Hope this will be the match to put back on the road to Croker.The pressure is off us now and with no team standing out in Ulster or Connacht it is about the right time for Mayo to return to the Capital September.Mayo by 8

GerryMc (Mayo) - Posts: 218 - 21/06/2010 21:18:03    683398

Heard they are showing this match on the comedy channell this weekend.

millhouse (Meath) - Posts: 892 - 21/06/2010 21:31:58    683420

GerryMc
I love your optomism but not a hope. Teams like mayo and donegal have to realise that if they make quarter finals its a great achievement. On a plus note that new full forward ye had on looked dangerous

dstuction (Donegal) - Posts: 1209 - 22/06/2010 09:38:55    683513

I don't think the pressure is off. Longford will be hoping to have a real go here and if Mayo show the same lack of resolve we've seen over the last couple of months and in the last 15 minutes of the Meath match, it'll be a long club football summer. I'll still be shocked if we lose, but it'd be fair to say that at the moment picking a solid 15 who'll perform (as opposed to the 15 best footballers) is a problem.

I don't know where Meath posters get their arrogance from... we self-destructed in the face of some outrageously poor decisions by the officials that got ye back into that q-f. Without those breaks Meath would still have lost to jokey old Mayo! Next day out ye met a Kerry team that didn't really spark and yet they won comfortably. The true worth of this Meath team won't be measured in Leinster this year, the way things are shaping up, but like ourselves ye haven't got the sort of strong, pacey defenders to shut out the really top class sides and ye, like us, will not be contenders until ye've proven ye possess these sorts of players. It was only 12 months ago that the Dubs took this Meath team apart. Limerick also did a number on ye a couple of years back. In all our championship losses over the last 20 years, we've only taken two real hidings and both of these were in A-I finals (same as Cork). Last time Meath got there Galway gave ye a fair beating too. The biggest difference between Mayo and Meath is that our failures always get magnified, while with Meath they're like water off a ducks back... ye bounce back and expect to win next time or next year... this must be a by-product of Sam having been a recent visitor to your county. If we had won at least one of those recent finals our players and supporters would have a different view of the championship. The only other side who are similarly burdened are The Dubs. Personally I'd be happy and confident if Mayo were to meet Meath again this year... ye're no great shakes really!

Pericles (Mayo) - Posts: 2521 - 22/06/2010 10:53:52    683598

GerryMc your a gas man. But your a Mayo man so it doesnt surprise me

ConnollyDub (Dublin) - Posts: 2007 - 22/06/2010 11:56:58    683675

Seriously lads if we don't beat Longford by at least ten we are going nowhere. The talent is there in Mayo to go on an extended run this year and I hope they turn this talent into results this year.

maigh_eo (Mayo) - Posts: 1346 - 22/06/2010 13:13:41    683772

dstuction
County: Donegal
Posts: 126

683513 GerryMc
I love your optomism but not a hope. Teams like mayo and donegal have to realise that if they make quarter finals its a great achievement. On a plus note that new full forward ye had on looked dangerous

cant agree with that. mayo have been one of the most consistent teams over the past 10 years. All Irealnd finals provincial champions in that time. in other words have a far superior list of achievement than dongegal. perhaps donegal might be happy with a quarter final but not mayo no way

JinxyPoop (UK) - Posts: 1162 - 22/06/2010 13:19:15    683785

what are you raving about maigh_eo? How much did kery beat them by last year, and then they went on to win sam. How can mayo be expected to come out firing on top form after the loss we just had? They need to ease back into it and gain some form. A one point win is loads

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 22/06/2010 13:43:15    683835

Is there ever any pressure on Mayo?

NavyNBlue (Dublin) - Posts: 1357 - 22/06/2010 13:55:47    683854

That mayo team is in need of a big win to bring up morale.No point in winning by the odd point because it won't boost confidence and bring back a swagger that is needed to win anything.

maigh_eo (Mayo) - Posts: 1346 - 22/06/2010 14:07:08    683891

millhouse - at least it would be good enough to get on TV unlike Meath and Laois- TWICE

mayoboy1 (Mayo) - Posts: 1654 - 22/06/2010 14:26:11    683920

NavyNBlue
County: Dublin
Posts: 604

683854
Is there ever any pressure on Mayo?

always - this time its on the managment and team to give a good performance.
every year there is intense pressure from fans, media and weight of history and failure hanging over us. until we win an all ireland that wont go away. a bit like yerselves but at least ye won it in 95 so its not as big a famine i suppose

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11563 - 22/06/2010 15:05:44    683982

Not sure I agree with your Dubs comparison yew_tree... realistically there was no really pressure of expectation on Mayo A-I-wise from about 1969 until about 1996... we didn't have the players at all in the 70's due to emigration, plus the dominance of the Dubs first and The Kingdom for over a decade meant that no other county really got their hopes up too high - Offaly were too dumb to read the script, fair dues to them! I've known a few Dubs players in my time and the pressure felt from fickle summertime fans and the media always building them up is fairly intense. I think in Mayo we've more of a problem of feeling unworthy, whereas every Kerryman born feels he's good enough to win an A-I...

Pericles (Mayo) - Posts: 2521 - 22/06/2010 15:33:01    684025

The mayo 'pressure release valve' works too well every year since 1951, thats the problem!!

Regards,

Snufalufagus...Laochra Gael

Snufalufagus (Dublin) - Posts: 8100 - 22/06/2010 15:42:34    684039

yew_tree - I can't speak for Mayo supporters at all so I wouldn't know what the level of expectation is every year in Mayo. But I really don't think Mayo face the same level of expectation that Kerry and Dublin teams face. If Kerry don't win an All-Ireland its seen as a disaster, while Dublin are built up every year expecting to be the best in the business so when we fail at any stage its seen as a disaster and the manager has to go, player clear out etc. I'm yet to see the media respond to Mayo's short comings in the same light.
I for one think Mayo should have achieved more than they have in the last 15 years. When they lost badly to Kerry in 04 and 06 there was nowhere near the disaster talks in the national media as there was when Dublin got trounced by Kerry in 04 and 09 or by Tyrone in 08. Sure Paidi was going to be lynched for having 3 years of no success and O'Connor was given an awful time for losing to Tyrone in 05.
When Mayo beat us in what was one of the best games in living memory, most of the talk was about Dublins failure to hold onto a 7 point lead, what mistakes Caffrey made etc nowhere near enough about the performances by Alan Dillon, Conor Mortimor and Kieran McDonald that day which were sensational.
Pressure comes from expectation so what I have always seen with Mayo and other teams, and I'm not aiming to upset anyone here when I say it, that most teams out there don't have any great expectations of themselves so when they lose its no big deal - therefore no pressure.

NavyNBlue (Dublin) - Posts: 1357 - 22/06/2010 15:47:48    684051

Poor poor team. Quicker they are out the better so all the Mayo posters can leave Hoganstand for another year!

wiseman8 (Tyrone) - Posts: 288 - 22/06/2010 15:48:35    684053

pressure is for tyres

whiterbannnas (Mayo) - Posts: 2441 - 22/06/2010 16:06:34    684080

NavyNBlue
County: Dublin
Posts: 605

684051 yew_tree - I can't speak for Mayo supporters at all so I wouldn't know what the level of expectation is every year in Mayo. But I really don't think Mayo face the same level of expectation that Kerry and Dublin teams face. If Kerry don't win an All-Ireland its seen as a disaster, while Dublin are built up every year expecting to be the best in the business so when we fail at any stage its seen as a disaster and the manager has to go, player clear out etc. I'm yet to see the media respond to Mayo's short comings in the same light.
I for one think Mayo should have achieved more than they have in the last 15 years. When they lost badly to Kerry in 04 and 06 there was nowhere near the disaster talks in the national media as there was when Dublin got trounced by Kerry in 04 and 09 or by Tyrone in 08. Sure Paidi was going to be lynched for having 3 years of no success and O'Connor was given an awful time for losing to Tyrone in 05.
When Mayo beat us in what was one of the best games in living memory, most of the talk was about Dublins failure to hold onto a 7 point lead, what mistakes Caffrey made etc nowhere near enough about the performances by Alan Dillon, Conor Mortimor and Kieran McDonald that day which were sensational.
Pressure comes from expectation so what I have always seen with Mayo and other teams, and I'm not aiming to upset anyone here when I say it, that most teams out there don't have any great expectations of themselves so when they lose its no big deal - therefore no pressure.

There is always expectation in Mayo. In Kerry they win All Irelands every few years, in Dublin there is soccer, rugby and even hurling for distraction. In Mayo it is wall-to-wall football. They really love their football and have produced some of the most exciting footballers of the last 20-25 years. There is always expectation that they will at least win Connacht and challenge for Sam.

The problem for Mayo, and for Dublin at this stage, is that to beat winners like Kerry in Croke Park by 1 point, you need to be 4-5 points better and when they are 4-5+ points better then you, you get hammered like Mayo in 06 and Dublin last year. Winning does not quell hunger, it feeds it. Thats why Kerry are the way they are. Underdogs like Mayo, Dublin and Tyrone in the pre-2003 days (they used to get kicked around too, once upon a time) are inhibited when they player winners like Kerry and Tyrone post-03. That doesn't make them bottlers. Mayo will eventually win Sam and so will Dublin, but there will be more pain to bare in the mean time. And there will always be expectation and pressure.

roundball (Tipperary) - Posts: 2514 - 22/06/2010 16:14:16    684093

Roundball - where is the pressure on Mayo coming from though? I'm yet to see the media hype Mayo up the way they do Dublin or Kerry or for that matter shoot them down after they fail. Not having any ex-players writing columns is a big help in that regard
The supporters then?

NavyNBlue (Dublin) - Posts: 1357 - 22/06/2010 16:40:27    684127

Will ya stop NavynBlue, we have immense pressure from the western people, the mayo news, the connacht telegraph, not to mention mid west radio

whiterbannnas (Mayo) - Posts: 2441 - 22/06/2010 16:47:17    684134