GAELIC GAMES:MAYO'S ACHIEVEMENT on Sunday in defeating Cork wasn't much anticipated even in the county, although it was the second time they have dethroned All-Ireland champions at the quarter-final stage in the past eight years.
According to Martin Carney, former Mayo captain and Connacht medallist who has also managed the county at under-age and is best known as a pundit on The Sunday Game, the downbeat profile wasn't a bad thing.
“The feeling in Mayo before Sunday was one of very low expectation. For whatever reason, that seems to benefit teams. The Mayo crowd was very poor at the weekend and if the hype doesn’t build up too much I believe Mayo will perform quite well.
“It shows what can be achieved if a team’s attitude is right and opponents take them for granted. The bad start compounded what looked like complacency on Cork’s part, maybe confirmed to them the match was bit of a ‘gimme’.
“When the tide turned against them, they were imprisoned and unable to break out.”
As a reward for this they meet a familiar and oppressive opponent, Kerry, in the semi-final later this month. In three successive years (2004-06), including two quite traumatic finals and a quarter-final, Mayo came off distinctly second best.
The fact this year the meeting will not be a final may change the landscape for the Connacht champions, whose previous semi-final contest with Kerry ended in their favour 15 years ago, with both current manager James Horan and selector James Nallen scoring goals.
Carney also believes the relevance of the middle of the last decade is questionable.
“In 2004 and ’06, they played Kerry teams that were at their peak. I believe that Kerry’s forwards are still formidable but from midfield back they are not nearly as strong, even if the Ó Sés are still outstanding defenders.
“The big challenge is to put a second performance back-to-back and James Horan will be trying to lay the ghosts of what happened to Mayo in previous years. It would be great to beat Kerry but even a creditable performance would mean the team was on the up and capable of progressing.
“But if they fall on their faces, it’ll be back to zero.”
There are other material reasons why Mayo will expect to do better. Half of the team haven’t been around for previous Croke Park disappointments and only seven of the side that beat Cork started in the late collapse against Meath two years ago when they were last Connacht champions.
The county has also had a high profile at under-age in recent seasons, winning the All-Ireland under-21 five years ago, which produced Keith Higgins, Ger Cafferkey, Tom Cunniffe, Séamus O’Shea and Enda Varley and reaching minor finals in 2008 and ’09, teams that featured Robert Hennelly, Aidan O’Shea and Cillian O’Connor.
Carney believes the redeployment of an old hand has played a major role in the team’s resurgence. “It’s interesting looking at the evolution of the team that one of the successes has been the relocation of Trevor Mortimer to left wing back. In fact he played there and did very well in the qualifier against Derry in 2007 and I couldn’t understand afterwards why he was moved to centre forward and not left there.”
Horan wasn’t a certainty for the Mayo job when John O’Mahony stepped down after four seasons last year. But his emerging credentials were seen in his club’s challenge for a first county title and success at that level convinced the county to hand him his first senior county appointment although not everyone was enamoured of the conservative tactics employed.
“I wasn’t overly optimistic about the prospects,” remembers Carney. “Anyone who saw Ballintubber would have been underwhelmed by their style of play but they won the county championship for the first time and then did well in Connacht, but in Mayo they were extremely defensive.
“They played a sweeper system, which meant they didn’t concede much but it wasn’t easy on the eye. I think people were afraid Mayo would become a mirror image but James adapted and adjusted the system.
“The Croke Park match against Dublin (the league fixture in which Mayo recovered a 14-point deficit before losing narrowly) was a seminal event, in my view, because he had to think on his feet and pin back Dublin. That day showed he could influence a match on the line.
“In London they tried the defensive system but it was based on picking Trevor Howley (2006 under-21 All-Ireland winning corner back) at corner forward and dropping him back. That backfired in London and then Howley got injured and the template had to be scrapped.
“Then Kevin McLaughlin, initially more at home at wing back, was played at wing forward and asked to cover back but he’s a fairly dynamic forward and the result has been a more flexible and less defensive system than he might have set out to impose.”
Armagh’s Joe Kernan had similar problems adapting the approach of his multiple All-Ireland winning Crossmaglen Rangers club side to the requirements of the county team. And we know where that process ultimately led.
