How much can you man bring to the table... he's achieved a lot with this Mayo team. If he gives it one more year and Mayo go onto lift Sam in 2014... It would be easily one of the greatest achievements in GAA history. A never give up, a never say die story to rival the best of them. The Dubs in the 90's kept going... but they changed manager. Is that what's needed in Mayo? Has Horan laid the foundation for someone new to build an All Ireland winning team...

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 20/10/2013 21:36:40    1503606

Mayo - Horan-stay or go??
Jombo check mayo forum (if you're interested enough)....we've been discussing this for the past two weeks........

beal (Mayo) - Posts: 1388 - 20/10/2013 21:54:59    1503615

He should stay, there is no reason why Mayo can't as competitive as they have been. The real problem they have is that Dublin will be a more settled team next year with yet still more talent to come through. Mayo are the closest team to Dublin at the moment and it's hard to see that changing too much in the next 12 months.

realdub (Dublin) - Posts: 8770 - 20/10/2013 21:56:30    1503617

That's a good question jimbo and personally I would like to see him stay, he has taken mayo to another level from where they were and with there minors winning the all Ireland this year it's only a mater of time before they make the break through and win a senior IMO.

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 21/10/2013 08:46:57    1503633

Of course he should stay, he is easily one of the best managers in the country. The reality is over the last 2 years we lost to the best team in the country in that year. We actually nearly upset the odds on both occasions. Last year we played with two thirds of our forward line carrying or recovering from serious injury. He has directed players like seamus o'shea, chris barrett, colm boyle and michael conroy from being peripheral squad players to being all-star contenders. So many players have gotten so much better under his tenure. Far too much is made of losing in a final in the gaa, which a lot of the time, comes down to a bit of luck on the day. He has set mayo firmly on the right track, that is what county boards, and indeed fans, should be looking at as regards how their manager is performing.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 21/10/2013 09:49:38    1503656

I would be very surprised if he didn't stay.

GetOverTheBar (Tyrone) - Posts: 1388 - 21/10/2013 11:10:46    1503705

I think Horan should def stay. I guess your never proven until you win the all ireland but he has been solid in the league & created a real respect factor around the Mayo side knocking out all Ireland winners each year Cork - Dublin - Donegal. He knows the players inside out & with the likes of Mikey Sweeney to hopefully come in he can add a bit of pace & lethal touch to the full forward line. In my opinion the decision Horan made by James Horan to put Kevin Keane on Murphy last year cost MAyo the final, but if you think back Donegal were quiet lucky, give murphy the ball again in the same situation i bet he blazes the ball over the bar half the time, + McFaddens goal came back off the post Keane fumbled it how unlucky? totally out of Horans control in my opinion. Then this year his decision to take Higgins out of the half forward line at the end of the first half was a killer. If you look back at the first half higgins was running riot in the mayo half forward line & was the real link man, Mayo stuggled to break the dublin half back line after he went back,did this prove that horan had no real faith in subs? someone that could hold o gara ? Too much emphasis on midfield on that game mayo won 15/18 of there own kick outs in second half. Horan is a young manager who Im sure will learn from this everyone makes mistakes I beleive he is the man to bring home Sam.

johnboy22 (Mayo) - Posts: 9 - 21/10/2013 11:21:11    1503714

johnboy, fair enough as regards the murphy issue, but with higgins moving back, o'gara was doing a lot of damage. If he left higgins where he was and o'gara scored a goal then people would be complaining about higgins playing in the forwards. It was probably an ok call in my book. Yes he was taking a chance up front, but that is better than taking a chance at the back, and with dublin being so hungry for goals all year, it could have been a hammer blow - think murphy the year before. He took the wiser option from what I can see.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 21/10/2013 11:41:05    1503724

Ya i respect that but what im saying is horan obviously didnt trust any of his sub backs enough to come on & do the job. I unerstand why I did it but higgins was going well I was quite surprised how dublin panicked a little as he ran at them. I think also the Mayo backs showed too much respect to the dublin forwards, Chris Barrett for example looked like he was under instructions not to pass the 45 as he made a few bursts up the field & the retracted once he hit the 45. I guess we will never know what could have been. But Respect to Horan he has made a real force & hopefulluy we will have big days out again next year.

johnboy22 (Mayo) - Posts: 9 - 21/10/2013 11:54:13    1503737

As an outsider I'd like to see him stay. This Mayo team are class. They just met a Dublin team who were better on the day.

slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6480 - 21/10/2013 13:58:00    1503840

Ya that is fair enough but you could say if cunniffe was struggling with him, and before he got injured he had been, then would the lads on the line be able to handle him? It isnt so much trusting them as it is being realistic and objective. They arent starting for a reason.

As regards barrett, ya id agree with that mayo's defence didnt play enough of their normal game. But considering how often dublin broke forward at pace with a defender out of positon, and scored a goal or created a goal chance over the year, you can understand why the mayo defence might have been instructed to not get caught up the field. You can say that is negative, but then we done the opposite against donegal, got punished and he got blamed for that aswell. Similarly, donegal decided they werent going to concede goals and they won an all ireland on the back of it. I think the idea was probably sound, the execution maybe wasnt as good as it could have been.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 21/10/2013 14:11:11    1503851

Tir Conaill Abu posted this on the Mayo forum


The question Horan is probably asking is..Am I flogging a dead horse?? No matter who Mayo has managing them next year they will be in the quarters finals IMO so the real question is have Mayo got the players to win the All Ireland? I'm sure Horan will be looking at his panel with the realization that they just don't have the panel to win an All Ireland. Donegal, Tyrone, Kerry etc. are in the same boat and no doubt all their respective managers are trawling the county looking for the hidden gem.

I would have loved to see Mayo win the AI this year but they just weren't good enough. The simple facts that in 2012 Donegals worst performance was in the final, In 2013 Dublins worst performance was in the final and on both occassions Mayo weren't good enough to beat those teams so Horan might not be able for heartache for another year and for that reason I think he'll go!!

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 21/10/2013 14:18:00    1503855

Is there a reason this post is being discussed Nationally as well as locally. Personally I would keep local issues to our own forum. I have no problem with other guys (from other counties) coming on to give their tuppence worth. But as a subject matter it surely makes more sense to be talking about this amongst ourselves. And this is already being debated over on the county page.

MaigheoAbu (Mayo) - Posts: 343 - 21/10/2013 14:29:46    1503864

Hope so.
Kilkenny lost the hurling All-Irls of '98 & '99 to two different teams, the second one by a point, like Mayo these last two years. We didn't fare too badly since...

AnFearDonn (Kilkenny) - Posts: 65 - 21/10/2013 15:47:02    1503925

jimbodub, has it not occured to you that the pressure game mayo play caused those teams to 'have their worst performance of the year'?

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 21/10/2013 15:57:34    1503938

TheMaster
County: Mayo
Posts: 9192

1503938
jimbodub, has it not occured to you that the pressure game mayo play caused those teams to 'have their worst performance of the year'?


Why would it? I didn't say those words... just passing on what I thought was an interesting angle regarding James Horan's current mindset.

The whole flogging a dead horse thing... he's gone to great lengths to blame his own players over the last few years

There's enough there to suggest that he may think that despite all his efforts... he doesn't have the players

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 21/10/2013 16:02:59    1503944

MaigheoAbu
County: Mayo
Posts: 96

1503864
Is there a reason this post is being discussed Nationally as well as locally. Personally I would keep local issues to our own forum. I have no problem with other guys (from other counties) coming on to give their tuppence worth. But as a subject matter it surely makes more sense to be talking about this amongst ourselves. And this is already being debated over on the county page.
_____

There's a fair amount of in fighting on that particular thread

At least on the main page we can separate from that

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 21/10/2013 16:15:45    1503952

Great lengths to blame his own players? The only time he has 'blamed his own player' was pointing out mistakes that were made in a game when asked about them, like every manager does when they downplay wins. In the year just gone he was actually the one manager who embraced being the favourites tag before games. Your last post isnt based on anything I have seen.
As regards, 'flogging a dead horse', losing an all ireland by a point, with 4 forwards injured and not playing well as a unit on the day, doesnt exactly sound like a dead horse to me. Maybe you are just worried about the impending mayo backlash and need to convince yourself of this stuff? Look at what poor old donegal got...

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 21/10/2013 16:45:46    1503974

Oh yes... multiple times I've seen him having a cut at his players... even named a couple of them at one stage

I'm not worried about any team themaster. Sure we can only worry about ourselves.

Considering that Dublin only played in bits and pieces throughout the Championship as pointed out by Mick-Daragh recently and yet it was still good enough to win.

I would have high hopes that this team have far from peaked and the best is still to come.

Jim is looking for a complete performance and we didn't see that once during the 2013 Championship

Yet we still won... impressive.

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20763 - 21/10/2013 17:06:06    1503991

Some supporters still don't realize without Horan Mayo wouldn't have reached the last two AI finals yet they try to blame him for losing those finals. James Horan knows full well he got the very best of this panel they are punching well above their weight and the only way is down from here! so when giving it another go James will be thinking to himself is it worth hassle?

Gaa_lover (USA) - Posts: 3641 - 21/10/2013 18:49:56    1504061