WTF was that about

While i tuned in for the football, which was very poor in my opinion on TG4 yesterday and most of the hurling. I missed the St Patricks Day celebrations on the pitch, which I guess was to celebrate 125 years of “dah games” but what the fuck were they meant to mean, boy’s running around with cement mixers and jcbs on their backs. Baffling is the only word to describe it, have a look for yourself. WTF is this about

Mayo go down to battling to Kerry

Kerry 0-13

Mayo 0-11

Well we traveled more in hope than expectation and boyed by the u21s win over Galway the previous day in Charlestown hoping for a Mayo double on the weekend before Patricks day. Speaking of St Patrick, the man himself made the long trek down south and looked to be following on from the Mayo senior side and was sporiting a new darker green number for the 2009 season. Apart from aul St Pat there was a sparttering of Mayo colours spread through the tidy attendence inside the town centre ground.

With word having come through earlier in the week that Mayo wouldn’t be naming a side until the morining of the game there were three changes from the side who were named in the programme compiled by our hosts, which handily noted the highs and lows of being a Mayo fan, as if we didn’t know the lows already. Out went Vaughan, Parsons and Kelly the first two having played in the u21 match 24 hours perviously. In came Chris Barrett back after a long lay off and given the task of keeping tabs on the Gooch, Pat Harte came into midfield and despite being named as a replacment for Barry Kelly, Kieran Conroy came in at full back with Ger Cafferkey sweeping up in front of him. Conroy did very well on “Star” Donaghy in McHale Park last year and obviously O’Mahony wanted the as big a man there to nullify the threat possed by the man playing on his home park.

While Conroy did resonably well on Donaghy competing with him for the high ball at every chance and getting in his fair share of breaking balls away from the totemic full forward, Cooper gave Barrett the run around for long periods landing five points from play and three more from frees. That being said Barrett didn’t have a bad game, Cooper was just in another class, his quckiness of feet and switch of direction were immense throughout. While in our number 13 jesrey Conor never got going as  Tom O’Sullivan had him in his back pocket for most of the day. Every time the ball came into his grasp he looked to jink to create the space to shoot, but O’Sullivan stood just enough off him, not to get taken in by a dummy and wrap up Conor and force him to go backwards. The lack of Mayo’s penetration in the full forward line was a cost in the checks and balances of loosing the game. Austin O’Malley put in a very good seventy minutes getting out in front of his man on numerous occasions winning the ball and scoring two fine points and drawing the fouls that allowed Mortimer to hit his two scores, but with only two men in that line it too often led to him being isoltated and Mayo having to go backwards rather than forwards.

Mayo more than broke even in the middle of the park with Ronan McGarrity going toe to toe with Micháel Quirke and later Sean Scanlon when he was introduced and Pat Harte proiving to be a good line breaker coming forward with the ball, both men contributed points on the day. At the back Tom Cunniffe seemed to be maturing into the role of centre half back and wasn’t put off by the physicality of Declan O’Sullivan and made a number of breaks himself up the field, but he could be put to better use on the wing when Trevor Howley regains full fittness, Andy Moran hit two points from the wing back position he lined out for the second week in a row.

At the end of the day it was Copper’s class that was the difference, but with a Dublin side who seem to be in disary up next in Ballina, a second win of the league is a very real possabilty for John O’Mahony’s men.

Mayo Advertiser match report

Irish Times match report

Irish Indo match report

Examiner match report

Audio of Johnno after the match from the examiner

Superdooper Cooper shoots us down

Boy that was a long drive down to Kerry, Must say I’m dissapointed we lost but not disheartened. A good performance from most, but not enough penertration in the killer third. Have to gather my thoughts properly about it and will post a proper report in the morning, But must say I don’t have any fear about the dubs coming to town.

That was closer than it needed to be

Well the first championship game of the season out of the way for Mayo in any of the grades and win. A win over Galway to boot to make it even better. 2-6 to 0-11 was the score at the end and Mayo clung on to a deserved win, but it should have been easier than that. Over ten wides and four differnt players taking over the role as freetaker showed a severe problem that Pat Holmes et al will have to sort out over the coming seven days before the Rossies come to town. Ross who were the All Ireland champions when these players were minors will go into the game as favourites but Mayo will have learned a lot from today’s clash.

At the back Mayo see solid enough with Vaughan and McLouglin solid on the wings, though Vaughan did nearly see extra time forced when he gave away the ball in a dangerous are needlessly with time almost up allowing Galway one last chance to force over time. Lee Keegan put in a good sixty minutes graft on the defensive 40. While at full back Kevin Keane kept up the performances he was putting in for the minors last year solid dependable and no nonsence. In goal it was another of last years minors Robert Hennelly who bar on poorish kickout late on and a dropped ball, didn’t have much to do and every thing he did he did weel.

Aidan O’Shea was named to start in midfield alongside Tom Parsons, but went straight to centre half forward after the throw in with Cathal Carolan moving into the midfield sector where he got through a lot of good work picking up loose ball that was knocked down, while Parsons went about his work efficently claiming alot of ball playing the captains role well

O’Shea was in good form on the 40, scoring one point and setting up alot of chances for the rest of the five forwards and always causing havoc in the Galway defence.  Cahtal Freemen was busy on the wing, linking up a lot of play and offering an out for his defence when needed. Mikey Sweeny was dangerous on the ball when he got it and took his goal well, as did Jason Doherty who was quite overall on the sixty minutes, as was Neill Douglas in the full forward position.  And now on to the rossies.

Match report already up on the Mayo Advertiser site.