BREAKING BALL
NO POINT IN CLINGING TO ‘THE MAYO MYTH’, SADLY THIS TEAM’S RACE IS RUN
IT’S OKAY not to be okay. Teams lose. Times change. The sporting world churns. But in the corner of it claimed by the GAA, they are reluctant to surrender a good story. Mayo were comprehensively outplayed by Galway in a spirited Connacht encounter, and the late, desperate burst for parity that sent hope surging around MacHale Park distorted the nature of the game.
For the third big match in a row, following last year’s All-Ireland final and this year’s League decider, Mayo were undone by smarter tactics, with James Horan unable to summon an adequate response. They almost managed it last Sunday, but that was mainly due to Galway retreating and failing to close out the contest.
Mayo’s problems are heaped up on the far end of the playing spectrum. Where Galway are callow but exciting, the Mayo squad looks careworn, with key men carrying big miles.
Following defeat to Tyrone in last year’s final, there looked a serious need for Horan to refresh his coaching team, and pursue an outside expert in the mould of two men that helped shape his first successful spell, Cian O’Neill and Donie Buckley. He stuck with what he had, and they look a tired force. Yet we struggle to let them go. Much of the analysis of their defeat has focused on their record in the qualifiers, but that was burnished in another age. They reached All-Ireland finals in 2016 and 2017 through the back door, and on both occasions played classic finals against Dublin. The latter campaign was especially thrilling, with extra time required to beat Derry and Cork in qualifier matches. Their 2018 odyssey was ended in the Newbridge or Nowhere tumult, while 2019, the first year of Horan’s second coming, was distinguished by a blazing win against Galway in Limerick. To believe that what Mayo managed even only three years ago, is within their capabilities again, is to put a questionable amount of trust in the power of muscle memory. Just because they have done it before doesn’t fit them with greater capabilities to do it this time. That second-half bounceback against Galway, don’t forget, was led by veterans in Lee Keegan and Cillian O’Connor. There is no persuasive evidence that what Mayo did in those baking summers under Stephen Rochford is within their gift this time.
Narrative, though, is a beguiling mistress. The story of Mayo’s long wait has been a reliable tear-jerker for a decade as expectation built, like a balloon too eagerly inflated, until it all went pop in September, and bits of green and red exuberance littered the roads around Croke Park. Writing such compelling characters out of the story of the summer is particularly difficult given the meagre cast of characters peopling this year’s drama.
Tyrone are underwhelming champions, a solid and expertly coached team that lacks the compelling talents, and characters, that made the great Mickey Harte sides enthralling.
Kerry look best-placed to challenge for another Sam Maguire, but Jack O’Connor brings both familiarity and also an inexhaustible supply of Yerra Yoda deflections and distractions.
There will be no hostages to fortune – or Covid – offered up by the Kingdom. Dublin could yet stir again, and the campaign ending with them reclaiming the Sam Maguire would, despite them dominating the sport to an
TAKING POSSESSION OF THE GAA CHAMPIONSHIPS COMPILED BY SHANE McGRATH
unprecedented extent, constitute a plot twist. But the reliance on well-worn stories is a direct result of the paucity of new ones. This isn’t merely about the failure of new teams to emerge, or in sufficient numbers to shake old certainties. It’s also about the closed culture that is now an inter-county GAA squad.
There are Russian dissidents with more freedom to speak publicly than your average county man now. This helps managers with control issues, but the consequences trickle down, and it is directly affecting how Gaelic games are covered. And that, in turn, will start to have an effect on their profile. The championships will not plummet in popularity, but it matters that they are now played by stars so distant the Hubble Space telescope would struggle to pick them out.
If new players have no profile, then people fall back on wellworn stories. It’s why Kilkenny still possess an aura not necessarily justified by their current strength: Brian Cody is still in charge, he’s been staggeringly successful, and is an easy short-hand into the hurling championship. These stories are our old sagas, passed down through an age lit by stars that nobody knows.