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Horan: Mayo need to win opposition kick-outs if they're to beat Dublin

James Horan knows Mayo can ill-afford a repeat of their semi-final display if they're to deny Dub...
Richie McCormack
Richie McCormack

22.30 9 Dec 2020


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Horan: Mayo need to win opposi...

Horan: Mayo need to win opposition kick-outs if they're to beat Dublin

Richie McCormack
Richie McCormack

22.30 9 Dec 2020


Share this article


James Horan knows Mayo can ill-afford a repeat of their semi-final display if they're to deny Dublin a sixth All Ireland football title in a row. 

Sure, scoring 4-12 in the first half against Tipperary was fine and dandy, but the second half was a window to Mayo's potential downfall on Saturday week.

The reality is, they conceded 2-8 in the second period to a mid-table Division 3 team.

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Within the game as a whole, Tipp won all-but two of their own kick-outs.

Despite winning 26 turnovers, Horan knows such meekness in the opposition restart will result in another return west without Sam Maguire.

"Turnovers, for a start, are always something we go after," he told the media on Wednesday, "They're great fuel for a team and they've an impact on the opposition.

"So that's something, but planning for the opposition to have that many kick-outs isn't something we'd planned for either, there's no way.

"We press all the time as hard as you can on opposition kick-outs, but Tipperary had a lot of big guys. They'd a lot of good fielders that came from their half-forward line, their midfield, and their half-back as well.

"So they did particularly well when momentum was against us. They got a lot of ball.

"I'd be very happy obviously with the turnover count, but very unhappy with our return from opposition kickouts."

The Mayo manager says taking their foot off the pedal in the manner in which they did against Tipperary is another thing they'll need to avoid.

"When we do well, we're very dangerous," he said, "So we need to do that for longer.

"There's loads of little things - there was some individual errors, we were out of position a couple of times. There's a number of things around that as well that we'll touch on - none of them too complicated.

"Keeping our foot to the floor when we're going well is an important one for us."

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