If Mayo can't beat a much changed Kerry side with little to play for what chance vs full strength Kerry side focused on getting to the league final?

Mayo are definitely in the mix now.

Gaa_lover
County: USA
Posts: 433

If Mayo can't beat a much changed Kerry side with little to play for what chance vs full strength Kerry side focused on getting to the league final?

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Mayo had a man sent off early in the second half which changed the game. Also Kerry had to call on their big guns to get them back in the game. So don't be so smart. You should be concentrating your worry elsewhere. Mayo will look after themselves.

Have no worries just a straight up question. We'll see this Sunday & if Mayo pull off a win in that game i'll rate them higher than i currently do.

Well Ive resisted the temptation to wade in over the past few weeks while all around here get carried away both in defeat and victory. The reality here is that nothing has changed from the start of the league. Kerry were able to rest 5/6 of their top players yesterday and were really only toying with Mayo bringing them on in the second half and still nearly beating us. I have big fears for us next week in Croke Park, Kerry look hungry, and looking back through history, when Kerry have failed to win the All Ireland the year before, they often come out fighting the nxt year, and have won a good few league/All Ireland doubles, they're my tip for the next day and for the league title.

Positives from the league campaign so far?

- Aiden O'Shea seems to have nailed down a definate role in midfield and is playing well, has learned to lay the ball off quicker.
- Why the hell did it take so long to move Andy Moran to the 40, its clearly his best position for Mayo, and he's extremely important to get this Mayo inside foward line moving.
- Conor Mortimer - on good form, may well be utilised as and impact sub, but could play from the start, it s a big year for him, and like it or not he's virtually our most experienced player, I think he could have a big season.
- Keith Higgins and Vaughan playing well.
-Clarke in goals.

Negatives:

- Consistency during the league has been brutal, losing to 2 teams that only had 14 men,
- Not scoring many goals.
- Still relatively poor form of Alan Dillon.
- No midfied partner for Aiden O'Shea, Barry Moran has had so many chances for Mayo now at this stage and just dosen't cut it, I would still bring back McGarrity if fit, always had a cool head and has played some big games for Mayo, this panel is crying out for leaders, he could be one.
- No established full back line. Keane, McHale, have looked OK, still not championship FB line material I fear.
- No target man at fullfoward to change things if necessary.
- Cillian O'Connor and Freeman dont appear to have continued on from last year.
- Boyle and Keegan are an improvement on before, but I think Trevor Mortimer will be missed for his experience and leadership.

My Mayo Team:

1. Clarke
2. Keane/Mchale
3. G Cafferky
4. K.Higgins
5. Lee Keegan(Mortimer if he comes back)
6. Vaughan
7. Boyle
8. A O'Shea
9. McGarrity
10. Dillon
11. A Moran
12. McLaughlin
13. O'Connor/Mortimer (can only see one of them on the field at 1 time)
14. Freeman(try him here again, I thought it was his best position last year, can act as a semi target man, the most physical of our inside fowards)
15. Conroy(but his position is up for grabs, Doherty/Varley can stake a claim)

The_Oracle,

Hard to argue with that analysis.

I wouldn't be so pessimistic though. There are signs of progress. Aiden O'Shea is going to be a michael donnellan type midfielder, did you see his effort on goal against kerry? It won't be long before he starts scoring them.
He needs a good partner beside him and it's something that needs to be sorted now rather than chopping and changing all the time.

agree that dillion is a concern but he has hit a few points from distance now and that could be key.
Freeman is very inconsistent and has a lot to prove before he can justify a starting position.

Trevor mort back would be a nice addition as sometimes the defence open themselves up very easily.

It's wide open this year. Championship is for Kerry, then Cork/Dublin to lose. Tyrone are back in the mix and Kildare are at a good stage now. b Bar Kerry, noone is going to fancy drawing us. And it's up to us to get over this fear of kerry.

hopefully we get tight games in connacht this year because that will be key.

Would a run in the qualifiers suit us though? we seem to be a confidence team, and if we manage to win a few games in a row would it get our sails up?

Sunday is a good test for Mayo should see how far they have come from the championship defeat to Kerry.

Oracle - Good choices there but on no account would I have McGarrity back. He is just not good enough in my opinion and too slow in distributing the ball. This is the same problem with Mortimer but he makes up for it with point taking and free taking. For midfield I would have Gibbons miles ahead of McGarrity.

Yes Sunday will be a big test. I am not expecting miracles but would be disappointed if we did not show some improvement on our last Croke Park outings with Kerry. A competitive showing would be an improvement. Not throwing in the towel after going a few points behind would be an improvement. And finally not being intimidated by Kerry reputation would certainly be an improvement.

This was posted as a new thread but as the subject matter is the same it has been incorporated here.

CLASSIC
Posts: 6
Mayo
10/04/2012
12:09

A DAY OUT IN CROKER

Nice to be back in croke park again but cant see it been anything but a kerry win plus still no idea wat horan thinks is his best 15.few pints in quinns though??

Can't wait for the next day, ye have come along way since last years meeting and clearly have shown that against cork, dublin and ourselves.
O Shea is one of the best midfielders in the country at the moment and very hard to stop at times as he displayed on sunday.
O Connor needs to start as he is vital from frees, its the same as us with Sheehan.
Still think we have more experience in us with marc o se, eoin brosnan, bryan sheehan, declan and darren o sullivan, paul galvin and gooch and a mix of younger blood should help us over the line by a couple of points.

finuge93
County: Kerry
Can't wait for the next day, ye have come along way since last years meeting and clearly have shown that against cork, dublin and ourselves.

Well before the Dublin game everyone was saying (myself included) that we had gone backwards. We are not a good as the dublin result and I don't think yer guys tried that hard on sunday if im being honest. If the full kerry team had started as they will the next day then we would have lost in Tralee.

I think we have a huge job on our hands to beat Kerry in croker. I hope we can but a hammering could set the team back again.

Kerry 1-15
Mayo 1-11

It should be a tight enough game, I wouldn't write ye off at all.

Very important Mayo don't get hammered on Sunday. Remember the reason why Mayo had a bad year in 2010 was because they didn't recover from the Croke park league defeat to Cork.

I wouldnt mind seeing us lose a good tight game by 2 points or so, in saying that we proved last year this Kerry full back line can be got at, as can ours, I think it will be very open, but they have the better scoring fowards than us that can excel in Croke Park, probably be a first Croke Park outing for 3/4 of our lads, and it is very important we don't take a bad beating, obviously its better we're playing them in a semi though, as we would have had no chance against them in the final, and moral wise we couldnt have the stigma of losing another final to Kerry attached to the team. As it is now we go up there and have a shot to nothing at beating them.

While losing by two or three points in a tight game may be seen as not going backwards, what we should be constantly trying to do is going forward. And I think the only way we can do this is by beating Kerry. Whilst I don't think it is very likely, but depending on the starting team and the talented players we have, there is enough in this team to take down this Kerry side if they don't perform too well! An extra game(the league final) would be very benificial because I don't think Horan has found even 10 of his starting 15! The back line is almost settled but there are probably at least three spots up for grabs in the full forward line and we still haven't found a proper partner for AOS in midfield. I'd like to see Harte there with O Shea, I've always been a big fan of him and I think he got a lot of unfair stick after the 06 final. I Don't rate Gibbons to highly and I'd pick four or five midfielders ahead of him.

The_Oracle - Agree with you there, in a way Mayo are in a no win situtition tomorrow:

Beat by Kerry by 2- 4 points - People will say a kerry went easy on them and yet they still could not win

Hammered by Kerry - God forbid what that will do to us again

Beat Kerry - Hype machine will build (by media and mayo fans) and/or people will say kerry werent that bothered.

But il take the win anyway and whatever that might bring

The only hammering any of ye lads should be worrying about is afterwards in the pub! Fair enough, Kerry are the team to beat this spring, and we need to measure our progress, so who better to do it against? So some of our lads won't have experienced Croke Park before... aren't there a few Kerry lads in the same boat? Confidence is a big thing, and for sure Kerry will be looking to put the biggest dent in ours that they can, but if the lads stand up and give them as good back they'll grow another few inches for the summer. It's time to lose the fear lads.... we've a developing side and there's a game to look forward to! Would ye rather be looking at somebody else in our place?

It will be interesting to see if Aiden O'Shea can perform for the full 70 against Kerry. If we can win midfield then we can give it a go.