favourites. Midfield is so important now and they have Murray, Irwin, Thornton, Feeney etc. all big men who have played or are playing intercounty.
Breaffy have the ammo to match them there, but Breaffy are the club version of the county team until they actually win something.
Youngest O'Donoghue was good for Bellmullet, Ruttledge good again for Knockmore, Luke Jordan for Ballina.

Ballina and belmullet laying down serious markers for this years senior championship. In fairness to the Belmullet men they have a great spine to their team. Dark horses for this years championship and all of a sudden that group is completely in the mix. From looking at club twitter there was plenty of 2p scored over the course of the weekend which is good to see. For me the 2 stand out results of the intermediate were the two northern teams Cill Comhin and Kiltane, both with great wins. It was some weekend for north mayo teams, only Cross failing to get a win but even a draw in Garrymore nothing to be snuffed at. That group likely to go right to the last game too. All in ballina and Moy Davitts the two favourites for senior and intermediate this year.

I gather he did, Nephin.

Ryan O Donoghue had some game against Castlebar Mitchell's. Haven't seen a player influence a game like that in some time.

@Skorzy

Definetly agree he had some impact fair play to him a class act as always.

Thanks WJ. Good to hear he’s back. It’s been a while.

@observer2

Cian McHale was outstanding after coming on at half for Moy Davitts. Controlled the game, made everyone else look better and hit 6 points plus set up another 1-4 at least

Our review pod of all the weekend’s action is up now on Patreon.

Was at the Ardnaree game that was the correct score

What a weekend of football.

Friday. I was in aghamore.aghamore deserved more from the game but deserved wind you nothing!! Tactically they got it very right. They gave away a lot of kick outs but wete setup to defend deeper. Lavin was really good for them. It's a really tough group but I would not be surprised to see them get a result in belmullet and make it through to quarters. Breaffy were very disappointing. I know they were missing a few but surprised at the way Deane setup the team. The half forward line was non existent and I didn't see them trying to change it. Aidan stood up for them and grafted out a result.

Saturday to ballaghderren. As I write this I realise how important good management is. I think paddy Finnegan got so much right on Friday night with aghamore and it make me realise how little claremorris management learned in the last year. 12 months ago ballaghderren cut claremorris open in the last group game. They did the exact same this weekend. Claremorris didn't change how they defended and left themselves wide open to be beat. Mcbrien and kuba were at a different level. I thought Darragh beirne was going to do same for claremorris as he was really good in first 20 mins but ballaghderren got a handle on him and kept him quite for rest of the game. Hard to see past the two "B's" qualifying from this group. As for relegation sounds like Charlestown were better then I expected and there game Vs claremorris will be a real battle. Ronan Kenny might just know enough about Charlestown to get claremorris over the line

I went to ballinrobe Sunday morning but ended up talking to much to person beside me so can't really say much about this!! Good solid performance from home team

Lastly over to garrymore. This was a great battle. Conor loftus is different class. He drove his team on. None of the crossmolina young lads impressed but it was a massive step up for them but they will be a force a few years down the road. I thought Jordan Flynn was quite also. Crossmolina survived of frees. Maheady scored some good ones and missed one very vital one at the end. Garrymore midfield was very good. They ran all day long and turned over crossmolina numerous times. Mcgreal was on a load of ball but just gave it away a few times to much. Darren Quinn scored a great point at the end and also a great goal. Can't understand why garrymore goal was disallowed. I think refereeing was good over the weekend but in this game the referee didn't let it flow and there were some strange decisions both sides. As said the garrymore goal disallowed, garrymore two pointer clearly inside the arc, also I don't know how the last garrymore score came about.

All in all a very enjoyable weekend and looking forward to doing it all again in 2 weeks time

Final thoughts on the weekend.

The garrymore pitch is pristine. It looked amazing. I seen Jordan Flynn interview with mayo TV and he praised it as well. Must be brilliant to play on

Ballaghderren is not a great place to watch a game when the crowd is big. The stand was packed and there is standing place in front of dressing room but that's only space available. There was one line of people on a ditch from 45 metre line to end line at scoreboard end but that was so narrow I thought someone would fall off it. There were some supporters stepping inside the fence as the view from front right corner of the stand was restricted. It was very hard to see the scoreboard. To be fair to ballaghderren not much they can do about it. It's only once a year they have to deal with a crowd and the new astro turf which is very impressive takes up space they may have been able to use.

Good reporting there Bruiser.

I’d certainly agree Bruiser on the summary of Claremorris defensively.

As I said Sat evening, it was a repeat of 2024. When you’re shipping goals as they are doing, you are expecting a lot out of Darragh Beirne and Niall Hurley to balance the scores. I would imagine most opponents of Claremorris are thinking if we shut down those two lads, we will get enough chances ourselves to win the match.

The one match Claremorris won last season v Belmullet, Hurley and Beirne scored 0-9 from play I think it was which underlines that point

Thanks for the match reviews Bruiser.

Thats a very good young Crossmolina team on the way up.Maheady in full flow is a joy to watch he must be included in the next Mayo senior panel if he's good enough for Crossmolina he deserves a shot with Mayo

We have a lot of shoot on sight players like the Hurleys, Lydon, Maheady. They can look great at times, but give me better team players anyday of the week. The one Crossmolina player that will influence Mayo football going forward is Deane. Best number 11 we have produced in years and the role of a link player with vision is vital with the new rules. He has a way to go obviously, but I haven't seen anyone better for years at his age in that role. ROD obviously, but Mayo have been playing him inside. Being good enough for Crossmolina might not be the best benchmark always @Glorydays

One thing that I noticed this weekend was that the quality of the match streams appears to have taken a nosedive.

Scoreboard mistakes taking a few minutes to rectify (i.e. giving a point to Ballagh instead of Claremorris when it was 0-01 to 0-01 but the scoreboard said 0-02 to 0-00), timers not starting, scores graphics not showing, replays cutting off kickouts, commentators not telling the viewers when a sub was made and who went on/off. Loads of little things that add up and snowball. We are only getting 1 game a day so you would imagine the approach this year was quality over quantity.

Its a service we pay for and when its ran right like last year, its excellent. Hopefully its just a case of rustiness on the first day back and its better for Round 2.

I hear ya @west is best but give me guys anyday that will shoot on sight rather than guys passing the parcel till they are eventually dispossed. Sometimes risk = reward

Shoot on site isnt much good if you have a team mate in a better position and didn't give it to him.
Mayo need a playmaker, a long range shooter, a goal scorer and two breaking ball winners who can kick pass.

Throwing on 4 no "shoot on site" merchants will send us back even further. 1-23 (1-5-13) is the magic number to win an all Ireland, up from the 1-18 Dublin used to score.

To score that, you need 6 points from the middle 8, 1-12 from your inside forwards and 4 points off the bench.
Not going to happen by shooting on site unless its Clifford and he is on fire.
How many times have Galway failed by giving Shane Walsh licence to shoot and he off trying to kick points from the sideline with his bad foot.

No matter who we pick in the forwards it won't be a better forward line than Kerry. We will have to win by winning more ball and being more efficient with it. Same as anyone who has ever beaten Kerry or Dublin.