That’s a wonderful surrealist take on the earnest, twee Gael monologue routine.
If you could ramble on for another 1,000 words or so and record it as an audio track in a soft, contemplative voice, Sunday Miscellany might even give you a slot this week.
Have said it before, man mark the defenders especially Cian O’Sullivan who Dublin move ball through will cause them problems.
Cian is great to cover ground and space but I reckon would be exposed in a situation where he is marked. Also if Mayo try and isolate him it would cause trouble for Dublin as he is not comfortable as a man marker
All easily said but fluidity of Dublin makes this hard.
Other things to do are stand in front of Cluxton to delay kick outs now and then and rattle him.
Mayo will have to play a cynical game to have a chance and use some set pieces every so often to throw Dublin out of kilter. Still think Dublin will have enough but you would hope there won’t be an asterisk against this one
Mayo should copy Clare and send a designated ball hider in behind the goalmouth he’s in.
Thing is with O’Sullivan, Dublin adopt a +1 model. They’ll bring players back to mark Mayo players until O’Sullivan is freed up.
That would be one of my primary plays.
Mayo players should retrieve any wide ball near them and throw it short back to the cluxter.
They should have ball boys throwing a second ball onto the field around the 13 while he’s in the goals getting the first one/kicking any wides back onto the field of play as soon as they go out so it has to be removed before he can kick.
They should tie their laces on the spot where kickouts are to be taken/go down with cramp/get injured right on that spot.
They should engage in a spot of pushing with the full back after the ball has gone wide/over and get the ref to come into them.
They should appeal all wides for hawk eye if they are remotely close even if they know they’ll lose etc etc.
Stopping the quick kickouts is key
What if Mayo play 14 forwards?
It is my recollection that McMahon completely dominated O’Shea in past duals with minimal help from anyone else.
I don’t see this tactic being a runner at all.
Yeah. He is key to Dubs but as a defender a potential weakness if you make him mark a man. It’s about setting that up for Mayo.
I think a lot of the analysis in advance of this match has been flawed as it has focussed on how Mayo can stop Dublin and win the All Ireland.
Do people think that Jim Gavin and his team are sitting back not looking at Mayo at all? This may have been the case to some extent in previous year but this year they are more about stopping the opposition that ever before.
Who are Mayo’s key players? Andy Moran is the obvious one. What does Moran thrive on? Quick ball low into the forwards so he can come out in front. The first match against Kerry, Moran had a field day with this as did the other inside forwards. I would not be surprised to see a double sweeper in there, Tyrone style, to nullify that threat.
Colm Boyle is another important player as a driving force from deep. Don’t be surprised to see someone like Ciaran Kilkenny, who has the engine, track him constantly as he makes his runs.
Keith Higgins is another vital one. He tends to operate as a sweeper in front of the full back line with a licence to get forward. Dealing with him isn’t as straight forward. Dublin would be looking to minimise the counter attacking threats through perhaps a possession game or long range point taking so as to put the ball dead (point or wide) and regroup.
The point is that never before have Dublin been so tactically aware and so willing to distrupt their own natural game in order to stifle the opposition. I think they have the players to be more than able to do so.
O’Se was apparently directly involved in 0-8 that day in the same way Kieran Donaghy was directly involved in 2-6 in the drawn semi-final.
He doesn’t even have to play full forward. He just has to ghost in a few times at the right time like Diarmuid O’Connor did against Kerry.
It’s a tactic that Mayo should try when the opportunity presents itself, preferably with a diagonal ball, which is much more difficult for defenders than the straight on ball Mayo constantly pumped into him in 2015.
Good point.
Aidan O’Shea ended up on him in the second match last year when he moved out to centre forward. He turned him easily and popped it perfectly for Keegan to bury it.
TBF it’s just not very interesting to analyse how the clearly superior team might go about winning.
No - but the whole package needs to be looked at otherwise it is a futile exercise.
The Dublin full back line is much better than the Kerry one.
But who knows?
The players can’t appeal for hawkeye. Only Umpires, Referee or 4th official can call for it
That is as good of a goal as you are likely to see.
At the very highest level as well. The finish was immaculate.
Dubs haven’t a hope
But they can run up to the ref and wave their arms around like they always do before hawk eye is called for
Whatever about O’Sullivan being a focus point, what about the Mayo full back position? It is a real weak point for them and something the opposition have mined in the past in big games - Donegal 2012, Dublin 2013. Vaughan looks the most likely but he is slow off the mark. It will be a real target area for Dublin.