For all the mockery of football managers confining themselves to minimalist ambition in the league, look at it from their point of view. The competition is a minefield of often conflicting requirements.
For a start, planning the season has become a serious challenge for managers in the past few years because the calendar has veered all over the place. There has never been as long a close season as the present one, following on the July All-Ireland.
How do you rotate players and assess them while simultaneously picking up enough points to stay in Division One – at a time when that status has never been more important?
“Six points might keep you safe,” mused manager Jack O’Connor afterwards, “but it is not going to be easy to win them. They won’t be easy Saturday night [they play Armagh].
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“It won’t be easy the following weekend up in Tyrone. Points will be difficult to get. That is why I was disappointed coming back from Donegal. I felt it was a point or two left behind,” O’Connor said, in case anyone was wondering why he had gone ballistic at a last-minute defeat on the opening day of the season.
Kerry went to Castlebar on Saturday, hampered by a few issues. Ironically, O’Connor, who has used the league as a springboard for all four of his All-Ireland successes hasn’t really been in a position to challenge so far.
“You can’t press the fast-forward button,” he said on Saturday. “Fitness takes a bit of time and sharpness takes a bit of time. Unfortunately we have to try and get work into the lads while at the same time trying to be competitive. That’s the challenge.”
[ Mayo hand Kerry humbling defeat with rock’n’roll performance in CastlebarOpens in new window ]
A hungrily awaited All-Ireland was captured last summer and celebrated through the winter. Then there have been the club championships with Fossa and Rathmore tied until half way through January. Kerry have been late starting their preparation and short many of their best players.
You might be able to carry one of those handicaps but two is a stretch.
Mayo have started very well. There are caveats – which are routinely amplified by Kevin McStay in his post-match comments – but the team is progressing. It’s akin to pole vaulting or high jumping. The lower heights may be easily cleared but who knows how far they can go until later in year as the bar inexorably rises.
The corollary though is that if you can’t clear the bar in the early stages, it’s unlikely to start miraculously happening for you, as the summer arrives.
As manager Kevin McStay put it, “there are no eternal truths at this time of the year”. Yet he has to be happy with the overall direction of the team and how robustly they are holding up in competitive terms. Unbeaten in three matches, they won’t have failed to notice that their first championship opponents, in less than seven weeks’ time, Roscommon, are currently leading the table with the division’s only 100 per cent record.
Mayo’s needs have been various. The defence took a big knock with the departure of two recent All Stars, Oisín Mullin to the AFL and Lee Keegan to retirement.
The team made the best of it. McStay pointed out that neither player had returned to training by the time they made their decisions so they weren’t disruptive of ongoing work.
In the explosive first half on Saturday, which they won 2-8 to 0-3 – literally enough to win the match – the defence was alert and for all the seven wides that Kerry kicked there was little goal threat.
Mayo swarmed effectively, tidied up the breaks and countered with purpose. In the 35th minute from the time Diarmuid O’Connor turned over possession in the middle third, Mayo’s defence took control and in a move of 12 passes, worked the ball up for a scoring chance, put wide by James Carr.
[ Kevin McStay ready to give Mayo football the time of his lifeOpens in new window ]
The big switch of Conor Loftus to a sweeping centre back role has definitely progressed since the first night against Galway. More than once he was on to loose ball in front of his own goal and also an outlet runner in the transition to attack.
Another high-profile tactical move has been getting Aidan O’Shea into the full-forward line and keeping him there for longer periods than he has been used to. He has been assisted in this by the guidance of selector and coach Liam McHale, who could write the book on the trials of converting Mayo centrefielders into full forwards.
O’Shea’s ball winning and power in possession have always been assets and he had a storming performance, requiring a change of marker from All-Star Jason Foley to Dylan Casey.
Another All-Star Tadhg Morley was also affected in that his sweeping role, so effective in last year’s All-Ireland campaign, had to be less expansive given the danger posed by ball into O’Shea.
TG4′s commentary noted that one of Jordan Flynn’s points came about because of the space created by Morley’s duties elsewhere.
O’Shea was a primary contributor to 0-8 of Mayo’s 2-14 either in direct assists or movements that began with his winning the ball in the corner forward position.
His ability to carry in traffic and pass accurately – alone led directly to 0-2 whereas other assists included the bravura kick pass from his own 45-metre line into Ryan O’Donoghue who converted the mark from over 30 metres.
McStay was keen to play it all down a bit afterwards.
“Look at the size of him. He’s expected to go in and win the balls he is winning and he should be doing more of it. They have to play their full height; they are big men. But we are pleased with the direction he is going in. It is up to us to make that work as coaches and we are going to try very hard on it. He is just a small part of it.”
If the riddle of how best to deploy O’Shea is solved during this league, it will be quite a big part.
