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I have to say I have little time for singling out single moments out of a 70 minute game and using that as your excuse for why your team lost. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule, but generally if that's your line of argument you're on shaky ground. Rather than obsessing about the peno or Gleason's over the bar antics, to me the difference between the teams is how both had unexpectedly long dry periods when the wind was behind them; Galway's was the first 15 minutes or so of the game, and Mayo's happened after the 44th. But Galway came back into the game with near 100% shooting accuracy whereas Mayo's was closer to 80%. O'Donoghue's dropping the ball short right into Gleason's hands is a prime example. In a game that was always going to be down to fine margins, that was the difference. A thoroughly enjoyable contest that was in the hopper right to the end, and maybe I'm mellowing with age, but I feel bad for the Mayo lads. That was effectively a one point game and to lose to us on your home turf to give us the four in a row? Ouch. Best of luck going forward. And for what it's worth, knowing we now face Dublin as a "reward" for winning must make ye smirk. festinog (Galway) - Posts: 3148 - 05/05/2025 17:05:29 2606888 Link
Replying To smallfrank: "I watched the game back this morning. Matthew Thompson had a hand in 5 points in the first half and should have had a goal, he was outstanding. Conroys skill levels are outrageous. Pulling McGrath out the pitch backfired for Mayo, he won the (soft) penalty and O'Donoghue was gassed at the end of the game from following him. AOS was done for steps, over carried twice(one that led to Thomson's goal chance, attempted a crazy free from the sideline and was out of gas with 10 minutes to go. There seems to be a rule against taking him off. Liam Silke went onto Boland and gave a masterclass in nullifying a 2 point threat." McGrath also set up finnerty point and O'Shea got away with overcarrying for hession goal chance he uses 4 steps alone just to turn. I was totally wrong thinking McGrath shouldn't follow Rod out the field it worked a treat. jm25 (Galway) - Posts: 1502 - 05/05/2025 18:35:12 2606899 Link
Replying To EDH: "The traffic before the match was very poorly managed and led to significant delays getting to Castlebar. Then sitting in traffic for 90 minutes after the end of the match trying to get out of Castlebar is beyond a joke. If it happened at Salthill you'd never hear the end of it." You don't get wind like that either in salthill. The race last year was in ballina maybe have it there years mayo likely to host Connacht final jm25 (Galway) - Posts: 1502 - 05/05/2025 18:37:58 2606901 Link
Brilliant day, the breeze kept Mayo in the game but they shot terrible wides, nothing new there... Hernon and Cooke were huge pluses .. Clare from the blog in tears today Belclare7 (Galway) - Posts: 246 - 05/05/2025 18:43:11 2606905 Link
Replying To JimB1991: "Its a huge if, nothing to suggest Mayo will suddenly find the efficiency in attack neccessary to win an All Ireland. It was a win on Mayo's home pitch in fairness but there was nothing particularly convincing about it. Walsh and Comer are out injured more often than not, have they not learned to play without them yet?" Beat Roscommon and Mayo this year without them and beat a good few decent teams last year without one or other of them so they clearly have learnt how to play and win without them. Trucker1 (Galway) - Posts: 424 - 05/05/2025 19:07:34 2606916 Link
Replying To EDH: "The traffic before the match was very poorly managed and led to significant delays getting to Castlebar. Then sitting in traffic for 90 minutes after the end of the match trying to get out of Castlebar is beyond a joke. If it happened at Salthill you'd never hear the end of it." Don't think they were prepared for such a crowd. A man told me they sold 9000 tickets on the Sunday?Go earlier, try a different route? Via Knock, Kiltimagh, Bohola. I was parked up on Bohola Road at 2:20, no bother. Gardai directed traffic well after the match on that side of town anyways though I know access to Galway side can be more of a bottleneck.The toilets on the stand side were a disaster at half time. Needed a few portable toilets in there and some access allowed to Sportlann toilets. A disaster if you had children with you and maybe a safety risk too. It does happen in Salthill but we know in advance! GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7959 - 05/05/2025 19:28:24 2606920 Link
Replying To EDH: "The traffic before the match was very poorly managed and led to significant delays getting to Castlebar. Then sitting in traffic for 90 minutes after the end of the match trying to get out of Castlebar is beyond a joke. If it happened at Salthill you'd never hear the end of it." And also another Galway Mayo game affected badly by wind, the second of the year in that very venue. Always a good laugh hearing ones calling Salthill a wind tunnel and traffic nightmare when their ground is the exact same. At least in Salthill you get to be in Galway city in 20 mins if you're not driving PressureKick (UK) - Posts: 277 - 05/05/2025 19:55:56 2606923 Link
And while I'm at it, what are your thoughts on Mayo choosing to play into the wind in the first half? I always feel you want the wind behind you in the first half especially when it's strong. Fresh legs, you have the weather vane, you have your starting 15 on the field; so you rack up a big score and leave the other side with all the work to do in the second half when they're tiring, may have had injuries and have had to use subs, and if the score difference is big enough, the heads might already be beginning to drop. Seems like a no-brainer to me. festinog (Galway) - Posts: 3148 - 05/05/2025 20:50:44 2606930 Link
Replying To Flemenstar200: "Kickitout.. thoughts on yesterday please?" looking forward to seeing this too cavan.galway (Galway) - Posts: 241 - 05/05/2025 20:52:56 2606932 Link
Replying To festinog: "And while I'm at it, what are your thoughts on Mayo choosing to play into the wind in the first half? I always feel you want the wind behind you in the first half especially when it's strong. Fresh legs, you have the weather vane, you have your starting 15 on the field; so you rack up a big score and leave the other side with all the work to do in the second half when they're tiring, may have had injuries and have had to use subs, and if the score difference is big enough, the heads might already be beginning to drop. Seems like a no-brainer to me." I'd be of opposite opinion if you know wind will last entire game. Games always seem to start slow and Galway in particular always take time to get going and the opening 10 15 minutes are a bit of sparring and you don't get use of advantages. By time 2nd half comes round your used to conditions and seen how the opposition used it. Mayo had wiped Galway's 8 pts to about 2 in ten minutes meanwhile Galway were still feeling things out in 10 minutes of first half and were 3 down. Galway were exceptional to break even last 20 minutes I will make exception in the case of a wind like Donegal game this year. I'd also add some of the advantages/disadvantages you applied are applicable to both teams weather with or against wind. jm25 (Galway) - Posts: 1502 - 05/05/2025 21:38:20 2606942 Link
Replying To festinog: "And while I'm at it, what are your thoughts on Mayo choosing to play into the wind in the first half? I always feel you want the wind behind you in the first half especially when it's strong. Fresh legs, you have the weather vane, you have your starting 15 on the field; so you rack up a big score and leave the other side with all the work to do in the second half when they're tiring, may have had injuries and have had to use subs, and if the score difference is big enough, the heads might already be beginning to drop. Seems like a no-brainer to me." Mayo with their current forward talent aren't realistically a 'rack up a big score' type of team. I thought that Mayo's 'wind move' was working well. Galway came out of the traps slowly, and remarkably had only ONE player score in the first 20 wind assisted minutes. The late penalty thanks to McGrath gave us a badly needed bolster to our wind assisted HT lead. Still Mayo were level by 52:30mins, giving them a whopping 17 plus mins to win the game from parity with wind assistance. It looked like a great position, so imo the Mayo wind decision worked well for them. You'd hardly blame 'wind assistance' for Mayo losing those last 17mins by 2pts, and the match with it. Pope_Benedict (Galway) - Posts: 4124 - 05/05/2025 21:54:05 2606946 Link
analysts hate the new rules and they are super critical of refs, lol suckvalleypaddy (Galway) - Posts: 1732 - 05/05/2025 22:01:50 2606948 Link
Replying To PressureKick: "And also another Galway Mayo game affected badly by wind, the second of the year in that very venue. Always a good laugh hearing ones calling Salthill a wind tunnel and traffic nightmare when their ground is the exact same. At least in Salthill you get to be in Galway city in 20 mins if you're not driving" Salthill and Castlebar are the exact same traffic nightmare? Have you driven to many championship matches to both, on a bank holiday Sunday? GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7959 - 05/05/2025 22:32:01 2606955 Link
Replying To suckvalleypaddy: "analysts hate the new rules and they are super critical of refs, lol" Neilan made mistakes and let a lot go but it was a super game of football. He could have got more calls correct, by the letter of the law, but game could have been stop start and boring as a result. GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 7959 - 05/05/2025 22:48:07 2606956 Link
Replying To suckvalleypaddy: "analysts hate the new rules and they are super critical of refs, lol" The two bucks on this game were very negative and it's no surprise to see today the pair of them responsible for most of the news pieces on this website complaining about this that and the other. It was tiresome during the game. One moment that stood out for me was towards the beginning of the game when a Mayo lad required attention following a clash as he bent to pick up the ball. McGinely went on ad nauseam about how refs didn't do enough to safeguard players in this situation and all but called for whoever the Galway lad responsible was to be sent off. And then the replay showed both players going for the ball and the Mayo lad entirely accidentally running into the hindquarters of the Galway boy. No foul, no mall intent, and if anything the Mayo lad was a wee bit behind the Galway lad and so basically injured himself (not that it matters in any way, and both lads were good to go again). But McGinley said nothing, left his accusations of foul play floating, and moved on. Looking for controversy for the sake of it. Sorry. Rant over. festinog (Galway) - Posts: 3148 - 05/05/2025 23:07:59 2606963 Link
They really should have played that match in Sathill, the wind is Castlebar was a joke! The_DOC (Galway) - Posts: 765 - 06/05/2025 10:39:19 2607027 Link
Can anybody explain why the time clock was stopped at 64 minutes 38 seconds as play went on in the Connacht Final on Sunday? Anyone with the match recorded can check it. It went on for 1 minute and 20 secs. A bit unusual as it gave the chasing team extra time to try and rescue the game. conordee (Galway) - Posts: 453 - 06/05/2025 11:08:49 2607037 Link
Replying To conordee: "Can anybody explain why the time clock was stopped at 64 minutes 38 seconds as play went on in the Connacht Final on Sunday? Anyone with the match recorded can check it. It went on for 1 minute and 20 secs. A bit unusual as it gave the chasing team extra time to try and rescue the game." Thought the same too when watching but I think this was addressed. Sunday Game clock was different to the actual in game clock so it was paused to come down to the actual time. ahsure. (Galway) - Posts: 1673 - 06/05/2025 11:16:57 2607040 Link
Replying To ahsure.: "Thought the same too when watching but I think this was addressed. Sunday Game clock was different to the actual in game clock so it was paused to come down to the actual time." TV clock not the official one. Seanfanbocht (Roscommon) - Posts: 2288 - 06/05/2025 11:41:40 2607050 Link
Replying To jm25: "ROD 1st score in second half was from well outside arc so why was he so anxious holding up two fingers?? AOS took near 10 steps setting up hession chance and ref was hot on steps all day Free count 25-14 in mayo favour and while some of mayo's tackling was outstanding don't think we were overly ill disciplined. Glynn penalised for ball on ground rightly so, about 2 minutes later ruane does it even clearer in front of posts no free given. Was tierney tackle a black card ?" ROD was anxious because Sean Kelly was adamant that he get a nick on the ball with his hands when ROD struck it. Which means by the letter of the law if it was touched it should of been a one pointer. With how worried ROD looked and how much protesting Sean Kelly did I'd say there was a good bit of truth in the argument! SamandLiamSoon (Galway) - Posts: 624 - 06/05/2025 12:20:12 2607062 Link