Five key issues for Andy Moran for Monaghan game

1: Kick-outs 

Mayo struggled hugely on kick-outs against Roscommon with Roscommon mining 1-11 from possession won off Rob Hennelly’s restarts.

It has been very clear across games in this year’s championship that the battle for primary possession has become more important than ever under the ‘new’ rules.

The rules have reinstated the importance of high fielding, a skill which greatly waned in the last decade or so of the ‘old’ rules.

Mayo – so often blessed with high fielders over the years as well as wing-backs and wing-forwards who were ravenous on the breaking ball – are going through a staffing shortage in this regard.

Our inability to win sufficient primary possession has been a big problem in recent years.

David McBrien has been moved from defence to midfield with many feeling he is needed further back.

Bob Tuohy has been alongside him and impressed in much of the league but struggled to impact against Roscommon. Does Andy Moran stick or twist?

Jack Carney and Jordan Flynn have been playing as wing-forwards under this and the previous management but can play at midfield too.

Do Mayo stick with four big men across the middle or mix it up? Then there's the question of Matthew Ruane, returning from injury. A live option to start.

If both Aidan O’Shea and Kobe McDonald start, do they perhaps take turns coming out and assisting Mayo on their own kick-outs?

And what of Rob Hennelly’s role, if Moran keeps faith? The Breaffy man was to blame for Roscommon’s first goal with a poor short kick-out (after Diarmuid Murtagh hitting the post, taking his time was the smarter play in hindsight).

But it also revealed a worrying reality – Mayo were always trying to get quick kick-outs away because of their worries over long balls to contests.

Can Mayo mix it up with a range of different kick-outs? Hennelly has the armoury for this.

Can Mayo compete ferociously for breaking ball? Because if Mayo are struggling to win primary possession, that ground battle becomes paramount.

And what sort of plan have Mayo for Rory Beggan’s kick-outs? Andy Moran will know more than most how good they are. Do Mayo simply choose some kick-outs to press and allow others to be taken short and then try to press from there?

Restarts at either end could be the defining battle of this game.

2: Physicality 

 A related point to the above. Mayo were physically outfought by Roscommon in a manner that should not be acceptable. The response in this regard should be very apparent – no team worth its salt should allow this to happen back-to-back, or even in the first instance.

Mayo’s tame physicality was apparent on kick-outs at both ends. When Roscommon were in front just after half-time and Mayo needed to get back into the game, Mayo’s passiveness on the Roscommon kick-out was startling.

Roscommon were able to get short kick-outs away too easy and when it went long to a contest, well it wasn’t much of a ‘contest’.

Not only that, but there was no aggression or frustration in Mayo. No physical markers laid down when they needed to be. Just too passive in every way.

Jim McGuinness spoke after the Kerry game about how they knew they were going to encounter physicality in Killarney and their plan was to be ready for it. The game was played with a real edge in the first-half and it obviously spilled over at half-time.

But it has you thinking how would Mayo cope in such physical conditions? Certainly, if they brought what they brought against Roscommon, they would be completely steamrolled.

The Mayo team of a decade ago had plenty of warriors who would stand their ground in the white heat of battle. It was a great Mayo team so it is perhaps unfair to compare the current team to them but has Andy Moran the physicality at his disposal?

Certainly there is more in them than seen against Roscommon. How much remains to be seen but, above all else, there needs to be a strong response in this regard in Clones.

3: The older players 

The Roscommon game was, as far as plenty of Mayo folk were concerned, the beginning of the end for some of Mayo’s more experienced players like Aidan O’Shea, Rob Hennelly and Cillian O’Connor.

Writing those obituaries might be a bit premature. On a day when so many players played poorly, it is hard to narrow the focus.

Aidan O’Shea should have been sporadically brought out as an option on Mayo’s own kick-out but there is no doubt he did not threaten enough inside. Mayo would not want him on the back foot too often from here but this is easy enough to control if he only comes out occasionally, especially with the range of Rob Hennelly’s kick-outs.

Does Andy Moran stick with him in the full-forward line, bring him out the field more to add some beef to the middle eight or use him as an impact sub? He has a significant role to play in this season yet in whatever capacity.

There have been plenty of calls to drop Rob Hennelly too. He did not have a good outing against Roscommon but overall this year has been very solid. Another Breaffy man, Jack Livingstone, is waiting in the wings. Judged on the fact he only was started for one league game, I think it is clear Moran sees him as the understudy.

It would be a big call to throw him in now. Hennelly’s kick-out range, if utilised more, can remain a weapon for Mayo but he does need to judge it better when to slow things down and when to go for a swift, short or medium range kick-out.

Cillian O’Connor came off the bench when Mayo were chasing the game and things did not work out for him either. However, again, when so much was going wrong all over the field, it is hard to draw a definitive conclusion as to what he can offer.

He is 34 and not at his peak but based on the fact he has only played three games off the bench this year, it is too early to be casting verdicts and that he remains a good weapon off the bench.

Mayo simply do not have enough quality at their disposal right now to be throwing such experience on the scrap heap.

4: Defensive personnel and shape 

Mayo struggled hugely at the back against Roscommon. When you are struggling to win primary possession, then the defence is going to be under a lot of pressure.

The worry from a Mayo perspective is that the three games where Mayo have been outmatched at the back i.e. where they have played against a high level attack, they’ve been well beaten.

Roscommon, Kerry and Donegal had better forwards than Mayo’s backs and Andy Moran’s defence was far too easy to carve open. The defensive system seems to rely on defenders winning individual battles but there are opponents against which this is a folly, especially as Mayo simply do not have the quality of defenders of a decade ago who could go toe to toe with the best in the land.

Are Monaghan in that bracket? Perhaps not quite but they will be licking their lips at the prospect of getting fast, quick ball into their forward line against this Mayo defence.

Andy Moran has personnel decisions and has also to decide how his defence set-up. The latter will be interesting to see – does he stick or twist?

In terms of personnel, the weeks since the Roscommon game should have massively helped the fitness of players returning from injury like Conor Loftus, Donnacha McHugh and Enda Hession.

Loftus was excellent on the front foot against Roscommon in the first-half and, somewhat naturally given his injury lay-off, tired in the second-half.

But it remains unclear if, defensively, Mayo are best served with him at six. Could Paddy Durcan move in and Loftus go to the wing?

Might David McBrien move back to centre half-back and Loftus to the half-forward line? There are options and alternatives with Mayo’s back six above and beyond what we’ve mentioned. And there needs to be change. The nature of it will be fascinating to see.

5: Forward decisions 

Billy Joe Padden, no bad judge of Mayo football, has been distinctly unimpressed with the Mayo full-forward line all year. The facts back it up. Mayo have scored a total of 13-191 in their seven league and two championship games. Of that, the starting inside forward line has scored just 28 percent (7-44 of Mayo’s scores) in those games.

It’s ironic that Mayo’s best performer on the pitch against Roscommon was a player making his first senior start – Kobe McDonald.

With the Leaving Cert coming up, it is not clear what his availability will be in the coming weeks, not least in Clones.

Ryan O’Donoghue has rotated between inside and 11 but more out than in.

Aidan O’Shea has started five league games and both championship games. Darragh Beirne also started five league games but has yet to see championship action.

Cian McHale has started in the four games Beirne hasn’t. They are the 2026 version of Cillian O’Connor and Aidan O’Shea in 2024, where both were never on the field at the same time.

But there is no law against starting both.

Much of it will be a domino effect depending on how Mayo set up in the middle eight and who starts. Andy Moran has plenty of cards all over the field. Maybe not the same amount of aces as a decade ago but enough to change things up.

How much of a gamble will he take?

This Sunday is his biggest test yet as an inter-county manager.