Robbie Kiely was a serious loss, whatever hope they had of holding the centre went with him. Took them till half time to figure it out, they were excellent in the 1st 15 of the 2nd half.
+1. While obviouly in full on grinding mode and not the free flowing side of recent years, Mayo are a cute shower and knew how to exploit matters when they could. They’re doughty as fuck this year, its one of the reasons I think they’ll be very hard bet, regardless of the opposition.
People said the exact same thing about Waterford before the 2008 All-Ireland hurling final.
Those “people”, they got stung didnt they?
5 point win without really been tested tbf in a Al semi is not bad going.
Mayo have shit loads to work on but they’ve 4 weeks to do so.they came through today without any injurys or really pushing themselves.
In saying that they will have it all to do to beat either the dubs or Kerry will (I fancy Kerry to win this one by a few points).Mayo have there but done.there where every team at the start of the year wants to be regardless how they got there.
Tipp like Galway the last day will be disappointed with there over all performance today.they know they could have done better.losing the centre back so early dodnt help the cause.they are going the right way though.
Dublin v Kerry should be a cracker of a game.here’s hoping anyway!
as the great johnny giles says, you cant just pick it up
Good finish by young O’Shea for the second goal. Just saw it on the Sunday game.
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Keegan & Connolly will be epic.
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I don’t recall any connolly playing for kerry😆
Neither have I. 
That point Jarlath Burns made about Mayo not having played a Division 1 team is a bullshit one, in fairness.
They beat Tyrone who are clearly in the top four teams in the country if not higher, and neither Dublin or Kerry have beaten such a team so far, although obviously that will have changed after the other semi-final.
It was actually hilarious the way Burns went back to Mayo’s D1 league victories against shit Roscommon and Down teams, as if to imply beating these teams somehow constituted their last meaningful wins, and that they were better than beating Tyrone in an All-Ireland quarter-final, merely because Roscommon and Down were in Division 1 and Tyrone weren’t earlier this year.
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Tyrone and Kerry stumbled their way into All Ireland final wins in 2008 and 2009 before turning it on in games they needed to.
Mayo haven’t been firing at all this year, they put in a very disciplined and focused performance against Tyrone and just got themselves over the line. In the other games they have all laboured to victories but apart from Fermanagh they never really looked in any serious danger apart from a few rocky periods.
It’s all about the result in knockout football and in these situations they only need turn it on once now.
Look at Tyrone in 2008, staggered through the qualifiers, shock provincial loss, staggered past Westmeath in Omagh, eeked out a 1 point victory over Mayo in Croke Park. Turned it on against Dublin and destroyed them, got the job done against Wexford without ever really hitting top gear then delivered on final day.
Kerry in 2009. Staggered past Longford, counted their blessing a late missed penalty saved them from elimination against Sligo, eventually got past Antrim comfortably after looking in some trouble early on. Turned the style on against Dublin in the QF, got the job done against Meath in the semi without ever hitting top gear and then delivered on final day.
Form is not the key guide when it’s a final, it’s about getting to a final and then delivering.
Portugal at the Euros is another classic example. Mayo have as good a chance as they had any other year but given it’s Mayo they will probably contrive to throw a winning position away.
2008 and 2009 are two examples of how stuttering teams have came and upset the form teams of the Championship.
The easier run you have to an AI final, the better. You do not want to be needing to peak early.
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They didn’t really . The morning of the 2008 final the general consensus was that Kk would win but given that Waterford had real "firepower " they had a punchers chance .
Another view spouted at the time that it was the "dream final " of 2007 a year too late .
A real worrying matter for Mayo though is the form of Diarmuid O’Connor, two really poor games on the bounce now and he looks like he is carrying an injury.
this is a different team in dublin you meet now though. you cant be slow out of the blocks in games running up to it. kerry havent been tested mayo have and if they are anywhere near dublin they would have winning most of their games with a lot more to spare and never look like losing, except the tyrone game which they were still actually poor in… they wont get 6/7 points of dublin, yet kerry could bt the dubs. theyve been planning this day all year
Mayo 2016 are similar to Waterford 2008 in that they’re reaching a final when they’ve entered a downward curve in the team’s natural lifespan. Both teams displayed superior ability to grind out narrow wins in key matches in these years than they had previously, but did not play with the panache of previous years. Waterford went into that final with a perception of having “a puncher’s chance” against the undoubted kingpins, so will Mayo, particularly if it’s against Dublin. Both teams also had/have a history of failing when it really matters.
Mayo deserve respect based on their pedigree over the last five years and them producing the massive performance they’ll need to win can’t be ruled out, but I find it difficult to see at the moment.
What’s the nature of the injury he’s carrying?
Agree with you in the main but to be fair to Mayo , the current team since 2011 have been very good and very consistent but lacked natural “firepower” . They have huge courage and toughness but they have to make huge efforts to score .
Why?
Tyrone and Kerry in 2008 and 2009 stumbled past teams through the qualifiers that they should have been beating by more, they had their first real big test in the QFs against Dublin and turned it on and won. Mayo did similar with Tyrone in the QF this year though a different type of performance but it was impressive nonetheless. Tyrone and Kerry were far from impressive in their semi final victories over Wexford and Meath respectively in 2008 and 2009 and won by 6 and 4 points respectively against teams they would be expected to beat convincingly
Today was just about getting the job done, they didn’t need to go making any statements, they just needed to get the job done and preferably without any casualties which seems to be the case.
They have 4 weeks to get it right from here. They are in a good position and only really having to come up with one big performance to date is the ideal situation to be going into an All Ireland final with.
Not sure but he looks like he has been dead on his feet in the last two games and he was easily Mayo’s best forward last season.