ONE FINAL FLOURISH
Mayo’s epic season continues as misfiring Kerry are blown away in semi-final replay
STEPHEN ROCHFORD is certain that Mayo did not use up their biggest performance of the season in blasting past Kerry yesterday to the All-Ireland final.
Their response to last week’s draw was much sharper than Kerry’s, and The Westerners ran out five-point winners, 2-16 to 0-17.
The match saw referee David Gough show 17 cards in total, including a straight red to Kieran Donaghy, which threatens to be the last act in the intercounty career of the 34-year-old. Peter Crowley of Kerry and Mayo’s Paddy Durcan were sent off on two yellow cards each.
The match did not have the tension of the drawn game seven days’ ago, thanks to two Mayo goals. Diarmuid O’Connor fisted in a Donal Vaughan point attempt on 28 minutes to put them five ahead, and any hopes of a Kerry resurgence ended when Andy Moran bundled in a goal at the end of a brilliant move only minutes into the second-half.
The upshot is Mayo’s fourth final in six seasons, but Rochford was adamant his team did not play their final in front of 53,032 returning spectators in Croke Park yesterday.
‘I genuinely don’t think we have,’ he said. ‘There are a number of things
we can improve on. Let’s see what happens in three weeks.’
He also dismissed some of the uglier criticism he faced after his decision to play Aidan O’Shea at fullback in the drawn game. He reprised the tactic yesterday, O’Shea dropping back regularly in the firsthalf before sticking with Donaghy in the secondhalf.
That tactic prompted one newspaper to suggest the Mayo players were “lions led by donkeys”.
‘They are people’s opinions,’ said Rochford. ‘I don’t do things with this team to seek outside approval — or disapproval
for that matter. The players and the supporters concern me. I can’t control what journalists write or editors put in headlines.
‘I didn’t lose any sleep about it. It may not be the nicest headline I ever got but at the same time I didn’t bat an eyelid at it. We control what we can, not headlines in newspapers. We are aware that if we don’t deliver in three weeks’ time there will be another headline coming but so be it.’
His captain is now the leader of a core group of players preparing for their fourth final appearance in six seasons. Cillian O’Connor was one of nine players that started yesterday who also started in the defeat to Donegal in the 2012 decider.
Four more players that featured that day are still involved in the squad. Mayo’s treks back to Croke Park for September dates fatten the narrative of an epic quest.
But more practically, it means they should have enormous experience to call upon as they prepare to play the winners of today’s second semi-final between Dublin and Tyrone.
‘Of course there is,’ said O’Connor. ‘A good chunk of us will have been here before, going down this home straight in the last few weeks of the year. That experience has to be used and has to be harnessed properly. It’s not just a thing that because you’ve been here before, it will be easy.
‘We’ll have to use our smarts over the next few weeks. We’ll have a couple of good sessions. It’s great to be involved in these last few weeks of the year.
‘Maybe behind the scenes the management will take lessons from the last couple of run-ins to All-Ireland finals and I’m sure management and extended management will consider little tweaks they might look at to keep us focused on the goal.
‘As players we’ll just keep training and trying to get better and try to learn from the mistakes we made today.’