Mayo grip on title is undone by Red Hands
TYRONE supporters might have wondered if Brian Dooher gave his team a half-time pep talk or merely played a recording of Jarlath Burns’ incoming presidential address that had taken place earlier in the day.
For 35-odd minutes it appeared as if Tyrone and Mayo were keen to assist Burns, after the new GAA president announced that he intended to make Gaelic football a better spectacle rather than a game of ‘endless passes in the half-forward line’.
Alas, they did this by showcasing just how bad the game can look when little else happens but endless passing across the half-forward, and half-back lines and whatever other line you are having yourself. That bad? Yes.
And while it can take two teams to ruin a game, Tyrone deserved to take particular credit for that.
They signposted their intentions before the start by replacing a stinging inside forward in Darren McCurry with a worker bee in Cormac Donnelly, while weaving a defensive blanket that sought to stifle Mayo but, ultimately, suffocated their own ambition.
After his man-of-the-match performance in the Sigerson Cup final, Darragh Canavan was reunited once more with Sam Callinan, against whom he scored five points in this month’s college decider.
The difference in that game was that he was supported by others whereas in the first half here he was asked to plough a painful lone furrow up front, manfully scoring Tyrone’s only point from play in the opening period.
At the break, they trailed by 1-4 to 0-4, with a performance that stank the place out.
Their jerseys were about the only thing that was the same about Tyrone when they re-emerged in the second half, transformed by a simple change of attitude – and rather than seeking to hide from the ball, they chose to play with it.
It helped that Dooher released McCurry from the bench and the Edendork man’s contribution was stunning as he registered a staggering eight points.
It wasn’t just his scores, his presence on the field gave Tyrone the shape they so badly needed, and providing Canavan, in particular, with the support he needed.
In the opening play of the second half, Conn Kilpatrick went into the full-forward line and the ball was kicked towards him, a foul was made and a free was kicked.
Sometimes, you really don’t need a committee to save Gaelic football, just a bit of cop-on.
Peter Harte’s role of sweeper was abandoned, and instead of being stuck in a part of the pitch where he could not hurt Mayo, the Tyrone veteran sliced open the visitors’ defence in the 47th minute with the most exquisite pass to Canavan, who left Callinan with twisted blood before firing to the net.
That left Tyrone leading by 1-8 to 1-5 and from that moment only one winner was apparent.
It is a result – the only cloud for Tyrone was the sight of the excellent Sean O’Donnell being stretchered off near the end – that adds to the sense that the top tier of the Allianz Football League is more like one of those reality TV survivor shows than a race to the top and the prize of silverware.
Tyrone, whose season up to this had struggled for rhyme, reason and results, now find themselves just one win away from the six-point watermark that is perceived to assure survival.
Which is also where Mayo are, but given the heavy traffic in mid-table, it might just turn out that the safety bar may yet have to be raised a notch or two.
‘It was a disappointing result and a disappointing performance,’ lamented Mayo manager Kevin McStay afterwards.
In truth, the most worrying aspect for McStay was the loss of midfielder Diarmuid O’Connor after just five minutes, as he limped out of the contest bearing the kind of disconsolate demeanour which suggested that he will not be back in a hurry.
Other than that, this defeat might just cost them a chance to defend their League title – however, the suspicion is that was not a priority for the Connacht side.
If they were, they would hardly have changed more than half of the team that ran Kerry to a point the previous weekend, making eight changes including starting Ryan O’Donoghue on the bench, while getting game-time into the legs of the likes of Matthew Ruane and Cillian O’Connor.
It was O’Connor who found the net in the 25th minute converting a fortuitously awarded penalty – Jordan Flynn was fouled outside the square but referee Brendan Cawley appeared to rule it as a denial of a goal scoring opportunity despite Tyrone having three covering defenders, showing Cormac Quinn a black card in the process.