Mayo are in need of overhaul
IT WILL be interesting to see the trend of qualifier results this weekend. Provincial finalists have a poor record in the fourth round of qualifiers and that may again be the case. The team with the best hope of reversing that trend is Roscommon, who had a few weeks to recover from losing the Connacht final. Armagh have improved with each game, culminating in their dramatic win over Clare last weekend, but I would still expect the Rossies to edge through. It is hard to look past the qualifiers in the other three games. Monaghan, even though they weren’t overly impressive against Leitrim, should have too much for Laois, Kildare will be buoyant after their win over Mayo and should see off Fermanagh, who are missing Eoin Donnelly, while it is hard to see Cork beating Tyrone.
MAYO’S Championship exit in St Conleth’s Park was not a big shock. Their record overall in 2018 does not make for pretty reading. Played 11, won four, drew one and lost six.
The team had been running on fumes all year and spluttered their way to Newbridge last weekend. Vulnerabilities that were evident against Galway, Tipperary and even Limerick re-surfaced against Cian O’Neill’s team.
Most Mayo supporters, myself included, thought Stephen Rochford’s team would do just enough to stumble over the line again. But it was always going to be marginal. As this summer went on, it became clearer and clearer that there would be no fairy-tale ending for these great ambassadors in the red and green on September 2nd.
In the previous two summers, when they negotiated a way to the All-Ireland final, they managed to avoid serious injury on the road. This year, they piled up. Lee Keegan, Tom Parsons and Cillian O’Connor were all missing for long periods and they lost Seamie O’Shea during the Tipperary match.
If you look through the history of most All-Ireland winning teams, they need a big dollop of luck with injuries. Kerry in 2014, when Colm Cooper damaged his cruciate, were the only side who managed to lift Sam Maguire when one of their stars was out of action.
In my own case, with Galway in 1998, we finished with the exact same 15 starting in the All-Ireland final that began against Mayo in the first round of the Championship. That luck deserted Rochford’s side this year.
It was a new dimension for Mayo to deal with, but it wasn’t fringe players that were getting injured. It was their most important men.
Indiscipline was also a theme that ran through their entire year. From Donal Vaughan in last year’s final to losing Lee Keegan to a black card in the 2016 All-Ireland final replay, a lack of discipline at key moments has been a constant problem.
This year it seemed even more pronounced. From the final 10 minutes of that attrional League game against Galway, when it resembled a battle-field more than a football field, the team seemed narky. Colm Boyle, Cillian O’Connor, Diarmuid O’Connor (twice) and Aidan O’Shea were among those who had early showers at vital times this year. You can’t keep losing key players in big games and hope to succeed.
The question that has been asked all week is where now for this team? Their bravery, resilience, comebacks and near-misses have made them one of the great GAA stories. But have this team reached their natural end?
I have no doubt players such as Keegan will bounce back. As will many of the others who are on the right side of 30. There are still plenty of big days in the O’Connors, Kevin McLoughlin, Jason Doherty, Eoin O’Donoghue and hopefully Brendan Harrison. However, 10 of the team that played in the 2018 Championship also lined in the 2010 Championship. That’s an awful lot of mileage. Some players are bound to walk away. I wasn’t privy to any discussion between players and management in the last few years but it looked to me like anyone who wanted to stay on was allowed to do so. There will need to be a different policy going forward.
In my management years, I always found that if a player is not getting a starting place after a couple of years in the squad, he is either not good enough to be there or else becomes disgruntled. Neither is an acceptable situation.
The management will also need to examine their options in the coming weeks. Rochford and his backroom team have invested as much time and energy into this project as the players have.
Stephen’s present term extends until the end of the 2020 season. But given the panel is likely to be in a state of flux in the coming two years, my view is that he needs to either extend his present term beyond 2020 or step down now.
I am not saying that as a criticism, it is merely down to practicality. The type of job now required of Mayo management is different to the one required when Rochford took over in 2015, when it was a settled side who were in the top three teams in the country.
It is similar to the one that was required in 2008, when I came in for my second term. A team that had contested four All-Ireland finals in the late 1990s and 2000s was coming to its natural end and breaking up rapidly.
A bridge had to be built then between the older team and the new batch of players that came in stream.
Something similar will have to be constructed now. And having invested so much into this team for the past three years, Rochford will need to ask himself if he is willing to take on such a long-term project.
But it is only one of many questions that will be asked in Mayo over a long winter.