Surprised that they never looked to poach a lad or two and set them up in a cushty number in Baxter, Mchale’s, Allergan or Elvery’s up there. They certainly would have had the benefactors to do it.
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The Brogan’s grandfather was a Mayo man.
Michael Murphy’s father was also a Mayo man. Imagine if they had him in the last decade?
Mayo do produce forwards. They just happen to be born in another county.
The final v Donegal was on All-Ireland Gold a week or two back.
I watched it. Even after conceding the two early goals Mayo had so much possession and chances in attacking areas. Just nobody like Michael Murphy who could grab the game by the balls and get the scores.
They had a fella corner forward, Micky Conroy, and they seemed to feed everything into him. He got maybe a point or two from play from loads of possession whereas Murphy would have bagged 1-04 or 1-05 from the same service.
O’Shea is a rotten apple as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t he’d be tolerated in the likes of Dublin, Kerry or Tyrone the way he is down there. He’s really not delivered on his potential. He still makes the same mistakes as he did when he was 20, no right foot, still trying to barge past everyone etc.
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Is this the coty thread?
They’ve been there or thereabouts now for almost a decade without a Sam. Some very good players, Keegan, Barrett, Higgins, Boyle and Durcan spring to mind and guess what, they’re all backs.
Their forwards and midfielders were at best, functional. O’Connor is a charlatan, the lowest form them as well. Endlessly gesticulating, whining at refs and castigating all round him.
Throw in his background sleevén machinations and there you have him.
Sadly, for all the value they gave, they are in the main an unlikeable bunch.
O’Connor is the ultimate gallery player, one of dubious character.
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They went through a period where their forwards used to shit the course every time they got a ball in a point-scoring position. It was made all the more enjoyable, because we had Joyce, Fallon, Meehan, etc. at the other end of the pitch.
A mullocker.
And a hat trick against a woeful Donegal defence in Croke Park in 2013.
One of the best tacklers in the game to be fair to him and works very hard but just doesn’t have the footballing ability to be counted as one of the best.
A player that has been well litigated over here, but sure I’ll go again.
I don’t know what the mythical qualifications are for a marque forward are, but he’s scored more than anyone else in championship history and has been the main man on a perennial contender for close to a decade. It’s not that he’s some lad who hung in and got the record by sheer longevity either, quite the opposite - his scoring rate has been astronomical and he got the record at age 27. Someone put a graph up on Twitter last year of the all time scorers and the progression of their total on a per game basis, his line was straight up and a distance from the pack.
He has scored consistently highly in All Ireland Finals/Semis/Quarters, and I have no idea why people make out his total is down to scoring in early rounds, as if all the greats never played dross in provincial early rounds. People lionise forwards more naturally talented than him, yet he has scored far more than some of these lads year in year out. You can knock him if you want for the 2 missed frees in 2016 final replay and 2017 final, but they were harder frees than people credit.
He scored the most clutch point in modern football in the drawn 2016 Final. I challenge you to name a more pressurised score - down by one deep in injury time, your team absolutely has to have it against the best finishing team ever in woeful conditions and he takes it up from midfield, breaks the cover and bangs it over from just inside the 45.
He’s probably not well liked for his “gamesmanship” but he’s the cutest footballer I’ve ever seen at that stuff and it’s served Mayo well. His snideness has never got him sent off, apart from Dublin last year when the game was gone anyway, and it’s the kind of stuff that only your only county can appreciate. Mayo and their forwards in particular were criticised for years for being soft, and he led from the front in casting off that reputation for the current team and seeing them recognized as a hardy and resilient bunch.
He is not brilliant at any one thing but applies himself to get the absolute best out of what he has and his will to win is undeniable. He’s an iron cunt, he put himself through the ringer in 2013 and has had plenty of injuries since. He’s an extremely intelligent player and has scored/set up a lot with improvisation.
I’m not saying he’s the best forward of the era or anything like that, but his record speaks for itself and he likely doesn’t get the credit he deserves.
Edit - @halfpipe has reminded me of what he is better at than any other forward, tackling from the front
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Agree with this absolutely.
I dont really agree with that but it deserves a like just for the effort, a bit like Cillian O’Connor in fact.
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The scoring against minnows point is ridiculous. Sure at least Connacht is competitive, Kerry and Dublin players are winning all their early round games by 15 or 20 points
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He’s probably scored 5 or 6 goals for Mayo down the years where they’ve basically ran the ball into the net and he’s been the fella on the end of the last pass almost on the goal line. They all count I suppose but he’s definitely picked up a lot of handy goals.
Also an awful man to try and get opposition players sent off. At it every single game.
Hard player to judge overall. The stats are impressive on paper but when you see him in the flesh he just doesn’t stand out as a top class forward should. I think he’s benefited from Mayo being a side who have usually dominated possession in most games due to their powerful midfield and half back line.
No doubt a good player though. I’d definitely stop short of calling him a great one though.
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+1 to all that. He’s probably the snidest fucker I’ve ever seen on a GGA field in my years watching football and hurling. He’s a very aggressive tackler from the front, as mentioned by others. He’s mastered the following routine:
- delivers sneaky belt masked as genuine tackle;
- knows it’s the type of sly one that will rile the opponent, but still expresses disbelief at being penalised and commences whiny protest to the ref;
- this riles the agitated opponent even more who approaches seeking retribution, whereby O’Connor tries to get him booked by either welcoming a tangle/wrestle or diving to the ground before he’s actually struck.
He’s like a GGA football Nacho Novo or Steven Naismith.
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Thats the point, you can’t name a more pressurised score because he missed them all. He got one, fair play to him he missed a lot more, costing his team multiple All Irelands in the process. He huffs and puffs in O Connor and O Moore park and other such backyards but he has never passed the eyball test for being a marquee forward when it really counts, sorry. A marquee bottler and a cunt, yes I’ll give him that.
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His defining moment is waiting about 2 minutes to take that simple free in injury time of the AIF that time, anyone who says otherwise know they’re not telling the truth. Against Dublin I think it was.
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Ah ya sure your crowd only tolerates sexual assault.
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There’s something very similar to Robbie keane in the way he’s viewed. I’d say if someone put up his stats against the big teams they would be very good similar to how keane used to get criticised for not scoring against big teams despite scoring against them all.
I voted for correctly rated as I think he’s very functional reliable scoring machine who lacks the real class of the greatest forwards and I thought that’s how most people viewed him. After reading this thread I see he’s underrated though.