Rochford under pressure as rivals rally
Mayo face uphill battle due to injuries and rise of their provincial rivals
IN trying to fit the pieces of the Mayo jigsaw together at Ballybofey last Sunday, Stephen Rochford went back to the future. Keith Higgins, captain and team talisman, led the Connacht champions out with the familiar number four jersey on his back, the same jersey in which he was honoured as an All-Star for three successive years between 2012 and 2014.
Except, mirroring the experimentation of former manager James Horan, the dynamic, attackminded corner-back with the nickname ‘Zippy’ played the first 20 minutes of the game as an all-action link man in attack. One moment of set-up play with Aidan O’Shea showcased his versatility, O’Shea capping the move with a fine point.
Higgins is only back from a knee injury that garnered most of the headlines the day Roscommon downed Mayo in the FBD League in mid-January. And it’s hardly coincidental that the string of defeats sustained under the new regime in the three opening rounds of Division 1 have come at a time when one of the principal leaders of the team has been sidelined.
News that Higgins is now to miss rounds four and five against Ulster champions Monaghan and Munster champions Kerry could be critical to Mayo’s hopes of staying in the top flight.
The Ballyhaunis man underwent a scan yesterday to determine the extent of the injury as the rest of his teammates trained last night.
Injury hasn’t been kind to Rochford. It’s not just Higgins.
Cillian O’Connor’s absence with a knee injury has been just as keenly felt in terms of the scoreboard.
Rewind a couple of seasons and the general theme was that Mayo wouldn’t win the All-Ireland without a five-star graded forward. Now? Aidan O’Shea is a current All-Star and was part of the conversation as 2015 Footballer of the Year, while O’Connor has quickly embellished his reputation as a scoring machine.
The Ballintubber player clinched the Golden Boot for the Championship top scorer for the third season in a row, a remarkable record. Honoured twice as Young Footballer of the Year, his younger brother Diarmuid just happens to be the current holder. Against Donegal last Sunday, the latter showed growing maturity and confidence under pressure in the nerveless way he slotted a penalty retake to the net after a long stoppage when the referee couldn’t keep pace with his first effort. The simple truth for Mayo in recent summers is that the support cast up front haven’t done enough.
That’s why the ever-flexible Higgins has already been utilised in an attacking role. If the move highlights the county’s lack of other options up front, his fitness is vital to Mayo’s chances this year.
Because Mayo have been slow to put their faith in a clearly defined defensive system, trusting mainly to an orthodox set-up, Higgins’ status as a man marker and much more has been obvious.
Heroic on James O’Donoghue in the All-Ireland semi-final replay in Limerick in 2014, that man-on-man duel was a throwback to the 1980s and ’90s — imagine Donegal, or even Dublin post-2014, setting up the same way? Last Saturday, the reigning All-Ireland champions at least identified the threat of Conor McManus and tried to double-team him in Croke Park.
If Mayo stick to a familiar straightup defensive formation, as they have favoured in the past, his one-on-one marking ability could be badly missed.
Against Dublin last month, the wing-forwards were dropping deep to crowd the space, and with Tony McEntee a heralded part of the backroom team, Mayo’s formation come Championship will be inter-
esting. In that, the placement of Higgins will be key.
And yet it’s somewhat ironic that his shift out of centre-forward back to corner-back arguably cost Mayo the 2013 All-Ireland. His direct running and intelligent link-up play had the Dublin defence in all sorts of bother in the first half when it took an opportunist punched goal from Bernard Brogan to keep Dublin in the game.
And then Dublin’s scoring prowess saw James Horan shift him to the full-back line, what certainly looked like a self-defeating move in the final stages when he stood guarding Eoghan O’Gara, who was reduced to hobbling around due to injury.
Mayo piled bodies back at different stages against Dublin in last summer’s All-Ireland semi-final but struggled to transition the ball well from defence to attack. Aidan O’Shea was left far too isolated, particularly in the drawn game, and bereft of support runners to even take a pass. Even an off-colour Higgins was torched by Paddy Andrews as Dublin ultimately progressed.
With Roscommon stunning Cork away from home this spring and Galway putting together a concerted bid for promotion from Division 2, the Connacht championship doesn’t look quite so straightforward.
For all of that, despite the recent run of poor results, Mayo have no need to panic. The National League is not the trophy that will define this group of players. Bar a first day blow-out against Cork, Mayo have shown a familiar hard-nosed ability to mix it with the best, putting themselves in winning positions against Dublin and Donegal.
Get Higgins and O’Connor back fully fit and in form and they will be primed for another serious tilt at the big one.