cough
Was he ever spotted doing weights in a gym that was supposed to be closed in mid January?
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The guy had a photo shoot to prepare for. Give him a break
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Just to clarify, is the possession gathered by OâShea inside the 14yd line being described as a great goal chance because it wasnât. The ball was moving away from the goal as was OâShea. He hasnât the guile nor the dexterity of foot movement to outfox a middling defender never mind execute a meaningful shot from the position he was in. The best opportunity would have been created if there was a support run and a quick offload but this didnât happen.
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It was no gimme alright. If he managed to turn inside he was on his right foot and very low chance of him hitting the target let alone scoring.
Could someone post Darragh O Seâs article from todayâs Irish Times please ?
Darragh Ă SĂ©: Mayo fail to do the basics right when it really matters
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Champions Tyrone were better tuned into the terms and conditions of the final and performed accordingly
about 6 hours ago
Darren McCurry finishes for Tyroneâs second goal after Conor McKenna draws the defence and provides the astute pass. When the chance came and the right thing had to be done, all that practice and training clicked into place and they buried Mayo without having to even think about it. Photograph: Jams Crombie/Inpho
All-Ireland finals are merciless occasions. They donât care who you are or what youâve been through or how far youâve come. They are over so quickly that thereâs no time for anything other than cold, calculated professionalism. You either turn up ready for business or you spend the winter wondering what happened to you.
I always watch finals with a few fundamental questions in my head. Who has grasped whatâs needed here? Which team has turned up with a clear idea of what has to be done to come out the other side of it smiling? How many players on either side truly get it?
The glaring difference on Saturday night was that so many more Tyrone players were tuned into the terms and conditions of the final. There was a game to be won and they went and did it. They didnât try anything they shouldnât have.
Go back to the semi-final and think of how Niall Morgan tried three different long kick passes with the outside of his boot and sprayed them everywhere, including out over the sideline. In the final, he was a different player. It wasnât about big Hollywood passes, showing off how good a footballer he was. It was professional, precise, no-messing kind of stuff.
That went right through the team for Tyrone. Their two big midfielders didnât do anything more hectic or special than compete for high ball around the middle and move it on.
I was a bit amused afterwards to hear everyone raving about Conn Kilpatrickâs catch to set up the second Tyrone goal. It was like the Roy Keane line about not clapping for the postman because he gets the envelope through the letterbox. Thatâs why he was in the team.
Thereâs a difference between being desperate to score and being serious enough about it to do the right thing to guarantee it
It was a good catch, donât get me wrong. And he moved the ball onto Conor McKenna smartly and quickly. But if he had done anything less than that, youâd be asking questions. Big hardy midfielders are there to catch the ball and give it on to the smaller, quicker, more skilful lads. Especially in an All-Ireland final.
To be fair, thatâs one of the big changes to Tyrone since Brian Dooher and Feargal Logan took over. They have brought in Kilpatrick and Brian Kennedy and given them the job of being an option long down the field for Morganâs kick-outs. If you look at where Kilpatrick took that catch, it was midway between the Mayo 65 and 45. If you went back through the past five years under Mickey Harte, youâd struggle to find many Tyrone kick-outs that landed in that area.
âThink about Aidan OâSheaâs kick in the first half, coming out on the loop onto his good left foot. He was too casual about it and pulled it wide on the near side.â Photograph: Tommy Dickson/Inpho
Thereâs a simplicity to it that can be hard to beat. Stand your 6ft5in midfielder at centre-forward and ping the ball down on top of him. As good a catch as it was, Kilpatrick had his two feet on the ground when he took it. This is my point â you use the weapons you have to their fullest effect. You donât have to be flashy, you donât have to be spectacular. Just be good at the things that matter.
Great strengths
After the Kerry game, it was so obvious that one of Tyroneâs great strengths was their ability to handpass out of tight situations. The way McKenna went straight for goal from Kilpatrickâs pass to draw the defence before flicking away to his left for McCurry was a prime example of it.
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He had two defenders and the goalkeeper coming to poleaxe him but he waited until it was definitely going to hurt to squeeze out the handpass. If you watch it again, you can see that he doesnât look over to telegraph it â he makes sure McCurry is going to have every chance and every bit of space he can eke out to palm the ball home.
That is what you need to do. Total maximisation of the opportunity. Nobody did anything amazing, but all four players involved did the thing they have practiced in training a thousand times.
How many kick-outs has Conn Kilpatrick caught in his life? How many times has Conor McKenna done drills that involved drawing defenders to create space before getting the handpass away? How many times has Darren McCurry made that sprint to the back post to finish off a move? Iâd say theyâre all nearly bored doing those basic things by this stage.
And yet, when the chance came and the right thing had to be done, all that practice and training clicked into place and they buried Mayo without having to even think about what they were doing.
This is where Mayo fell down, in my eyes. I would exempt Lee Keegan from any criticism because you could see he understood the rules of engagement. Straight after McCurryâs goal, he took it upon himself to get forward and strike a point.
Lee Keegan with his daughter Lile at Croke Park: The Mayo veteran had total certainty about what was needed and he went out and showed it. You canât say that for some of the other Mayo players. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Go back and watch his kick for it â he was 40 metres out and had to cut across the ball to get the right swerve on it but he did it with no fuss. A minute later, he won a free to bring the margin back to three. He had total certainty about what was needed and he went out and showed it.
You canât say that for some of the other Mayo players. I felt at times that they hadnât a true understanding of where the game stood and how easily it was getting away from them. They were missing chances by not taking them seriously enough.
I know that probably comes across as a stupid thing to say â itâs an All-Ireland final and there was nothing in their lives that they were taking more seriously right at that moment. But thereâs a difference between being desperate to score and being serious enough about it to do the right thing to guarantee it. And if you go back and look at some of the Mayo misses in the second half especially, they came about because of bad execution of straightforward skills.
Think about Aidan OâSheaâs kick in the first half, coming out on the loop onto his good left foot. He was too casual about it and pulled it wide on the near side. Think about Conor Loftus coming in off the left in the second half when it was 1-10 to 0-10. He was too rushed with his shot and cut across the ball and screwed it way wide on the far side.
Crucial time
Now if you took either of those guys onto a pitch and told them you wanted them to show young players how to kick a point from where they kicked those ones, theyâd make them nine times out of 10. They would go through their kicking action, they would steady themselves and make sure of their footing and they would more than likely split the posts. But they made a mess of their kicks here.
You donât have to play cat and mouse with the goalkeeper. You donât have to pick out the postage stamp in the top corner
Same with Ryan OâDonoghue and his penalty. You could see throughout the game that OâDonoghue was embracing the big stage. Of all the Mayo forwards, he was fighting to get into the game. He wanted the ball. He went out there absolutely convinced he had the beating of the Tyrone defence. I love that about him â itâs one of his great attributes. He doesnât care who heâs playing, heâs going to go for it and let them know all about it.
But that only counts for something as long as you do what youâre there for. And although he kicked his frees pretty well, he missed his penalty at an absolutely crucial time in the game. And worse, he missed it by not being professional and clinical about it.
Go back over the penalties that have been scored in big Croke Park matches in the last five or six years. Cillian OâConnor, Diarmuid Connolly, Peter Harte. None of them was flamboyant or technically complicated. They all went with the low shot pulled into the near corner. Thatâs where you can get the most power just through your natural body shape.
You donât have to play cat and mouse with the goalkeeper. You donât have to pick out the postage stamp in the top corner. All you have to do is drill a low shot a foot inside the post and it wonât matter a damn what the goalie does.
Why canât you keep your head and do the basics right when it really matters in an All-Ireland final?
I know itâs all a matter of inches and that OâDonoghueâs shot only shaved the outside of the post. Half a foot to the left and it would have been hailed by everyone as a brilliant penalty for a young fella to have the balls to pull off in an All-Ireland final. But you get the same number of points on the scoreboard for one that goes in the bottom corner so why wouldnât you just do the simple thing and go and mark your man for the kick-out?
All-Ireland finals are about finding the simplest route to the Sam Maguire. I have seen them lost because fellas were thinking about All Stars. I have seen them coughed up because fellas wanted to prove a point to management or because they wanted to show that they can do miraculous things. But at the end of the day, they come down to who was able to show that they could do the right thing at the right time. Everything else is beside the point.
Ryan OâDonoghue and Kevin McLoughlin of Mayo after the match. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill
The job for Mayo now is to work out why they werenât able to do it. Why canât you keep your head and do the basics right when it really matters in an All-Ireland final? What is it that youâre going out to achieve that stops you executing these skills that you know you have?
OâShea and Loftus and OâDonoghue and all the rest of them have kicked plenty of scores in their lives. Theyâre not poor footballers. Theyâre every bit as good as the Tyrone players who walked up the steps of the Hogan Stand. They just didnât show it when it mattered.
They have another winter now to come up with the reasons for that.
- Topics:
- Aidan O Shea
- Brian Dooher
- Brian Kennedy
- Cillian O Connor
- Conn Kilpatrick
- Conor Loftus
- Conor Mckenna
- Darren Mccurry
- Diarmuid Connolly
- Feargal Logan
- Keegan Lee
- Mickey Harte
- Niall Morgan
- Peter Harte
- Roy Keane
- Ryan O Donoghue
- Sam Maguire
- Mayo
- County Kerry
- Park
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- Tyroneâs ruthless streak leaves Mayo searching for answers again
- James Horan accepts that Mayo were well below par when it mattered most
Excellent pod this week with Conor Meyler and Morgan with Niblock and McConville.
Something interesting that I noted is from Meyler and Morgan discussing their backstory is that both chose GAA over other sports. Morgan was playing in goal for Dungannon Swifts and was intent on going down that route but was persevered and coaxed by Mickey to commit to the Tyrone team, Meyler also said that he had a decision to make with regard to athletics and plumped for football again. You also had Hampsey on that team who was a two time Ulster Champion boxer who also had a decision to make a few years back.
I look at some of the other counties, even in Ulster for example, Eoin Bradley packed up his GAA career in his 20s to play Irish League, Matthew Fitzpatrick is one of the best forwards in Ulster but is with Glenavon now. Few other examples over the years.
Keeping your best players committed to the sport is huge and I think it reflects on the culture and ambition within the county for that to prosper.
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Good point. When you think of the lads Dublin have lost over the last 10 yearsâŠO Carroll left to travel⊠McCaffrey to heal the sick⊠MDMA to help the destitute lower classes⊠Brennan to concentrate on his religion⊠Fennell to his DJ career⊠Connolly to professional GaaâŠHoward to the takeaway for a year⊠Dunne to the Olympics⊠imagine how many All Irelands the dubs would have at this stage if weâd been able to keep all those lads involved.
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Mannion left to further himself personally⊠Cluxton left to sweep the floors⊠Lowndes left for the desert⊠Cian OâSullivan left to do some Debit and Credit Accounts⊠Bernard left to build a legacyâŠ
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The spud hockey was a turkey shoot . I am surprised so many watched it . They was no peak there
Mayo are box office. Everyone wants to be watching when they finally break the curse or flop spectacularly again.
But everyone knows now that theyâre never going to break the curse. Itâs gotten boring.
Didnât one of the goals come from exactly the type of Hollywood kick heâs criticising here that Morgan supposedly learned from?
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They need a few years of subsidence to accept their fate for now and then slowly let the hope, excitement and delusion build back up again.
2028 seems like a good year for them to reach their next final. Itâll be back in its rightful place on the third Sunday of September by that stage.
Mullin, McLaughlin, Conroy, OâDonoghue, Hession, Walsh and Flynn will be the old guard by then, complemented by the exciting new guard of Liam Joe Padden, Seamus Sloyan, Billy McHale, Nigel Mortimer, Johnny Durcan and Tommy âGoalsâ Conroy IV.
They will lose to Down in a replay.
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Youâre the man with the endless stats but in the past 2 years Mayo reached the final via the old route - provincial title, AI s/f and then final where they performed poorly both times.
In their earlier forays they either quarried their way to the final via the qualifiers or Super 8âs.
Do Mayo benefit from long arduous summer campaigns cosâ the 4 game sprint doesnât suit them.
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Mugsyâs aunt is married to Aaron Hughes uncle I think.
You will see a few jerseys of Hughes framed in the bar in Cookstown. Seems to get a few punters in from across the divide to be fair.
No wonder with all thr Tyrone lads taking the Norn Iron soup.
Thereâs no need to be such a bigot.
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