Maughan’s Mayo sacked by Kingdom

Expectations of a fourth All-Ireland title for Mayo were never higher than in 1997, but as Mayo News columnist SEAN RICE recounts, defeat would be their lot for the second year in a row as the county county’s own Gorta Mór would continue

IN 1996 John Maughan moved closer to deification than any Mayo team boss that had gone before. Having guided Clare to a famous victory in Munster over the princes of the province, Maughan was well equipped, it was thought, to drag his native county out of the swampland in which they were perpetually mired.

In Division 3 of the national league, Mayo responded to his appointment with animated commitment. Step by step the young army captain nursed his irresolute side through the division, to a Connacht title, to a semi-final victory over Kerry, and to a replay of the All-Ireland final against Meath . . . which they lost by a point.

It was a controversial outcome. Within seven minutes tempers had flared into a free-for-all that culminated with the dismissal of Liam McHale and Meath’s Colm Coyle by referee Pat McEnaney. Mayo’s was the greater loss in that verdict and local people still feel aggrieved about the unequal distribution of the punishment.

But the outlook was bright. Mayo were re-surfacing as a football power. The demons of doubt were dissipating. A new man was at the helm and a new confidence in the air.

For once, amid the kingdom’s rare decade of gloom, an opportunity existed for Mayo. Theirs was the greater want. For more than four decades followers had lived in hope, the horizon ominously desolate, and reminiscence so threadbare that 1951 seemed no more than a distant dream.

Now that their nemesis was ailing Mayo were in the vanguard of new hopefuls making haste before the lion stirred.

Further flickers of hope re-surfaced in 1997 as Maughan and Mayo retraced their journey. Connacht was won again. The barometer was rising and with every stage of progress expectation billowed.

By September Mayo were back in the final, back seeking retribution, and bulging with confidence back to take on a Kerry that were out of the limelight and whom Mayo had beaten in the semi-final the previous year.

Everything pointed to a Mayo win for the first time in 46 years. Sky-high levels of hype swept through the county. Enveloped in green and red, Mayo was in fete. Bank and credit union accounts were rifled for what promised to be a winter of unprecedented celebration.

“Having beaten Kerry the previous year, and Offaly on the way to this final it seemed only a matter of turning up,” said former Mayo star Tommy O’Malley, one of Maughan’s selectors at the time. “The hype obviously got to the players. We were aware that they had lost their sharpness and edge going into that final. Nothing we did seemed to motivate them. It’s impossible to get mental preparation right when everyone thinks they are going to win.”

Before long in that fateful final their fears were borne out. Mayo’s third bid in two years to break their All-Ireland duck began to splutter through a combination of misfortune and poor judgment.

And when they did storm back in the second half they were plagued by a dreadful inconsistency in their scoring attempts, the basic principle of the game.

As the mistakes mounted, their confidence for the first time in the campaign faltered, and the burning zeal of the previous year receded. In their complacency no room had been left for clear vision, for the realisation that victory has to be earned.

The first crack surfaced with the recurrence of Dermot Flanagan’s hamstring problem. The corner back had picked up the injury in a challenge, and tests he passed in training failed a short while into the first half. Clearly he was not fully ready to start and ought never to have taken the field.

“In defence we were concerned more with the threat Dara O Cinneide posed than anyone else,” said O’Malley. “All through the Kerry campaign he had been the biggest threat and got most of the major scores.

“We studied every game Kerry played that year and felt Dara was the man to watch. As it happened Maurice Fitzgerald turned on the style. He was in devastating form, unstoppable, scoring some magnificent points.”

So they re-arranged their defence. David Heaney was moved from midfield to wing-back; Fergal Costello to corner back, Colm McManamon to midfield and James Horan called from the bench to strengthen the forward line.

“Even though we knew what was to be done if Flanagan did not survive it meant our plan of getting ball into Liam McHale at full forward had been disrupted,” said O’Malley.

The success of McHale’s move to full-forward was contingent on getting high ball to him from midfield. It was the weakest sector of the team. More power was needed up front and McHale with his height and basketball flair seemed the obvious choice to open the Kerry defence.

It was a contentious move since the Ballina man was unsurpassed as a high fielder and a deliverer of the type of ball he was now setting out to receive at full forward.

But midfield collapsed. Darragh O Sé and William Kirby saw to it that Pat Fallon and Colm McManamon were denied monopoly, and the livelier Pa Laide and Liam Hassett scooped up most of the breaking ball.

McHale’s first sight of a ball was when it bounced off his shin. The highest ball went to the smallest forward, and a plan that in practise seemed flawless, quite suddenly looked rather silly.

A blow also to Mayo’s morale was the loss at half-time of their marksman Maurice Sheridan whose accuracy had carried them through many crises on the way to the final. No replacement of his stature was available. They had no Fitzgerald. Unsure of their own accuracy they overused the ball and good chances were wasted.

Forced to rely on the unreliable, Mayo’s minds were churning in doubt. The deep running of Pat Fallon, James Nallen and Fergal Costello, opened up channels for scores but none would shoulder the responsibility of putting the ball between the posts. The poverty of their attack was reflected in their return of 1-7 for the hour.

The transfer of their big man from midfield robbed them of vision in an area where vision is fundamental. Their plan in disarray and the skills of McHale stagnating at full-forward Mayo’s All-Ireland hopes were fading by the minute.

When eventually he moved to midfield the big man’s influence was immediately obvious. But it was close to half-time when that move was made and Kerry were already miles ahead in the psychological battle.

O’Malley said that Mayo tactically outsmarted Kerry the previous year. Introduced by selector Peter Ford, who went on to manage Sligo and Galway, the plan was based on a basketball version of screening in order to free up forwards.

“Kerry were outright favourites and we had a psychological advantage in that game. But that was lost for the final the following year when Kerry, even though out of contention for a decade, had the mental edge. That and the extraordinary hype cost Mayo the title. At this stage of any competition you underestimate Kerry at your peril.”

Kerry will readily admit that it was not their finest hour. But in terms of restoring belief it was manifestly significant. News of the hype in Mayo was perhaps the greatest motivating force on the training fields of Tralee and Killarney. Since that success, a further six titles burnish the kingdom’s honours list.

Nothing from the final stands out in the Mayo memory other than the elegance of the irrepressible Maurice Fitzgerald. His nine points from a total of thirteen transcended all the other qualities of a mediocre match.

Lingering more painfully in the residue is Mayo’s wasted opportunity. Twenty years on, it is still their merciless foe.

Everything pointed to a Mayo win for the first time in 46 years. Sky-high levels of hype swept through the county. Enveloped in green and red, Mayo was in fete.