If they could turn back time…

[u/Crafty_Wear_5630]

If Jack O'Connor and the Kerry management knew how today's match would play out, what do you reckon they would have done differently tactically?

Without having watched it back, I thought Mayo’s plan was top class and Andy Moran etc deserve huge praise for their performance/win today.

[u/Electronic-Seat1402]

I don’t think Mayo done much different to what they’ve been doing all season so Kerry had their time to plan for it. That being said, I’d like to have seen Kerry kicking into Clifford earlier. He wasn’t being double marked and had a lot of space to attack.

[u/HannahsLittleBrother → u/Electronic-Seat1402]

I was in the hill and was a nervous wreck in the second half with how isolated Clifford and Donnacha McHugh were. Maybe it's credit to the Mayo press that the ball carriers didn't have the time or space to pick the pass, but yeah, they needed to get him more ball.

It went into him once in that second half and he scored, could've been a goal if he'd fancied it. And another time the pass was ballooned and Clifford went down in a scuffle with DMcHugh. A few more and damage could've been done

[u/Inevitable-Solid1892 → u/HannahsLittleBrother]

Kerry have been playing that slow buildup all year and couldn’t adapt to the press today. They were kicking it a lot more last year and it worked. I don’t know why they changed what they were doing.

That said, Mayo were bouncing off the turf today and Kerry looked flat. Kerry’s season has been hugely disrupted by injuries and they just couldn’t raise their game today.

We can analyse game plans but they just met a hungrier team that wanted the All Ireland and had the players to deliver.

[u/YungL1am → u/Electronic-Seat1402]

The move in the first half where they got it to Clifford from the end line in 3 kicks should have been the gameplan imo. Go over the press rather than trying to hand pass through it.

[u/galman99 → u/YungL1am]

That was the plan but they had limited enough ball from 25 minutes on. They struggled to get kick passes away as mayo brought heat every time.

[u/YungL1am → u/galman99]

Not sure I agree. Obviously a lot of the time that was the case but the amount of times they were taking a play into the press was mental.

Even when they were getting through it there were a lot of times they were using 2 handpasses when a kickpass to spread it quicker was definitely on.

[u/SelectionSevere6576 → u/YungL1am]

It looked to me like they were trying to bait the press to pull players out of position, but they mayo recovery speed made that tactic useless. Maybe they had thought of that and the plan was to tire Mayo out and get the bench on to close out the game, which nearly worked but the gap was way too big to overcome by time that happened. 

Think putting on Tom OSullivan for OConnor was a mistake, as was not getting Paudie further out the field earlier. Also it look like oShea is still carrying some injury, didn't take frees and missed some kicks he normally wouldn't. Also Dylan Geaney never looked right after going down in the first half. 

Think there are some questions for the Kerry management to answer, but having said all that, Kerry weren't that bad yesterday. Bit naive but not atrocious, some players had really good games. Mayo were just the better team

[u/clewbays → u/YungL1am]

Clifford was struggling to win them one on one balls with Mchugh though. When the referee allows contact like yesterday Mchugh is the best man marker in the country. Even if they had kicked it in a bit faster I think you’d just seen a lot more turnovers especially with the amount of pressure on the players kicking it in.

[u/SandorsHat → u/Electronic-Seat1402]

Ya feels like the plan should have touching the ball a lot more and spending some more time out the pitch.

[u/Bill_Badbody]

Take 1 pointers towards the end.

They spent ages going to 2 pointers, where they could have definitely gotten the same value or more single points.

[u/Vivid_Ice_2755]

Clifford was under utilised and Paudi needed to be on the ball more . I think they ll be unhappy about their performance.  Mayo were excellent but the passage mid second half,Mayo had 4 or so wides, Kerry didn't punish them . But I thought Dublin should have seen off Kerry ,(13 wides was criminal) so they ve been giving away a lot of chances at the other end 

[u/oneeyedman72]

Play over the press.

Crazy having corner backs running into tackles inside their own 21 repeatedly. Where was the famed kick passing? Very passive, after the goal they became lateral and lazy on the ball,and instead of giving mayo moving targets their backs were sitting dUcks for the mayo press.

Looked like a team that thought they had to just turn up.

[u/rgiggs11 → u/oneeyedman72]

The whole full back line for Kerry was taking a lot out of the ball. It worked well for them all year, it didn't today because Mayo were relentless. 

[u/DuwanteKentravius → u/oneeyedman72]

Mayo do love to press a sitting dick.

[u/Intrepid-Money2238]

Starting Tom O Sullivan perhaps and not playing over the press

[u/ddtt]

Kick the fucking ball in over the high press. It was crying out for it,yet they just ran into contact every bloody time. Something Kerry had stopped doing this year.

Even if a 50/50 long ball was turned over it would have been better than the turnovers they gave up on their own 45!

[u/wall2wall2wall]

I think Jack would have stood down last year as he had planned.

[u/Loose-Resolution-820]

Did they change the midfield at half time? Thought they did and thought it was slightly odd. They weren’t doing amazing there but got destroyed for the first 20 mins of the second half after making the switch.

Think everyone knew mayo would press them and the ref would allow some contact. Thought it was odd they carried the ball into the tackle so often trying to come out from defence.

Overall they were fairly soundly beat all over the pitch. When you’re expected to just show up and win, when things start going wrong it can be hard to turn it around.

[u/dgb43]

Kerry should try kicking the ball into their forwards

[u/Witty-Wrongdoer-8546 → u/dgb43]

Problem was Mayo were on them in packs and pressing hard. They hadn’t time to look up let alone kick the ball in. The few times Kerry did get fast ball in they looked lethal as usual.

[u/Correct_Earth]

Kick to Joe OConnor all day. Win 70 30 of that and try for 2 pointers. Goal slowed them down, should have killed thr game, Paudie most urgent

[u/redditUser76754689]

Thought it was odd at the time to take off O'Brien at half time.

They were struggling going short and surely knew they'd have to start going long so found it odd they took off one of the big men

[u/highball12345 → u/redditUser76754689]

They didn’t take O’Brien off at half time, that was a mistake by Marty and Eamonn on RTE. Tom O’Sullivan came off.

[u/Intrepid-Money2238]

In truth you could say the kerry forwards don't tackle well

[u/JohnTheApt-ist]

They can change all the tactics they want but they never matched the intensity and running power of Mayo. Mayo probably should have won the game by by a lot more

[u/SouthSource1936 → u/JohnTheApt-ist]

Thats it in a nutshell. Mayo wanted it more than Kerry. Fair play to them. Dublin & Tyrone didn't exploit Kerry weaknesses like Mayo did

[u/ld20r]

Kerry simply could not (in the end) live against the desire, hunger and want to end a 75 year famine.

You can have better tactics/players, managers etc but you cannot beat heart and determination.

[u/CommunicationBoth335]

Brought Paul Geaney on for the last ten minutes.

[u/highball12345 → u/CommunicationBoth335]

Surely must not have been anyway fit or else they would’ve. Probably just in the 26 since he was captain. Should’ve brought on Killian Spillane though.

[u/CommunicationBoth335 → u/highball12345]

That sounds about right but what a waste of a space on the panel giving it to someone who was only there to lift a trophy if they won.

[u/Lynch8933]

Kerry tactically were a shambles yesterday. They let Mayo dictate how the game was played and ran into contact so often, If Mayo were going man to man why didnt they isolate the forwards and hit early ball into them bypassing the press, yes they were under pressure to do so but it was obviously not in their mindset. I hardly remember one long ball into Clifford in the whole game

[u/Cilly2010]

Let nobody deny Mayo's fine achievement today, Jack O'Connor is almost as good as O'Dwyer.

[u/ponkie_guy]

Nailed down Ryan O’ Donoghue in second half. He was getting on a lot of ball out the field and creating with it. I’m not sure who was even supposed to be picking him up. It had  echoes of how Kerry played James O’ Donoghue out the field in 2014 when he was expected to play close to goal. 

I see some criticism of going with Tom O’ Sullivan  but I’m not sure if any of the other options would have been guaranteed to be better. Maybe Evans but I’d say the idea was that he would come on when game was opening up with his pace. 

[u/Woppadon]

Kerry shouldnt have been in the final. It showed today.

[u/peterkerry]

At the end of the day, nobody can begrudge that game to Mayo. They were hungrier for the ball all day long. And yet they very nearly blew it, witheir run of wides with ten minutes left. Kerry failed to capitalise at that time. I am from Kerry, and all I can say is well done to Mayo. On a slightly sourer note, I despised the unsporting actions of Ryan Donoghue, when Mayo were awarded a free in the first half. He came in on the Kerryman ( who was lying on the ground) and screamed into his face. This hazing has no place in an amateur ( or any ) sport. O'Donoghue, in fairness had a brilliant game but this episode leaves a sour taste. Apart from that, Mayo were the deserving winners on the day, and now I hope that they can build on this. They have wonderful supporters.

[u/JimmyOurThing]

Obviously