Replying To tirawleybaron:  "Coen is all heart and no pace.
A much better match for Conroy , who has no pace either."

Replying To yew_tree:  "You'd wonder about the future of the provincial championships. 15k approx was the attendance across both Connacht semi finals. I've been at league games with as many and more. It will be interesting to see how many we get for the Connacht final."

Replying To jm25:  "Would you not think putting someone with legs would be better on someone with no pace.

Galway have lost with the new rules the benefit of having Kelly run AOS up and down field.

Tommy conroy would be a massive addition back as we always struggle with him especially as McGrath has usually been good at tieing up ROD"

Replying To The_analyser:  "Connacht GAA pricing isn't helping. Our form going into the game against All Ireland Finalists and having lost by 10 points to Monaghan and also lost to Meath,Cavan and only drew with Westmeath so a trip to Salthill wasn't very appealing to supporters and then had the option of not going and watching it on RTE,

We are the same as every other county as in if form and mood is better a bigger crowd turns up. In 2023 for the previous Roscommon v Galway game and also a Connacht semi final 16,917 was the attendance and reason for the bigger attendance then was we have finished 3rd in Div 1 which included a league win against Galway and had just beaten Mayo in MacHale Park.

Logic would suggest Galway should win this up coming final by a few points to spare but I would expect you'll be a lot better defensively against Galway than we were and you won't allow their fielders to catch the ball totally unchallenged. It won't surprise me one bit Mayo in full intensity mode find a way to win this Connacht title the odds alone will be a big motivation as will the manner of the defeat last year."

Replying To CiarraiMick:  "I always feel that Galway /Mayo games take on a life of their own like Cork/Kerry.
At the moment I think Galway are a better team but would nt be one bit surprised to see Mayo win."

Replying To tirawleybaron:  "Coen is all heart and no pace.
A much better match for Conroy , who has no pace either."

Replying To tirawleybaron:  "We might as well be hoping for the return of the following:
Oisin Mullin
Cillian O Connor
James Carr
Padraig O Hora
Michael Plunkett
Rory Byrne
C Loftus
add in Tommy Conroy and Paddy Durcan and you can see why we are a long way back from where we were in 2021/22/23

Finally, we have only won two Connacht U20's since 2009 indicating that the production line is weak.
The great team that played in 11 Senior All Ireland semis and 6 finals between 2011 and 2021 were built off 7 provincial U21 championships between 2001 and 2009.

No wonder we are no longer All Ireland contenders.

Incidentally, Galway current team is built off 5no U20/21 prov titles between 2011 and 2020, so they have a few more years to get their all ireland.
Roscommon's resurgence over the last while was built off 4 provincial titles between 2010 and 2015, which is why their star is waning now.

The harsh reality for Mayo is that the lack of U20 success since 2018 indicates a lack of talent coming through, which is why McStay hasn't introduced any new players in this years league.
Of the Provincial winning teams in 2016 and 2018, S Coen, D O'Connor, M Ruane; Jordan Flynn, Ryan O'Donoghue are the key players with F Boland and E O'Donoghue being squad players and J Carr, M Plunkett, C Loftus and Tommy Conroy off the panel for various reasons.
Of the 2019 team that lost the provincial final -only Jack Coyne is a starter with Rory Brickenden, Eoghan McLaughlin and Paul Towey in the squad.

If you look back at 2000's success at U21 we got serious county players from almost every U21 provincial winning team
2009 - Robert Hennelly, Donal Vaughan, Lee Keegan, Kevin McLoughlin; Tom Parsons, Aidan O'Shea, Jason Doherty.
2008 - Ger Cafferkey, Chris Barrett, Tom Cunniffe, Seamus O'Shea,
2007 - Colm Boyle; Barry Moran, Mark Ronaldson.
2006 - Keith Higgins; Aidan Kilcoyne, Michael Conroy.
2003 - P Harte, A Moran; C Mortimer, A Dillon
2001 - David Clarke, Trevor Mortimer

We just dont have that kind of talent coming through"

Replying To MayoDan:  "I wish people would stop bringing up players from the previous decade. As good as they were we still lost to (a much worse) Galway 3 years in succession from 2016-18. That's before you look into all the terrible performances in qualifier games.

Underage success is somewhat relevant but it's only a small factor. What underage success did Armagh have in the last 12 years?

The biggest factor in players development is the intercounty management team. We beat Galway out the gate in tuam during the 2020 league. It was men against boys. Who was the Galway midfield that day? John Maher and Cein Darcy. Both of those went away and came back better players. How many of the Mayo players that McStay inherited from JH have kicked on to a new level? I would argue none.

Then you have talented young players like Callinan and McBrien who have stagnated and possibly regressed. Partly due to being switched around to different positions IMO.

The good news is that things can change fast. A win on Sunday week and suddenly things are much more rosy. There's no team out there we're incapable of beating so a bit of momentum and who knows where the championship will lead us."