EXPOSED TO AN AMBUSH
Moran believes his side can go again but Mayo look vulnerable
‘We will keep fighting to be in it, fighting to win it’
AND so, they go again. One more time in their seemingly eternal quest. In two days’ time, the most remarkable and resilient group of footballers ever produced by Mayo start out on a road that they believe will end in the ultimate glory come September. They believe that each season, no matter how often they fall agonisingly short.
‘I actually think it’s in our personality that we can kind of take stuff, give out about it for a while and then just go at it again. I think that’s probably just the nature of our psyche,’ was reigning Footballer of the Year Andy Moran’s take when asked about Mayo’s bouncebackability.
Whatever is behind it, it’s the reason they remain the most comtrusted pelling story in Irish sport. Everyone has an opinion on Mayo. Tyrone legend Sean Cavanagh was just the latest to voice his when he dared to suggest on The Sunday
Game last weekend that they have finally run out of road. He wasn’t the first pundit to write them off. And probably won’t be the last. Moran and his team-mates have proved them all wrong before.
Something feels slightly different at the start of this summer, as they invite their oldest rivals to Castlebar. Under Kevin Walsh. Galway are the rising force in Gaelic football and would like nothing better to confirm that there has been a western power-shift.
And despite all the pleasure and pain we have lived through with this Mayo team in the past seven seasons, they are shrouded in a little uncertainty ahead of Sunday. Whisper it softly but there may even be a vulnerability to them.
Many of their most reliable and foot soldiers weren’t even spotted this spring. For different reasons, Chris Barrett, Brendan Harrison, Donal Vaughan, Seamus O’Shea and Keith Higgins haven’t kicked a ball in anger for their county since last year’s All-Ireland final. It’s not ideal preparation for the cauldron that Walsh’s Tribesmen will create in Castlebar and yet O’Shea and Higgins are flung in from the start this weekend.
And then there’s that old chestnut about the scarcity of scoring forwards. Eoin O’Donoghue, Carolan Crowe and Stephen Coen all did enough in their League auditions to suggest they will be options from the bench later in the summer, with O’Donoghue and Coen getting vote of confidence from Stephen Rochford for this game. But none of them are what was desperately needed — a corner-forward who can notch three or four points from play, to wean them off an over-reliance on Cillian O’Connor.
The fine display of Conor Loftus in Ballybofey as Mayo staged another final-day top-flight survival offered some promise that he can boost their attacking options and he has been rewarded with a starting berth in Castlebar. However, Rochford’s team will likely again depend on those surges from the half-back line to keep the scoreboard ticking over deep into the summer.
In that regard, Lee Keegan’s absence this weekend may be significant. The Westport man remains his team’s best player. If anyone is in any doubt about that, think about the way he took his goal in the second-half of last year’s final. Without Keegan, Mayo’s cutting edge is severely blunted. And his footballing intelligence – and mean streak needed of any good defender – make him Rochford’s best man-marker too.
If the temperature reaches boiling point on Sunday, as many expect, Keegan will be missed even more. A recent trend in this rivalry is that Mayo have struggled to match the aggression of their neighbours and that is why they have failed to beat them on the last three League or Championship matches. Moran takes issue with that idea, though.
‘Galway are a very physical team. Do I think we struggled to meet their aggression? I think we should have won in Salthill last year, so I’d disagree with that,’ Moran stated. ‘This year in the League, a small bit of indiscipline kicked into our game that we weren’t happy about.
‘But in last year’s game, we matched their aggression. It’s one thing if someone comes out and they shock you with the aggression and shock you with the physicality. But this is Mayo versus Galway — I don’t think anyone should be shocked with the level of aggression that’s going to be in the game.’
Both the Mayo players and Mayo public would prefer a direct route to the Super 8s, one that is easily plotted. Beat Galway on Sunday and they play Sligo in two weeks’ time. And then likely Roscommon in the Connacht final.
That road is clear but who knows what the qualifiers will throw up? Mayo almost lost their way to both Derry and Cork last year before they even got sight of Croke Park, And this year, there will be sharks in the water as the losers of Tyrone-Monaghan.
But no matter what route they have to take, Mayo will find a way to make things hard on them-
selves. It seems to be the way they like it – and why we have all hitched on the ride with them.
‘Would I have preferred to have won an All-Ireland in 2004 and got it out of the way and not have this attention?’ Moran smiled when asked about almost the whole country now willing them towards an All-Ireland. ‘Of course, I would but listen it is what it is and to me, it’s just great that we are competing at the highest level of the sport that we are in.
‘People say about losing All-Irelands and things like that, I would much prefer to be in the All-Ireland than not be in it.
‘You have only one chance of winning it and that’s if you are in the bloody thing. So, we will keep fighting to be in it and we will keep fighting to win it.’
Castlebar promises to be another dramatic chapter in Irish sport’s most compelling story. The protagonists don’t know any other way.