Absolutely no way of knowing sometines.
Mayo will probably be down for a few years after this team is done, if they arenât done already, but they are incredibly resilient as a football county, and probably the main reason for that is that they havenât won an All-Ireland. Had they won one in, say, 1996 or 1997, I doubt youâd have seen them in six All-Ireland finals since then. Itâs an obsession in the county in the way it isnât in other counties and thatâs why successive generations keep coming through - they grow up feeling that obsession themselves.
A lot of other counties have won All-Irelands in both football and hurling but fallen away quickly when that winning team breaks up, and they find it very hard to break out of the cycle of mediocrity after that. I think winning an All-Ireland tends to subconsciously sate the appetite of everybody in the county - players, officials, supporters, and there isnât the same focus after it has been achieved. In football in the last few decades there have been numerous examples - Tyrone have proved an exception, but Offaly, Down, Donegal, Derry, Armagh and Galway are either still mired in mediocrity since their winning teams broke up, or took a long time to break out of the cycle. Meath have been very poor since Sean Boylanâs second great team found itself over the hill after 2001. Cork footballâs culture is to accept getting to one All-Ireland final every ten years and winning one every 20. In some ways winning in 1996 was the worst thing that happened Wexford hurling as they were happy with that and rested on their laurels.
Mayo keep taking the punches and coming back because they have to. Waterford are developing a similar culture in hurling - despite not winning an All-Ireland theyâve been pretty much 20 years contending for one and there have been very few years in that time where they havenât been seriously competitive.
Mayo have a very good club scene - similar to Derry in that regard - itâs one of the best county champonships in the country - but not the infighting that Derry have. In my experience Mayo have a sense of belonging to and identifying with their county, that they are of their county, a sense of Mayoness, as it were, that possibly no other county in Ireland has to quite the same extent. So even if this team doesnât get their All-Ireland, Iâve no doubt theyâll be back with another group before too long.
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Awful day.
That injury to Parsons is heartbreaking, whatever about him being so key to the team its a terrible thing to happen to such a nice fella.
The team performance was shite, another day against Galway where the attacking impetus was not there at all. Loftus wasnât good at all, Doherty not as lively as he normally is. The only forward consistently taking defenders on was McLoughlin and he mixed his good moments with some daft decisions. The backs were fine mostly, but Coen was poor again. COC made a difference when he came on, but Drake and James Durcan were wank, Rochford deserves flak for his changes. The Drake thing is worrying at this stage, heâs consistently brought on in tight games and best case scenario is that he does nothing.
Galway werenât brilliant either but ground it out despite going missing for periods. Their defensive system works very well and they have enough good forward play to put up a winning score. I donât know if Iâve ever heard a player get as much abuse from his own fans as Shane Walsh got today, it was bizarre at times.
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Boom.
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Galwayâs bench really impressed me. Ian Burke was brought on - he was one of their best players last year. There seems to be real strength in depth there. However they stumbled over the line against a Mayo team which was playing woefully in terms of an attacking force so the first 15 maybe isnât up to much.
Speaking of Rochfordâs substitutions, he took off Andy Moran in injury time when the match was level. Moran wasnât having his best day but is more than capable of shaking that off and kicking a point. I was also surprised by Galway taking off Barry McHugh around the same time when he was certain to convert a free should Galway win one.
Mayo badly need to draw the cannon fodder from ulster in the qualifiers to get back into the super 8s.
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Doesnt look good for Wallace or King Billy below in Offaly.
@kerry1891 was there some sort of incident involving Wallace in a Kerry club game recently?
It worked well for them the last two years.
A dive in one match and a last minute screamer of a goal in the other was all that was needed.
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Reports from O Moore Park yesterday has there being all out war in the Offaly dressing room at half time, one of the players had to be brought back out of his car to go back out on the pitch in the second half. Wallace had an 8 week suspension, so in his stead, BIlly Sheehan, notorious uniting figure, has been running the shitshow.
Hilarious.
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What did Alan McNamee tweet?
Appalled to hear Conor lane got the big game yesterday.
Shameful this standard of referee (and cunt) is getting important games.
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I hear Wallace is difficult but Offaly ayers donât have much legs to stand on either.
Appearance befitting a man who managed and played for Ardfert
Theyâre carrying a lot of players on the starting team so I wouldnât read too much into the bench. Galway have the tools to make it to the top but are probably about 2/3 years away from that now.
Mayo would have won yesterday only for the DOC red card.
This is what Wallace got the 8 weeks for
Iâm told there was a lot of disquiet among the Offaly squad about the managementâs perceived lack of professionalism when they met up in a Tullamore pub to go on the rip on Saturday night.
Pete McGrathâs Sunday Game interview probably didnât go down too well with the Louth players either. Never mind taking collective responsibility, he threw all the blame on the players and publicly questioned their attitude and ability. Thatâs surely best done behind closed doors because heâs still an outsider there and hasnât a track record with them. His many achievements elsewhere probably donât offer much solace to Louth today.
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Would most likely be tactical
Dirty sneaky pick.
What a fucking pussy
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