Honesty the best policy for Keegan
But confession fails to mask ugly truth for Mayo
THE consensus is that Lee Keegan would have been better off keeping his trap tightly closed as another famously gormless defeat, which will rightly push for a fairly high ranking amongst all of the others, is still being swallowed by his own people. But, then again?
Since honesty was permanently deleted from our game, roughly about 20 years or so ago, everyone else outside of Mayo, i n my estimation, should be grateful for Keegan’s pronouncement on Thursday last that he did everything in his power to get Diarmuid Connolly sent off in the first of the two semi-finals against Mayo.
It took some courage for him to speak up — even more so in pointing his finger at every other team’s ability to dip into the book on the game’s ‘Black Arts’, and making special mention of Dublin, as well as the most prized football team in the history of the game, Kerry.
Kerry, as we know, have the copyright on this same book.
‘I’m going to stop him any way I can,’ was Keegan’s admission, as he explained his entanglement with Connolly that resulted in the Mayo defender getting a whack in the face for himself.
Plus, to me, it seemed entirely appropriate that Keegan should say what he had to say as he picked up his award after being named Opel GAA/GPA Player of the Month for August. By doing so he was making i t somewhat official.
And he was opening the door for every other footballer and manager out there to follow up with some home truths of their own, about t hemselves and t heir opponents.
Our game suffers from managers, in particular, choosing to play hide and seek with the truth.
‘ If you are going to win the All-Ireland, you have to have these actions. Unfortunately t hey mightn’t be the best viewing at times,’ continued Keegan, ‘but if you are going to win a game, you have to win at all costs f or your team.’ Bravo! And thank you Lee. Of course, there was also a little bit of confusion in some of the man’s other comments.
Like most folk who have walked in and out of the Mayo dressingroom ever since James Horan decided to make his county stand up and fight, and more than that, bring the battle to their opponents on most occasions, there is a belief that the Mayo football team are now a breed of hard men.
They are... sort of. But only sort of. They know how to fight and i ntimidate, and touch upon downright nastiness at times, but they do so at all of the wrong times. Mostly Mayo display nearly all of their backbone in the first half of games.
The greatest teams there have ever been have known how to be despicable al l t hrough t he 70 minutes. At the drop of a hat they can take advantage of another team’s dropped guard.
That’s one glaring weakness in Mayo’s armoury, and a significant reason why they are sitting on their this week.
Bigger, however, and more relevant, is that while Mayo have become physically more imposing they still carry all the menace, in the mental department, of a bagful of mice.
But this is not a week to be unkind to a race of people who, young and old, are possibly the most kind-hearted bunch in the whole country — which is a whole other problem raging i n the Mayo genes.
What’s fixable, in the immediate future, for Mayo?
A game-plan all of their own making might be a good start. Like every other team since the beginning of this decade, Mayo have been obsessed in winning games the Jim McGuinness way.
It’s a way of playing that Mayo work well, but without the hunger that characterized Donegal in 2012, or the pedigree that stands tall in Dublin and Kerry, they are unlikely to win an All-Ireland title in the very near future copying everyone else.
Mayo, under Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly, need to think about balancing a fiercely- packed defence with a more reasonable, and rewarding, plan to win games.
This summer, the pair went halfway towards making Aidan O’Shea the most fiercesome scoring threat there is.
However, O’Shea was isolated for too long up front against Dublin on day one, and on day two he was trying to imitate Donegal’s Michael Murphy i n ranging his skills around the middle of the park, and into his own defence, for too long.
To win an All-Ireland, for sure, Mayo need O’Shea up front, and never sticking a toe outside his opponent’s 21-yard line.
They need Cillian O’Connor beside him, and Andy Moran in the other corner, and before they know it they will have the most complete full- forward line in the game.
Our old game should never have abandoned its old-fashioned fullforward line. This, in fact, still remains McGuinness’s chief flaw, and something that probably deprived Mr Clever Clogs a second All-Ireland title.
O’Connor is as big a scoring threat as Kerry’s James O’Donoghue or Dublin’s Bernard Brogan. And Moran, who is constantly used as an impact substitute late on when he is, hands down, the best collector and distributor of the ball Mayo have on their books.
With the three of them up front all the time, every rival manager will dispatch five men back covering them off. At least five.
That means the likes of Dublin would only have 10 men to launch into attack against Mayo if they meet them again next summer. Think Mayo cannot defend with 12 men against 10?
Whether they can or not, that’s what they should be thinking.