Goals win matches! They can cost you the match too, especially if you miss as many clear-cut chances as Tipperary did in Croke Park, and at the same time allow Mayo to score five of them, a couple of those coming purely on the hop.
They can’t all be blamed on the madly foggy conditions suitably in sync with the pandemic winter, although in truth no one saw this coming – Mayo finishing with 5-20 in all, 5-14 from play, four of those goals coming off the boot or hand of Cillian O’Connor, three of them before half time, the other from younger brother Diarmuid. A Ballintubber record in Croke Park, by all accounts, and that’s just for starters. Cillian O’Connor’s haul is also an individual championship scoring record for one match.
Tipperary did, eventually, bag three goals of their own to help equal the record number of goals ever scored in an All-Ireland semi-final, Kerry (4-15) against Offaly (4-10) in 1980 also delivering eight. It also ended up the highest scoring All-Ireland semi-final ever, 57 points in all, bettering that same 1980 semi-final between Kerry and Offaly; only five championship games have ever come in with a higher return of points.
Something of a warning sign perhaps as Mayo set up an All-Ireland final showdown with Dublin for the fourth time in eight years, Mayo losing all three of those previously. Dublin have bagged 6-90 in four games on their way to a sixth successive final on Saturday week, without conceding a single goal, but Mayo will be a different prospect if they turn up again in this sort of form. They only kicked three wide balls all evening.
The gentle irony of this being Tipperary that, fresh from winning a first Munster title since 1935, created even more clear-cut goal chances, 11 in all by the end, a couple of those coming even before Mayo got their first boot in.
The last two came far too late, although it did make the score line a little more respectable – Mayo at one stage finding themselves 21 points ahead, 5-17 to 1-8, on 47 minutes. Tipperary brought some of that back, the 13-point winning margin the most impressive since the semi-final of 2005, when Kerry beat Cork by the same margin.
O’Connor was the headline act, the 28-year-old scoring a hat-trick for the fourth time in his career – and that was before half-time – and in the end bringing his outright championship goal tally for Mayo to 30, while bringing his 2020 championship total to 5-31 in four games. He’d said the pandemic summer allowed him to get on top on some lingering injuries, the evidence of his superb conditioning ample all evening.
11 minutes: Cillian O’Connor goal #1 - Mayo 1-2 Tipp 0-1
Tipperary leave behind two goal chances in quick succession, the first from Micheal Quinlivan, the second from Conor Sweeney, showing enough hesitancy for David Clarke to get in the way.
From his second save, Aidan O’Shea wins the ball inside the Tipperary half, bursts forward and passes off to Tommy Conroy, who delivers a beautiful pass across the square for O’Connor to fist in his first.
25 minutes: Cillian O’Connor goal #2 - Mayo 2-9 Tipp 1-3
Tipperary did steal a goal back thanks to Brian Fox, moments after O’Connor’s first, but then comes another turnover, this one started by Lee Keegan and Eoghan McLaughlin, who draws O’Shea into the move, before he passes off to O’Connor for another unstoppable shot.
29 minutes: Cillian O’Connor goal #3 - Mayo 3-11 Tipp 1-4
Tipperary are caught properly napping here, Liam Casey’s slow-motion backpass to his hesitant goalkeeper Evan Comerford easily pounced on by O’Connor, who simply slaps his hand down on the ball to direct it into the net as if winning a cheap card game.
35+1 minutes: Diarmuid O’Connor goal #1 - Mayo 4-12 Tipp 1-5
Again the Tipperary defenders are slow off their mark. Cillian O’Connor’s 45-metre free clearly drifting short and wide, only for his brother to perfectly time his run into the square and land Mayo’s fourth goal, just before half-time.
45 minutes: Cillian O’Connor goal #4 - Mayo 5-15 Tipp 1-7
Again it’s all about turnovers (Mayo finished with 26) and delivering the ball straight towards the Tipperary goalmouth, Kevin McLoughlin providing the pass this time, O’Connor again given a little too much breathing space, and boom - he fires over the head of Comerford to secure his fourth goal.
At the other end, the goal chances continue to slip by for Tipperary, although they do claw two back thanks to Paudie Feehan (54 minutes) and then Conor Sweeney (70 minutes) but it’s too little too late. Five goals win matches!
