Aiden o Shea by a mile

Probably Matty Ruane although very quiet yday

Don't care how young they are, darragh Beirne, Niall Hurley, and Lydon are good enough already and ready to play for Mayo. Watching the forward play the last day was depressing.
Although why throw them into that nonsense setup where they will never get the ball kicked into them...

Willie Joe. Just a small bit of housekeeping , Wednesday's u20 against leitrim is a 6.15pm start, its down in the blogs fixtures section for 5.30pm

Aido

Over the course of the entire league campaign there can rarely be a more deserving 'Player of the League' than Matthew Ruane ..0.16 scored in total,, easily Mayo's highest scorer from play and all that from midfield.. 0.1 v Tyrone, (Mayo won by 0.1) 0.3 v Armagh, (Mayo drew,) 0.3 v Kerry (Mayo won by 0.2), 0.6 v Derry.. (Mayo won by 0.5) & 0.3 v Donegal, (Mayo won by 0.2) all from play , Without Matthew scores on those 5 different days in which Mayo knocked up 4 wins and 1 draw, Mayo would in fact have lost 4 of those 5 games and drawn one game, we would actually ended up on ONE point. Maybe there should be a vote for Mayo's second best Player of the league. . Can only be Matthew!

Would have said Mattie but he looked like a lost puppy yesterday. Completely anonymous. The guy’s form fluctuates so dramatically it’s very difficult to know which Matthew Ruane you’re going to get on any given day.

I still think he shades it. Just. But boy oh boy is he frustrating. He can go from looking like the best midfielder in the country to an average Joe club player in the space of 7 days. I don’t think this is going to change unfortunately.

Thanks, Paddyjoe - I've corrected that now. It's great to have the long, bright evenings back again!

Well the problem is by definition Matt ruane does not operate as a midfielder.he scores but is extremely poor in terms of winning possession which was certainly exploited yesterday

Leantimes. I went for Mattie and for the very reasons you mentioned.

Ya Matty was best in the league format.
Kept saying he's a halfforward if anything.
We need to get Flynn back to sharpness, poor lads killed out , he's a real midfielder alongside Carney be fine.
We need lads to win breaks and that s not Coen.
Mcbrien needs to up his game too on breaking ball but wouldn't read too much into yesterday, only frustration I have was it feeds the narrative "oh typical mayo can't shoot, go flat in a final " usual shite

Davitt Neary was our find of the league he wasn't long getting stuck in Sunday when he was brought on it's hard to pick a player of the league they all had some great games and some poor games. Enda Hession I think was the most consistent he gets my vote.

No way Mattie, cometh the hour cometh the man. Non entity yesterday call a spade a spade , like him a serious player when he's on his game but when the going gets tough the tough get going and he was gone missing yesterday.

Did the going not get tough in the last 5 games of the league, when we were scrambling for our lives to stay up. Give the lad a bit of credit. If he’s on his game next Sunday, who here will give a f..k about yesterday.

A vote for Mattie for reasons outlined - but how about Aido?

Went for Ryan. Not a great start but fantastic in a number of games and just ok yesterday. Hessian honest though hardly our top player and struggled yesterday. Neary a good find but hardly our player of the league as he missed lots of minutes and only got on in second half yesterday. Aido had a good league and good yesterday. Mattie did some excellent scoring and had a good league but does not win a huge amount of primary possession. Ask the question in another way. Which player would be our biggest loss if unavailable. I’d be of the opinion that Ryan is our most important player and was also our best player in the league.

Went for Ryan 42pts Incredible.

[Deleted].

Ryan is the one for me. We are nothing without him. Even on Sunday he is the only real threat up front. Aos did well too. Imagine if we kicked in high to him and irwin. Well imagine it looks like it will be

I went for Mattie over the whole league
. Donnacha McHugh would be my 2nd choice.
Really underrated and has done a great job marking some of the best forwards in the country over the league

I went for mattie also tho he didn't show in the final. The more I think about it the more I think mayo should have gone with a 2nd string team. Give all panel members a run and though they would probably got lambastet for it they would have sent a message to the fixture makers and if they got hammered so be it, a close game would have been great and if by a miracle they won imagine the narrative then and they would have made kerry uncomfortable with the fear of losing to mayo reserves plus the 1st team would be fresh for Sunday.

Ryan O D . Close between him &Aido but Ryan with 42 points and top scorer of the league to.

Well said @Nephin, no player (even the great David Clifford) is perfect in every game, Matthew like Ryan drove that team in terms of scoring ( ultimately what wins games) they both were well marshaled yesterday and did break ball some won, a lot not by Mayo unfortunately , he was involved in at least 3 last stitch defending Sunday including pressing I think Paul Gainey when his goal chance went narrowly wide, he won 2 clean kick outs, do people expect him to do everything?? admittedly he didn’t have his best game Sunday but tactically Kerry has him running backwards
Interesting to note 2/3 posters consistently critical about Matthew even on a good day, 2 of them on this tread… object of the league is stay up, achieved !!!, important stuff starts next Sunday and the likes of Matthew, Ryan and Aido helped that cause over the league not a game

Should be AOS, followed by ROD with Davitt Neary as find of the league. AOS has developed into a true leader, by example and inspiration. He is a big lad which sometimes overshadows the really skillful footballer he is. Watching him on Sunday and during the league; his ability to read the game, his movement on and off the ball, his ability to sell a dummy, his ability to kick with both feet, his ability to field a ball, deliver a pitch perfect pass, kick a point when needed, feed other players and on and on. Without him we’d be in a very tough spot.

Craggy Boglands - you just won't let this personal animus rest, will you? I've no option now but to help you make it rest, enjoy your spell in moderation.

Shout out to my old pal Nancy Parsons, who is off to Tenerife for a well earned break

Matty all day long for me. Not his best display yesterday, but overall in the League was back to his best.
Don't think we went full tilt on Sunday, and were cautious with injuries. If we can tidy up the kickout strategy and work on fast long ball in to the forwards we have a shot. Honourable mention to ROD who has had a slightly mixed campaign but the bar is set so high for himself. We are so reliant on him for scores its frightening.

Would have to go with ROD, he turns up at all times. Matty Ruane also had an excellent league, but was very poor on Sunday. He seems to struggle in Croke Park in comparison to provincial grounds.

@Bonni Boyler agree honestly think we were being cautious is well and not full tilt . If we went into first gear and say Ryan o D or Aido got injured we would be like wtf ..

Kerry fans were leaving even before the cup was handed out goes to show league final doesn't mean anything the team that finishes top of the table should be the winner and no final . Kerry were in holiday mode alot of calls went there way but sure it is what it Is time to move onto sligo .

I'm actually glad that we didn't win it we go back under the radar now .

[Deleted].

We have had 8 games to tidy up the kickout strategy and there isn’t the remotest semblance of a plan and if we weren’t bothered about the result then all the more reason to experiment and even try a few long balls in to Aidan and I can never remember any mayo game where I would think it was good that we lost

Aido without a shadow of a doubt. As I’ve said many times over the years we are going to miss him badly when he retires .
That realization is slowly beginning on those who doubted his importance.
We didn’t even kick ball into him Sunday and he still scored points and laid in a couple more.
If we went a bit more direct who knows what clips have happened

The league summary is as follows;

Dublin match - new rules, both teams played conservative enough, give Mayo a pass on this as adjusting to new rules
Galway "match" - still played conservative - it's as if we were not coached under the new rules, embarrassment TBH
Tyrone - another embarrassment, lucky Tyrone were slightly worse than us on the day, in fact this was painful to watch
Armagh match - 2nd half, someone or something lit a fire under the team and we operated in "freeflow" Jim McGuinness had an article in the Irish Times a few years back where a team enter this type of zone, question after this 2nd half was if we could repeat?
Derry match - decent and more of a mix of direct ball and the conservative stuff, then again we weren't up against much apart from Conor Glass that day
Donegal match - similar to Derry
League Final - back to square 1 - never looked like we wanted to attack at pace, it's like the lads were told to "control" possession at all costs, this does not work for us. The Mayo mantra should be drop all the bullshit tactics and we go out and score more than the opposition, at this stage we have nothing to lose anyhow.

In summary and I think pisses off Mayo supporters is we get the odd glimpse of hope where we can get into a zone that makes us look like AI contenders. Big question for the managers is how do we get to that zone again or is a simple case we don't have the players?

I believe we do have the players and we need to allow more freedom. McStay on ever panel on RTE was giving out about us not using AOS and getting the best out of him.

Watch the change on Sunday when we go out with no fear against Sligo , where we will take "risks" as we are up against a lower division team, and yet again we will get that glimpse of hope where we are contenders, because that's 100% wants going to happen.

Don't think you could say any one player was brilliant every game but for me it's ROD by a mile after a slow start. He remains by a country mile our most important player.

Very good showings by Ruane and Hession too apart from Sunday

AOS had a good outing in the 1st half on Sunday and keeps himself in incredible nick but some of the lionising of him in here is completely OTT, he was fine in the other games, no more no less. He still doesn't score enough imo

And your one Joe brolly of course has his dig into us already ..saying it was like an episode of Father Ted with mayo v kerry . And we don't have the vibe of being a decent team.

And saying we beat a Donegal B team how was it there B team when they had 11 starters . I seriously hope Ballina beat his knockmore out the gate next year .

It's honestly embarrassing that Knockmore even have that fella involved in their set up.

The obsession with what others think of Mayo is as tiresome as the stuff you hear said about Mayo.

How many people are expecting a huge result this year? Not to say you can have a good run, form could shoot up, but actually expecting a big year? If not, let's enjoy the matches as they come. I don't really get why we'd be taking massive offence at anything - we're in the chasing pack behind favourites.

West Kerry - it is against the rules! As in play the ball, not the player.

Afraid a lot of my pre season pessimism is creeping back in. As soon as I saw the pre game changes, my head dropped. How did we expect to outscore a team like Kerry with 1 natural forward on the field? I was actually surprised to hear that the kick out stats weren't as bad as I thought. I thought we were decimated having watched it initially. But it was how we transitioned that was the problem! Kerry moved it quickly. Kicked it as often as they could & exploited the space that is guaranteed to be there now. We did the opposite. The longer this goes, the more concerned I am that our coaches really haven't a clue! And I don't buy the excuse that we haven;t the players. The truth is the standard of teams in this era is very poor. We only need to be the best of a bad lot. And another concerning thing is we have used by far the fewest number of players in the league. And we are supposed to be looking at players? a couple of minutes here & there is not enough to judge a player

No bother Willie..

It's a shame one individual uses this great forum to continually makes comments of that standard.

Wish you the best in the championship and we might get another game before the year is out.

Tom Lydon was released from the panel before the weekend and played for Aghamore v Ballina. Kicked 9 points, all from play, off both feet. Yet we have 2 or 3 lads taking up forwards jerseys and they have continually failed to impress. I won't name the forwards I'm referring to as they are good club players, committed and honest players, but we know what they offer us now and we have seen it from two different managers over a few years. Unfortunately it's not enough to get us where we want to.
I hope McStay isn't in "job survival mode" and making cautious decisions with regards to squad selection and match day tactics. I hope he isn't operating with the view that his ass is half way out the door and therefore making decisions to reduce risk, play it safe and steady and hopefully progress through to a Connaught final.

Just on the number of players used in the League, my count is 27 in total over the eight games. But that includes Adrian Phillips' emergency introduction at Croke Park and four players with three or fewer appearances (Rory Brickenden 2 starts, Cian McHale 3 subs appearances, Eoin O'Donoghue 3 appearances (including two starts) and Bob Tuohy 3 subs appearances).

Nine players took some part in all eight games. Seven players started all nine games: Colm Reape, Enda Hession, Stephen Coen, David McBrien, Donnacha McHugh, Matthew Ruane and Frank Irwin. Ryan O'Donoghue made seven starts (he was a half-time sub against Tyrone) and Paul Towey made three starts, coming on as a sub in the other five games.

Exile I couldn’t agree more.

Jesus we are in a bad place when fans are getting upset with Joe Brolly. As much as it pains me to say it, has he ever actually been wrong about mayo? Actually he was, the one time he backed us to win the All Ireland in 2013 and we still messed it up. What’s even more ironic is that as mayo fans, we say the exact same stuff on this blog (except for some who are just blindly optimistic) as most the national journalists do when critiquing Mayo.

Eamon Sweeney in the Indo had an awful cut at McStay yesterday and poor @West Kerry is coming under fire on different threads on the blog in recent days. Any mayo fan getting worked up about pundit and journalist comments after that performance in a league final are missing the point completely.

I suppose it just goes to show how sensitive we can be.

BTW I’ll give Davitt Neary my player of the league. Not his fault he was playing well and then dropped. Even after he came back from injury.

WJ

Do you know how many players were used by other counties? I.E if you were to do a league table on who used the most players would we be in a relegation battle or getting ready for Croke Park again this weekend?

@ west Kerry I hope you continue to post on here .always good to hear the thoughts of other counties .i would totally agree on the childish nonsensical comments

I don't, Green and Red - I just had those stats on us as I was compiling the numbers for the Player of the League poll. I'd hazard a guess, though, that we'd be in the Derry spot of the table as regards the total number of players used. It seems an extremely low figure at a time when we say we're trying to build out the panel.

@ West Kerry I also enjoy your comments & would encourage you to continue posting. It's good to get outside perspective. One thing that I have always had mixed views on is the Kerry mentality. It would appear looking in that you're either a hero if you've won an All Ireland & a bollix if not. We have a tendancy in Mayo to ulogise our lads, which I have no issue with. But maybe it's that missing drive within the players that holds them back. i.e we need to win this bloody thing to be a hero. It has always fascinated me. Plenty knives out for Jack O'Connor when the season doesn't end with Sam. He'd have a statue on top of Croagh Patrick if he was from Mayo & delivered :D :)

Willie Joe just send the bat signal for TsuDhoNim - he will deliver :)

Has the numbers on panel to be culled for Championship. Enda Hession had a good league

West Kerry - I'd add the same point, please continue commenting here. I try to give everyone a fair shout and after a defeat it's often hard to keep things on an even keel, as has been clear with some of the comments posted since Sunday.

Robe Green and Red - thanks for responding in the way you did.

All- a new pod went up on Patreon last night. That's our fourth one in four days, it's all go at the minute.

It just has to be Mattie, but will say not really a out and out midfielder. It just a pity hadn't a John Maher type player with him. Mattie strength is his running with ball in hand, and not actually catching to ball over midfielders. Midfield still a problem area, reason we trying short riskier kick outs, percentage wise doesn't look like we winning enough primary possession. But we must kick the ball more into full forward line, this is a must. Still remember been in stand, watching Tyrone Mayo all ireland. We would have ball in midfield, Tommy, Ryan and AOS were 3 on 3 in full forward line, so much space in front of them, and we trying to run the ball. So depressing that day, kick a few in, worst case, would have meant that tyrone half back, would have been less eager to be engaging with us so high up field. And with new rules it seems to even be more important to kick the ball in. We have AOS, Irwin, big men, kick a few. Galway lost all-ireland last year, because they only kicked one ball into Comer, probably the best guy in country to win his own ball.

Thanks lads and thanks Willie Joe,

I've great respect for a difficult job moderating a public forum.

I try to leave my own Green and Gold tinted glasses aside but sometimes it's slips.

For me I've a affiliation with a county like Mayo that have so much in common with Kerry.
The same wild Atlantic life and hardship at times.

@Rusty Bridges - Paidi was right about us, We are animals. There is no platitudes for failure. That's sounds harsh but that's the culture.
Jack OConnor is going for his 5th league and championship double, Yet there are supporters who wanted him out.
Winning isint enough either, it's winning playing a particular way and supporters couldn't accept Kerry playing defensive football under Paddy Tally even if we were winning.
That may sound incredibly arrogant but that's the culture in Kerry.
It may rub people up the wrong way but it's life down here.

@Green&Red: Hard to do an apples to apples 'ranking' on players used. Donegal would look top of that table at a glance, but when put in context you can see they'd a tighter panel usage than ourselves and then put out a complete dummy team against Tyrone and a fair few rotations against us to help fluff their numbers. I'd say either Kerry or Galway coming out at the top there, with the edge going to Kerry given they found some genuine new talent pushing for Championship places in 2 Geaney's & Burke)

The numbers at a glance (excluding the final - WJ's numbers for us including the 8th game are spot on):
Donegal 36
Kerry 34
Galway 33
Dublin 32
Derry 32
Tyrone 29
Armagh 28
Mayo 26

If you'd like a little more detail on the full panel breakdowns can be found:
https://x.com/TsuDhoNim/status/1904235886780260700

And for some of the added context @StatsAndSolos used the numbers to build out a proxy 'intent' score of how serious sides went for each game that helps colour in some of the picture (e.g. our consistency in selection in all 7 games versus Donegal's swing to just 29% of minutes from their top 15 against Tyrone):
https://x.com/StatsAndSolos/status/1904670671214436499

Was a bit lazy coming up towards the final and never finished off the scores per minutes played for other teams (have it 95% done so must round it out today or tomorrow), but had a quick look at that for ourselves and Kerry from the pre-final games that might be of interest:
https://x.com/TsuDhoNim/status/1905295122469617968

Looking back at our league campaign I have to say that I am more of a glass half full man, than half empty. My expectations going into this was to unearth 3 or 4 players who could fill out the squad, get more experience into some of our more settled, but still young, players and avoid two things. 1, relegation and 2, bad injuries. I think we have ticked most of those boxes.
My expectations are realistic and take into account the players at McStays disposal. I readily admit that our current squad are nowhere near the quality or character of our squads from 2014 to 2020. I also readily admit that we are not in the top 6 counties going for Sam and that there are question marks over our management team. That said, we still have many good players and were the youngest squad in last years championship so we have room to grow, develop and improve. Our management team have shown in some games this league that they can get things spot on and the way the players battled back in some games prove that the players and management are one.
My expectations were to get to, and win, the Connaught final. I still believe we can do that. Thereafter, with a favorable draw and top seeding, we could make the last 8. In Neary, Irwin, Kelly and Eoin O'Donoghue I believe we have 4 fresh faces that have strengthened our squad and deepened it out. We got a full league campaign, injury free, out of McBrien and Hession and that hasn't been the case up to this season. Sundays game aside, Ruane is playing much better and more consistently and back to being a scoring threat and McHugh has developed into one of the best man markers in the game. Clifford had to resort to playing the ref, looking for and calling for frees (in itself a punishable infringement) and being a little too quick to go to ground. McHugh, no angel, was harshly punished by Coldrick who undoubtedly had stars in his eyes.
On the negative side I think this league has also proven that some players are just not good enough. Simple as. For me, I'd cut them loose and bring 2 or 3 younger lads in and give them the experience of game days. Also on the negative side, we have failed to address our woeful kickout structure and unless we sort this mess out quick we won't be putting much mileage up this year. I also have reservations about management and our style of play. But, if we get a Connaught medal, those concerns will have to be parked.
It's all about recovery from Sundays game for now. Then we can look at Sligo. To be honest, I believe that their training load, recovery and planned sessions were all with the Sligo game in mind. The league final got in the way but was also a good run out from an aerobic point of view. The training calendar would not have planned for a game one week before the championship, and I hope that our "leggy" and flat performance on Sunday was as a result of our training load and nothing more. Obviously management would have known of the fixture dates in advance, but from a training plan and training load, leading into 1st rd. of the championship, you would work really hard the final week beforehand, but taper off and ease into the days ahead of the game. We looked like a team that had worked real hard in the lead up to the league final, no real zip in the legs, so I would expect to see us much fresher on Sunday.
It's always about the Championship.

@WestKerry: I would echo the positive sentiments towards your posts, as I always find them reflective and not too emotional, which is something some of our fans could learn from, myself included at times. It's also generally a positive to have posters offering their thoughts from outside the fence, although there doesn't seem to be much love for us externally these days.

Such is life.

For me, Mayo will be competing for the NFL and maybe a Connacht Championship for the next few years, as our underage system hasn't been producing much in the past decade or so. The biggest prizes will be for the usual suspects in the next few seasons.

I do hope that we can get Paddy Durcan and Tommy Conroy back at full tilt again, as they provide us with a bit more zip and threat up front, and as great a servant as he's been, Big Aido can't go on forever. We will seriously lack top level experience once he sails off into the sunset. It would be great to get Oisín Mullin back from Oz too, but that's probably unlikely at this point.

It doesn't surprise me that some Kerry folk wanted Jacko gone, tbh. Paidí, Pat O'Shea, Fitzmaurice etc. all went when they couldn't win Sam year-on-year. It's a different mentality altogether.

I thought we would get relegated so staying up is great. I think getting to a league final was also good in showing exactly where we are. We are just about a top 8 team. Anyone who thinks this current team u see this management has any hope of winning Sam is deluded in my honest opinion. Yes we can take out any top team on any given day. But to win 3-4 big championship games in a row is beyond us under this current management and “system” of play. That’s just the reality.

As for what others think about us, I gave up caring a long time ago. Take a look on the Kerry forum if you dare (even before Sunday they were about how awful Mayo fans are). Until we start winning All Irelands we will be the butt of all jokes. Again, who cares.

It a dream run to Connaught final, it set up exactly like 2021 Connaught championship, a one we beat Galway by 6 in final. But that the dream for now. Be great to get Paddy Durcan back on field, hopefully back up to speed, but that probably unfair on a amateur player. But finger crossed. Also Tommy Conroy, not expecting him coming back, and hit ground running, seems like a confidents guy, need to build up to that. Also DOC, more game time, but while only seem him very little this year, with getting back from injury/ and getting injured again, be worried not same spark out of one off our most consistence players over last 10 years. Hope he make me eat my word, later in years. But if we did get these player up to top of there game, Mayo a totally different animal. Even last day against Kerry, I wont name names, but easy to see at least one guy just not good enough, and sure not from lack of effort, sure he training and making sacrifices to wear jersey, but sometime that not enough. But again hope I'm wrong

If we were ranking Mayo, say we are a top 6 team, I would have Kerry, Dublin, Donegal Galway and Tyrone, ahead of us. And Armagh just behind us. But that not to say we no chance, this could be a weird year, new rules etc, and see Armagh last year, not in anyone top 8 at beginning of year, and they one it.

@Yew Tree: I largely agree with your comment, except for the part about taking out one of the top 4 sides, which I don't really see much evidence for, going on the past few seasons (heavy defeats to Dublin, Kerry at HQ, loss to Derry at home, losing the Connacht final to Galway when being several points up in the final minutes etc.)

I also read some of the posts on that Kerry forum, it's very hostile stuff really. One Mayo poster went on to congratulate them and immediately got abuse for his trouble, apparently because we're not all there doing the same. Still, I wouldn't be inclined to lump in West Kerry with those guys.

The Internet is a strange place, a lot of the time. I gave up reading Hogan Stand as there was a kernel of rabid anti-Mayo types on there. Fair play to Willie Joe for trying to keep a lid on that stuff here.

Its a tonic to hear outside voices here especially @West Kerry and @Big Mike. It easy to get locked into the Echo Chamber sometimes and not step back for some outside perspective. The reaction on here tends to be emotion driven after a big match, for good and bad.
We do have a range of potential goal scorers on the pitch now, Reid, Neary, Irwin, Mc Laughlin and Carney all scored in the league and ROD, Towey, AOS, Ruane and even Coen are good for the odd one. If we can transition to a faster ball into the FF line there's much more potential for goals. Look at some of the Kerry matches, Derry in particular where they would have been beaten only for the goals. We don't have too many long range shooters but we do have goal scorers. Let the ball in fast and often.
We should be in a Connacht Final against Galway most likely and go from there. If we can get Durcan or Tommy back for the group stages it gives us an Armagh sized chance anyway of a SF or maybe even a Final.
The range and volume of Podcasts on here is a credit to WJ and the team, not sure how I coped before this !
Roll on Sunday and shackles off for Sligo. Hon Mayo.

West Kerry,I always can I your contribution as indeed with gamechanger,and most others, I must admit that having followed Mayo for at least sixty years I will a!ways support them, I get quite annoyed by some losers who have an agenda with Mayo players and management,I also do a little baiting of those posters but Willie Joe keeps a very fair blog,I hope that we meet later on and for sure Mayo will be up for revenge

I like hearing from other counties to and I don't think I said anything offensive in my post I just thought maybe we were being cautious with the Sligo game but kerry were the better team there's no doubt about that .

Ok willie joe. Let me back in and I won't mention Rochford again. The championship is starting and this blog keeps me alive as I'm abroad

I had a look on the Kerry forum It means nothing to me. I found the hatred of McStay strange and the "he hates kerry" posts when if anything he used to fawn over Kerry on the Sunday game

Also yes I get that Kerry dominated but the way some are saying there and in the media you'd think it was a 20 point game and not a 6 point game. 6 points under these rules isn't huge, we had 5 clawed back in the space of 20 seconds Sunday. The bookies spread was 5 and the game ended 6, it was basically as was expected beforehand

One thing I will agree with from that forum though is the behavior of some individual fans (its always individuals). Anyone in the vicinity of the lad dressed as a rooster as I was was cringing from embarrassment at the behavior. If he's reading this shame on you. How we seem to have an endless supply of these clowns crop up over the last decade giving us all a bad name i don't know. I thought with the bandwagon element fading a bit they would lessen also but if anything its getting worse

The rooster guy sounds pretty embarrassing to be fair . Didn't see that as I was in Hogan stand hut I can imagine it. No need for that carry on especially when there were little kerry kids at the game.

At the end of the day it's a sport we all love sometimes rivalry gets intense but don't like that carry on.

Every team has embarrassing fans and Kerry are no exception either. I notice they've become very organised online lately going after Padraig O'Hora after our last league final together for daring to say a few words to 'The Holy One' conveniently forgetting that he started that by taunting the injured Jordan Flynn while he was on the ground. This time around it seems to be Ryan for the late hit on Paul Geaney that he was given a yellow for. Not enough for the green and gold brigade who wanted more. Yellow was the correct decision. Surely we can all at least agree that the dubs are the absolute worst, it's like going to a soccer match when we play them with all the nonsense they go on with. I suppose soccer is more of their thing anyway...

@MayoForLiam yeah agree ..didn't see anything wrong with Ryan's tackle for years we've been known as to nice of a team. I'm glad Ryan can stand up for himself and not get bullied around the pitch . Yellow definitely the right call.

Did ye watch the camera angle put up here which shows Ryan making contact on the head .if there was nothing wrong with the tackle it wouldn’t have been a yellow either

Craggy Boglands - this isn't the first time you've found yourself in this position and it's only happened because you constantly and blatantly continue to breach the rules about commenting here. I've warned you several times, to no avail, and I've no choice now to route your comments to moderation as you can't be trusted any longer to abide by the rules. How long you remain there is entirely up to you - if you post comments that abide by the rules they'll go up on the blog but I'm not going to allow you to break the rules with impunity. I've given you every latitude I could and you just threw it back in my face so now, I'm afraid, it's time to face the consequences.

@1985 fair enough if it made contact with the head a yellow/red was on in the stands high up so couldn't see it that close . But I could name loads of times where there dirty tackles on our players and nothing given .

( Diarmuid o Connor late Galway hit for example)

Ryan o D probably was frustrated don't blame him ..

But he is still a class act and we would be lost without him they are bringing up the Sean Kelly incident even now I see after that tackle Ryan made sad enough as Ryan o D only want for that tackle as they went for Enda hession before hand when he didn't even have the ball.

All in all it goes both ways contact with the head is so dangerous I agree but goes both ways on /off the ball stuff so they shouldn't just be going after Ryan O D here for that.

Clare he does make contact with the head and was lucky not to see red but my point was you said you didn’t see anything wrong with the tackle so a yellow card was definitely the right call ..if there is nothing wrong with a tackle then no card should be the right call

It was probably a red let's be honest, it's a forearm to the back to the head. It's not allowed these days and if he was tackling it made no sense to lead with his furthest away arm like that

However it was in the last couple of mins and so would've made absolutely zero difference to proceedings. Everyone will move on from that and furthermore the league in a few days

The difference would be he would be suspended for this weekend if red carded

@Stephenite: There was a lot of chat about the proposed changes for neck/head high challenges this year, but the motion was pulled and those changes never actually happened.

Without those changes it's a nasty yellow for a high challenge, but still just a yellow IMHO. Doesn't pass into a strike & just short of behaving in a way that's dangerous to an opponent (hence why they were looking to change the wording of that one).

Where did you get the term nasty yellow.look at the angle from behind Ryan clearly swings his arm around the players head which could easily be deemed a strike .it’s something he would want to be careful about in future

Tsudhonim thanks for the stats. Some good albeit worrying numbers that really highlights where mayos panel is at.

1985 I agree with you on ROD here and the tackle on Sunday. I don’t think the footage looks good. It’s borne out of frustration but it’s not a good look

If a Galway or Dublin player did that on Sunday we’d be up in arms. I’m all for dark arts to be fair but more cute dark arts than what Rod did.

I do think a bit of nastiness is needed too but if a tackle is a red, call a spade a spade and let’s not be blinded by county colours

@1985 as I said I was high up in the stands when I said I didn't see anything wrong with the tackle if you actually read my post

And I said if he made contact with head it was a red /yellow . Who said nasty yellow not me..

At the end of the day Ryan o D gives his best for mayo . He lost his head in the final minutes v kerry after all the calls going against us let's be honest here like the ref was off and mcstay was right .

He's a great ref but come on Aido had like 3 guys dragging out of him nothing given ..

Clifford is a brilliant player not saying otherwise but it's the stigma you can't say a bad word against him of kerry nowadays ....

Them bringing up Ryan on Sean Kelly tackle is ridiculous tbh..

Clifford throwing tantrums throwing ball on ground thought new rules meant that's a free?

I will get shouted down for this post have to say it McStay was right in his comments .

We were shite be it we were tired /holding off/or just not bothered kerry were better much better.

But am just point out the facts to.

Apologies @willie Joe if my post is out but feel for Ryan O D hear tbh .

Clare read my post again and my comment about the nasty yellow was for previous comment from pseudo.i have huge admiration for Ryan o Donaghue but my point is he would need to be careful showing frustration in this manner as it could cost him and mayo.Again my original point was you said you didn’t see anything wrong with the tackle but a yellow was the right call .how does that make sense

@TsuDhoNim,.. Some very interesting information there, that took a fair amount of work. Very much appreciated . Its a shame that Mayo has the least amount of players tried in Div One. I actually taught that when Mayo got their goal and two pointer and suddenly for a few minutes we were back in the game , if we were serious about trying to actually win the thing , we should have brought on Fergal Boland, a few two pointers from someone who on a good day has it in his locker. Mind you in a game that went to extra time last summer v Derry , I sat directly behind the Mayo substitutes bench, very frustrated. Watching a boring lateral borefest. Both James Carr and Padraig O Hora were left sitting on the bench as Mayo went out on penalties. Both must have been fit because both played for their respective clubs the following day. Neither are now available for Mayo , What would a fit (and I respect the fact that James Carr has had injury issues) James Carr be worth to Mayo v Kerry in a league final if you sent in a few good long balls with the new rules?

I won't be taking sligo too lightly on Sunday. This could be a tricky assignment. After getting destroyed on our kick outs and for most at midfield there's more questions than answers

Craggy, I know what you’re saying but for me, if we can’t beat a mid Div 3 by 10+ points this weekend then I think we are rightly fucked. As a county we can’t lower our standards to that level or we are back in 2010 territory. Personally if we don’t win at the weekend (even a draw) I’d be expecting the mgmt to step away. If I was the county board chairman I’d be demanding it. But I would be absolutely stunned if we don’t get over Sligo.

Peter Cooke back into the Galway fold ?

Cooke back for Galway, how many good players do they need to cross the line?
I think upsets will be far and few with teams having to keep 4 back and 3 forward.

Peter Cooke is an another good option for Galway around the middle especially 2 pointers BUT I personally think he’s a tad overrated.

He’s 29 this year. For his positives, he’s won a county title for Moycullen in 2022 with a late goal. He scored 4-5 points v us in Limerick back in 19, again another example of us making heroes of players. No doubt his kicking style is strong

On the other side of that he’s had some really mixed days out.,Galway club final last year he hit 3-4 wides which cost the team. He was v poor v us in 2023 in Salthill when he got swallowed up in the second half when game became frantic. He got beaten up too v the Rossies back in their Connacht triumphs 6-7 years back.

Don’t get me wrong he’s a good player but I think he suffers from Richie Feeney syndrome in that the less he’s played through the years, the better he’s got

Green and red. I totally agree but I wonder did that kerry match do us more harm than good or hopefully it may wake us up. Comment s from management has put us in the spotlight not for the right reason s. Remember sligo had a good tilt at galway last year.

Any word of the mayo v Leitrim game latest score

2-7 to 0-1 up on 22 mins.

2-9 to 0-4 up HT.

Thanks WJ

You a gent WJ

4-11 to 0-8 now, goals from Darragh Beirne and a smashing one by Tom Lydon. 46 mins gone now.