He still had two gilt edged chances of points and missed them both. Youâd wonder if one of these days heâll notch a point in a big game almost to spite himself and then fire over three more. A bit like Donegal in 1992, who hit 18 wides in the semi-final and were ridiculed for their shooting, but hit most of those chances over in the final.
OâShea is running out of chances though.
Tickets secured for myself and the old man
I donât get the TFK hatred of OâShea. Itâs typical of this place and the cynical pile ons from lads trying to let on they know more than anyone by being snide about a player. Heâs not an all time great player and has made plenty of mistakes but heâs been a consistent big game player for Mayo and a great servant. The level of criticism of him is totally disproportionate and unfairly personalised in my opinion. I hope he plays well in the final, Iâd say he will. I backed Durcan for motm.
Great stuff, enjoy pal.
I donât get it either. He seems like a decent enough lad. I think itâs because heâs very handsome in a masculine sort of way.
It seems to turn on certain lads alright. @Fulvio_From_Aughnacloy was posting topless photos of him there recently.
Its Aido time.
Weather forecast looks dry and relatively warm tomorrow.
Adv Tyrone.
Iâm predicting a hurricane.
I watched the semi-finals back over the last couple of nights. Mayo did a serious job on Dublin from half time onwards. Whereas it cannot be emphasised enough how much Tyroneâs victory over Kerry was a smash and grab, and how much Kerry contributed to their own downfall by taking the wrong options, running down blind alleys, not tracking runners etc., and how much luck Tyrone had. Tyrone gave themselves the platform for that combination of circumstances to happen where they might steal it but nine times out of ten Kerry should have been winning that game by four or five points.
The question ahead of the final is can Mayo give a more even performance through the 70 minutes rather than giving themselves another mountain to climb. If they do that, they should have enough.
The dilemma for Mayo is that their finishing team looks stronger than their starting team. So if they donât make changes to the starting team, theyâre running the risk of that happening. Conversely, you don;t to be in a position where youâve thrown in all your previous finishers from the start and Tyrone are left with all the aces to play from the bench. Kerryâs bench with the exception of Diarmuid OâConnor and to a lesser extent Gavin Cowley provided very little and that drop off cost them.
Iâd be looking at starting James Carr. He seems to prefer a starting role and when on song can be a devastating finisher. He gives an extra finishing threat at a time when Mayo will need it in the first half. As the game opens out in the second half youâd expect Mayo to rely more on their running power. Carr was brought in from left field to start the League final in 2019 so there is precedent there. Plus Iâm really not sure can Mayo afford to start Darren McHale who was a passenger against Dublin.
In saying that, Tyrone, had a few passengers themselves against Kerry, in Kennedy, Kilpatrick and OâNeill. So I think Tyrone have to be making at least one change there, which probably means you deploy Mattie Donnelly further out and bring McShane in and drop one of the midfielders, probably Kennedy.
I think it will be very interesting to see who Conor Meyler marks. Against Kerry he was put on Paudie Clifford because they rightly saw him as the link up man who made the whole Kerry attack tick. Clifford was dampened but not neutered and increasingly came into the game as it wore on. But he had a lot to think about himself in a defensive sense because Meyler himself is a link man who attacks. It was a magnificent individual battle actually, one of the best of recent years. To me Ryan OâDonoghue looks the closest fit to Clifford in terms of link play between the attack and the rest of the team, so if I was looking at it from a Tyrone point of view, thatâs the match up I would pick.
As for the big game on Saturday Met Ăireannâs forecast for Dublin is for a bright and fresh day with a mix of cloud and sunny spells. It will be mostly dry, with just a few light showers developing
I havenât watched it again but my impression was that Clifford had lost the confidence to take his man on and was often turning back from contact from midway through the second half
I wouldnât put that much currency into beating Dublin this year. They looked like a team ready to put out to pasture all year long and were really poor on the day. Mayo won that convincingly.
Tyrone relied on a lot of breaks to beat Kerry but Kerry were going into that game as AI favourites from a long time out and the team to beat, the result could have easily gone the other way but I do think Kerry turned up on the day unlike Dublin.
I thought Meyler was really good in the first half but as it wore on Clifford became more influential.
Tyrone seemed to fall back more and become more zonal the longer it went on and they were hunting in packs when Kerry tried to bring some width to their attack, so it was hard for players to take on a man because theyâd get swallowed up.
Clifford did have that chance towards the end of normal time where he went alone and put it wide with the attempt at a fist pass point. Probably the difference between Kerry being in the final and Tyrone being in it. He never gave up though and his performance in the match was under rated.
There were less runs forward by Tyrone defenders the longer it went on, in the first half they were picking off points. The forward attacking players started making the running. What Tyrone did exceptionally well was manage possession, they slowed it down a lot and gave themselves time to recover on the ball. Kerry wanted chaos and they didnât get that.
Wouldnât really understand how you could call OâNeill a passenger in the Kerry game, he was outstanding and came up with two big interventions to deny goals.
Mayo donât have the firepower Kerry had in attack so Tyrone will be able to offer McCurry a bit more support up front and he will get much more shooting opportunities than he did against Kerry.
Dublin were on the ropes all summer , just waiting to be put out of their misery âŠout of legs and out of ideas ⊠how they even got up that lead by halftime is a bit concerning for mayo ⊠I think Tyrone will have better of first half but Mayo coming from deep will be too much for Tyrone and will be enough to see them home .
4 points from play aside. I though McNamee did a brilliant job on Clifford the last day, any of the points he got off McNamee he was close and tight to him, they were just superb finishes.
Kerry were favourites because they were on the other side of the draw to Dublin and Mayo.