Mayo midfield!

Reading the county page of another well known forum, it would seem there are some concerns in Mayo quarters about their midfield. I was pleasantly surprised to read this. In a team that contains Pat Harte, Ronan McGarrity, David Heaney and Tom Parsons, I wouldn't have expected this. Furthermore, they were apparantly outplayed by the Galway midfield in the Connacht final (missed this game bar the last ten minutes so can't comment). Is this true?

For Meath Nigel Crawford has been a relevation this year round the centre. Many were calling for him to retire this time last year but I can honestly say he has answered his critics in no uncertain terms. Brian Meade, some might say is only a club footballer, but he compliments Cindy well.

It'll be interesting to see the Meath midfield go head to head with Mayos especially after the Limerick game where we acquited ourselves very well round the centre.

Yeah, I've wondered about this too, particularly why Parsons hasn't been starting. Heaney's best days are well behind him, and Parsons looked very good last year. Any Mayo people able to shed any light on this?

Heaney's best days are far from behind him. i play alongside David for the club team and he is playing better than ever this year. he compliments McGarrity well because of his past as a full-back he is much more defensive minded which allows McGarrity the freedom to move forward and slot over 2/3 points a game.

the Mayo midfield were not outplayed against Galway last month. for 55 minutes they were on top and then Heaney was taken off and Parsons couldnt reach the tempo of the match so Galway were on top for 10/15 mins. considering McGarrity was playing that match with a fractured cheekbone and the galway players done their best to finish off his jaw, it was a fairly impressive performance.

McGarrity is the only player i have seen who consistently beats the likes of Cavanagh and Whealan when it comes to midfield battles. we all remember what Whealan did in 06 when McGarrity was destroying Whealan in midfield. Crawford and McGarrity will be a good contest and both teams do have strong midfields but i would honestly plump for McGarrity/Heaney to come out on top by the slightest of margins on the day

I think Heaney is still playing well. He's modified his style of play to suit his advancing years and he's a very hard worker. I think Meath might break even on the clean catches but Mayo have the players to give them the edge when it comes to breaking ball.

If there is breaks to be won, then Peader Byrne, Seamus Kenny, Cormac McGuinness and Shane McAnarney (if he's playing) will sweep up a lot of them. Meath are well drilled on the kickouts. Sometimes we struggle to use possession of the ball though.

I'd like to see David Bray and Brian Farrell get isolated inside too. Let them make the runs into the corners and spray the ball at 'em. Farrell won't try to go round his man, he'll just try and make half a yard of space for himself because he can score under pressure - the best in Meath IMO. David wouldn't be as good at this but he can, of course, take a point too.

I see a lad called Aidan Kilcoyne is corner-forward, will he stay in there? Its the two other boys that has me worried as they look to be big physical men who can play ball like nothing we've faced since Dublin - a bit like Davoren maybe?

'Killer' will deffo stay inside with the two big lads. he has scored a goal in all of his last 7 matches, for club and county, with the exception of the Galway game. whether or not he starts is the real question cause he had to be taken off at half time of the galway game cause of a hamstring injury which he has been struggling with ever since.

the two big lads inside will definitely cause problems for Meath's full-back line. if Moyles is playing #3 then he will probably stick there and mark Moran which will be a good tussle as neither of them has much pace but are very good fielders of the ball.

O'Shea is also much better than Mark Davoren!

Swinford2009 wrote:'Killer' will deffo stay inside with the two big lads. he has scored a goal in all of his last 7 matches, for club and county, with the exception of the Galway game. whether or not he starts is the real question cause he had to be taken off at half time of the galway game cause of a hamstring injury which he has been struggling with ever since.

the two big lads inside will definitely cause problems for Meath's full-back line. if Moyles is playing #3 then he will probably stick there and mark Moran which will be a good tussle as neither of them has much pace but are very good fielders of the ball.

O'Shea is also much better than Mark Davoren!

Whatever about Moyles, I don't know if Barry Moran has ever been described as a good fielder of the ball before!

watch the 2006 u21 final and u will see footage of Moran doing some fantastic fielding, Mayo v Derry in 2007 when he score 1-2 from play is another good example. the only reason he has not been fielding too often these days is cause he keeps knocking the ball down for the likes of 'Killer' and Mort

Swinford2009 wrote:watch the 2006 u21 final and u will see footage of Moran doing some fantastic fielding, Mayo v Derry in 2007 when he score 1-2 from play is another good example. the only reason he has not been fielding too often these days is cause he keeps knocking the ball down for the likes of 'Killer' and Mort

Perhaps. There was very little of it on display against Roscommon however.

RMDrive wrote:

Swinford2009 wrote:watch the 2006 u21 final and u will see footage of Moran doing some fantastic fielding, Mayo v Derry in 2007 when he score 1-2 from play is another good example. the only reason he has not been fielding too often these days is cause he keeps knocking the ball down for the likes of 'Killer' and Mort

Perhaps. There was very little of it on display against Roscommon however.

that is true, yet Eugene McGee was on the radio during the week praising Moran's performance in the Roscommon game and saying he was no good in the Galway game. something tells me he's gettin a bit confused in his old age. he was alright against Galway but he was useless against Roscommon. the only reason he wasnt taken off that day is because Mayo are trying to build up this 'twin towers' full forward line and to take off one of those forwards when your coasting to a huge win would destroy his confidance. he's improving, albeit marginally, with every game and hopefully that will continue and we'll get a good game out of him tomorrow

Swinford2009 wrote:

RMDrive wrote:

Swinford2009 wrote:watch the 2006 u21 final and u will see footage of Moran doing some fantastic fielding, Mayo v Derry in 2007 when he score 1-2 from play is another good example. the only reason he has not been fielding too often these days is cause he keeps knocking the ball down for the likes of 'Killer' and Mort

Perhaps. There was very little of it on display against Roscommon however.

that is true, yet Eugene McGee was on the radio during the week praising Moran's performance in the Roscommon game and saying he was no good in the Galway game. something tells me he's gettin a bit confused in his old age. he was alright against Galway but he was useless against Roscommon. the only reason he wasnt taken off that day is because Mayo are trying to build up this 'twin towers' full forward line and to take off one of those forwards when your coasting to a huge win would destroy his confidance. he's improving, albeit marginally, with every game and hopefully that will continue and we'll get a good game out of him tomorrow

Yeah, hopefully he'll have a good game. He's seems like a nice lad. Is he the only Mitchels man in the 15?

McGarrity always wanted to catch clean ball, Cindy spent all day slapping it out of his hands down to our half-backs and half-forwards. I watched Cindy run from also box to box in the first half while McGarrity stayed around the middle letting him go, great stuff from Nigel. Brian Meade did exceptionally well on an experienced player like David Heaney too. Well done lads.

no arguements from me about that Loyal.Meath's midfield surprised me by coming out on top so definitively. Meade had a very good game and was the best midfielder on the pitch in my opinion. Heaney had a good game but would have been better suited to playing center back or somewhere like that with Harte around Midfield picking up Crawford.

McGarrity just didnt seem to be interested for most of the match and for every breaking ball that there was there seemed to be 3 or 4 Meath players and only one Mayo player there to pick it up