Mayo can finally do it
IN aboriginal culture there’s the concept of walkabout. It’s when young men, men in their adolescence principally, take off on their own into the wilderness. It fosters self-sufficiency. It turns boys into men.
Western culture doesn’t have anything quite analogous. People do, however, go away from home for a time to find themselves. Inevitably some people scoff at the notion. Others swear by it. This Mayo squad, we suspect, would fall into the latter category rather than the former.
If any team has reason to reflect on the benefits of walkabout it’s them. Stephen Rochford’s men have been to hell and back over the last couple of months. Cusack Park in Ennis isn’t quite the wilderness, but with the Banner breathing down their necks it prompted the most primal response of all – flight or fight.
Mayo chose fight. They always chose fight. Against Derry when everything that could go wrong seemed to, they fought. In the Gaelic Grounds against Cork they found a way. They dug deep. They scrapped their way to an All Ireland quarter-final.
To a lot of us on the outside looking in it appeared to all the world as if they were doing little more than raging against the dying of the light. Looking back at it now, it’s clear that this was the story of a bunch of men finding themselves anew.
It took a replay against Roscommon for this truth to become self evident. The first day they looked creaky enough. That fight, however, was there in abundance. Seven points down after fifteen minutes, they soon found a way back into the game. How anybody still questions the bottle of this Mayo team really is a mystery.
All the same plenty of Kerry men and women left Croke Park that afternoon confident they’d seen little capable of upsetting their side in the All Ireland semi-final. Thoughts, naturally enough, turned to September.
Fears and worries about where Kerry were at subsided, in the short term at least and then, over the space of twenty or so minutes of a Bank Holiday Monday when the fruits of the walkabout were made manifest, Kerry folk were given pause once more.
Mayo had found what they were looking for. Roscommon granted were poor. Mayo made them so. The westerners were vibrant, thrusting, hungry and, most critically of all, purposeful.
If Rochford’s men had over the course of their walkabout appeared a little unsure of themselves, relying instead on sheer bloody-mindedness to sustain them, that certainly wasn’t the case here.
The only conclusion we can draw is that Mayo are back and that Kerry should be nervous and that might be the one fly in the ointment from a Mayo point of view. It possibly would have been better to scrape by against Roscommon.
By breaking cover they’ve given the Kingdom fair warning and a fortnight for that warning to sink in. Still one gets the sense that Mayo are a group self-possessed enough not to fret on such things.
As nice as it would have been for them to catch Kerry on the hop, they more desperately needed that performance. Much better to face Kerry certain of what you can do instead of hoping that you might.
Make no mistake, Mayo are coming for Kerry and make no mistake they’re capable of finally getting over the hump against the Kingdom. While Mayo have been out playing seven games, being severely tested in at least five of those, Kerry have barely had to break sweat.
Some people – Jim McGuinness in a recent Irish Times column for instance – believe that’s a huge benefit to a county, but we can’t help but believe it’s a real worry ahead of a game with a side just finding its stride.
Kerry sauntered through games with Clare (which actually turned out to be their sternest test), Cork and Galway. In each of those games weaknesses were exposed. After each of those games we assumed those weaknesses would be addressed in time for the next. That hasn’t happened, not yet.
In Ennis the Banner crafted at least two goal-scoring opportunities. In Fitzgerald Stadium Cork managed another three and then against Galway in Croke Park the Kingdom gave away at least four (arguably five) chances.
It’s fair enough to say that’s what Kerry do, they stumble their way through All Ireland quarter-finals. They sauntered their way to the All Ireland semi-final against Dublin last year and it didn’t seem to do them much harm, but just because something was doesn’t mean it always will be.
Where are this Kerry team? How good are they right now? These are open questions. The last truly competitive game they played was the league final with Dublin in April and only about ten of those who started that day are likely to on Sunday.
Genuinely it’s not a stretch to say we know more about Mayo than we do about Kerry, which of course is not to say they can’t be or won’t be impressive on the weekend. It’s just that we’re struggling to put together an accurate assessment of their strengths and weaknesses as a result of their run to this stage of the season.
Just because Kerry coughed up so many goal-scoring chances in their previous games, does it follow that Mayo with their powerful runners will cause the Kingdom untold trouble? Possibly – arguably even probably – but not necessarily so. It might be that when they feel the pressure come on they tighten up accordingly. It might not be.
Kerry are good enough to win on Sunday. The bookies have them in as 8/15 favourites, which underplays Mayo’s chances a bit in our view, but you can see why the bookies have made Kerry such healthy favourites.
Kerry’s midfield cleaned up against Galway. The forwards ran amok with ten different scorers and in Kieran Donaghy the Kingdom have a man capable of striking fear in the heart of each and every Mayo supporter.
So, yeah, we get it and we get that Mayo have long struggled to get over the line against Kerry. The thing is though that we don’t think Mayo are far off that Kerry side talent-wise pound for pound.
That Mayo half-back line is the best in the game and with Aidan O’Shea and Kevin McLoughlin in the type of form they’re in their half-forward line isn’t that far off Kerry’s either. It might even be a little ahead.
There shouldn’t be much in this. There hasn’t been the last couple of times the counties have played. Even if Kerry get out in front Mayo will battle back (and vice versa). We just have this sneaky feeling that this time Mayo will get over the line.
God knows they owe Kerry one at this stage. It’s twenty-one years since Mayo beat the Kingdom in headquarters. They could have and should have beaten Kerry in both Croke Park and the Gaelic Grounds three years ago. If they get the chance again, they’ll surely not blow it.
Not after their long summer walkabout.