Mayo have managed to get themselves into a sticky old mess, somehow. Even by their own standards of making life hard for themselves, this takes the biscuit. How do you go from being six points up in the 57th minute against Cork and cruising to an All-Ireland quarter-final to needing to beat Galway in Salthill to stay in the championship? That’s just not a serious way to manage your affairs.
I wouldn’t mind but they had done the hard bit. I was in Killarney when they beat Kerry a month ago and like everybody else, I was impressed with them that day. There was a marked improvement on what they had been like over the past few years. They were full of running and physicality, which you would expect of any Mayo team. But it was the small technical improvements that really stood out to me.
For example, their shooting had come on leaps and bounds. A big part of that was their shot selection. I often think that when you see a report that says a team kicked 16 wides, your first question has to be: how many of them shouldn’t have been shots in the first place? That doesn’t just mean shots from bad positions or angles – it means shots taken by players who haven’t set themselves properly.
Go back to the All-Ireland final they lost against Tyrone in 2021. Think of all the wides they kicked in the second half. None of them were potshots from distance or hero efforts from out on the wings. They were all shots from the places you’re supposed to shoot from. But how many times were they shooting a bit off-balance? How many times were they hurrying their shot to get it away before a block came in? Too many.
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The Mayo team I saw in Killarney did very little of that. They missed a good share of goal chances, fair enough. But they scored 1-19 and only had seven wides. Better again, they had 11 different scorers. The likes of Ryan O’Donoghue, James Carr and Jordan Flynn were steadying themselves before shooting. They weren’t snapping at chances. If a shot wasn’t on, they moved it around until it was.
So I came away from that game thinking they were serious contenders. I know it was early yet – you don’t win the Grand National in February – but they hit all the marks you’d be looking for. They bullied Kerry and could have won by seven or eight in the end. They finished with their best team on the pitch, on top of it all. Paddy Durcan, Eoghan McLaughlin and Enda Hession all came off the bench. That’s some firepower to throw in to see out any game.
Mayo needed to put manners on the Cork comeback last week. They didn’t and now look where it’s got them
Now, in my defence, I presume I wasn’t the only one who got fooled. The big thing about this format of the championship is that it’s very hard for any team to stand out from the others. You can’t really get definitive formlines because you’re talking about teams from Division One and Two, who all fancy a crack off the next crowd they come into contact with.
So Mayo beat Kerry and Kerry beat Cork and Cork beat Mayo. Galway beat Tyrone and Tyrone beat Armagh and Armagh beat Galway. Kildare could only draw with Sligo the day Roscommon drew with Dublin but when they eventually met, Kildare were the better team. Donegal got well beaten by Derry who drew with Monaghan, who lost to Donegal.
This is maybe an aspect to the new championship that has sort of snuck up on everybody. Nothing is set in stone. There are landmines waiting around the corner for all the teams. Mayo were 15 minutes away from doing a clean sweep of their group games and now they’re fighting for their lives.
What has changed? That’s the problem they need to work out. They haven’t had any big injuries. The weather conditions are the same now as they were then. Their marquee players haven’t suddenly lost their form – the likes of Aidan O’Shea, Mattie Ruane, Diarmuid O’Connor and O’Donoghue have all played reasonably well in the last two games. So what is it that has gone wrong?
A couple of things jump out at me. The first is that even when they were playing well and winning games, they still had a habit of giving the opposition a chance coming down the stretch. Even go back to the league final, they were pretty well on top for most of that game but Galway got it back to a point late on before Mayo saw it out.
There was a bit of that against Louth a couple of weeks ago too – that late goal was total carelessness. So you could say the signs were there and Cork would have had it in their heads that if they were able to get within touching distance in the closing stages, they’d be in with a shout. You can be guaranteed John Cleary and the rest of the Cork management were drilling that into them.
The second thing feeds into the first thing. There seems to be a lack of leadership in the Mayo ranks. When games are in the melting pot, they haven’t had enough players standing up and going, “Wait a minute here, fellas. This thing is slipping. Give me the ball and let’s take a hold of the situation.” They needed to put manners on the Cork comeback last week. They didn’t and now look where it’s got them.
They have a huge task on their hands going to Salthill. A lot will depend on Galway’s injury situation. If Seán Kelly can’t play, that’s a major blow for Pádraic Joyce. He’s been their best player in this championship and their biggest leader. If Damien Comer is out too, that’s a lot for Galway to do without.
Ultimately though, Galway have fewer doubts in their head than Mayo do. They’re at home, they’re settled and they’ll be delighted to have a local derby. When I heard the draw, I thought of being on the Kerry bus coming out of Tullamore after a poor performance against Antrim in 2009. We were cranky with ourselves, our season was limping along. Then we heard we’d been drawn against Dublin and let a big cheer out of us. Now it’s on, lads. Now it’s championship. I can see Galway getting over their Armagh defeat the same way.
The only thing for sure is that the happiest men in Ireland are Jack O’Connor and Dessie Farrell. Not only do their two closest rivals in the All-Ireland betting have to play an extra game, they have to play it against each other. And only one of them will be still going after Sunday.
Whoever wins, the big winners are Kerry and Dublin.
