Rebuilding is only option for Mayo
Stuck in a time warp as they lean on the same players, the men from the west are no nearer to winning that elusive All-Ireland and must face the inevitable
Ah, the perils of punditry have finally come home to roost. Back at the start of the league, I suggested on this page that Donegal were all washed up and only waiting to be buried. And a couple of weeks later I argued, conditionally, that there was one more kick left in the Mayo footballers and advised you to sit back and watch them soar.
Well, as they are not giving to saying in An Bóthar Ard, that went just swimmingly.
But, then, that’s sport’s gift; its capacity to surprise never ceases to astound.
A few months on and the fortunes of those two counties have flipped.
I am not saying that there is an All-Ireland in this Donegal team, but they are heading down a road that could bring them there one day soon.
I am saying, though, that Mayo will not win the All-Ireland this year and, sticking with what I wrote ear- lier this year, if it doesn’t happen this time then it simply will not happen at all.
In many ways, the two counties have been joined at the hip this decade.
They arrived together in 2011 but Donegal have not only made it count they are also in a far better place to go again.
Mayo, in many ways – losing three All-Ireland finals and three semifinals in the past six years – have gone longer for harder but yet have not travelled as far.
And it’s hard to ignore the nagging sense after last Sunday that their race is run as a group.
There were all kinds of warning signs being screamed out in Salthill.
Yes, they could have won had Keith Higgins stayed on the field but there was a reason why he didn’t. I am a signed-up member of his fan club, but there has been evidence of slippage in his game over the past 18 months.
That raised knee last Sunday is not in keeping with the Higgins that won three All-Stars on the bounce, but it was in keeping with a player cranky because he can’t find his groove.
He is not alone, Lee Keegan is a shadow this season of the player he was last year and he is playing far too central for my liking.
Then you have the O’Shea’s – Seamie is struggling for legs and Aido for game-time.
And all these years later, they are still a one-man attack with Cillian O’Connor’s main assistants – Andy Moran and Kevin McLoughlin – both benched last Sunday in Salthill.
That baffled but not as much as the management’s decision to leave Colm Boyle to stew on the bench for 70 minutes for ‘tactical’ reasons. That was a hard one to figure, because if I was a Mayo man heading into battle in enemy territory, Boyle is the dog of war that I would want at my side.
It is hard to put a finger on where it is has gone wrong for them, but my suspicion is that it is a whole range of issues.
And nothing exposes their shortcomings quite like comparing them to their Wild Atlantic Way cousins.
Donegal manager Rory Gallagher confirmed this week that all of his players will be at home this summer, while, by my reckoning, there are half a dozen Mayo players based in Dublin.
You might think that’s a small thing, but the impact that has on the quality of collective training is huge. You try hitting the heights at training after sitting in a car for three hours while knowing that you have a return three-hour trip ahead of you.
Above all, though, when you compare the two teams, you are hit with the sense that one is stuck in a time warp while the other has moved on.
In 2010, both hit rock bottom; Mayo losing to Longford, while there was hardly a peep out of Donegal as they went out to Armagh.
Last Sunday, ten of the Mayo team who featured against Galway, saw game-time against Longford.
When Donegal trounced Antrim last month, seven – effectively half the team – were making their first Championship start.
In football, you have to keep moving if you are to stay the pace but evidently Mayo are standing still while hoping to win the race and that is an impossible thing to do.
I know people will say that the ready-made talent is not there but it rarely is, so you have to develop it.
Evan Regan took heat for his appalling shot selection at the death last Sunday, but had he been exposed to more game-time at this level he would have boxed clever.
There would have been no pulling of the trigger, but rather a recycling of the ball, an invitation of Galway contact, a soft free and a second chance.
Donegal are willing to pay that price – you could argue that it has been forced on them up to a point – but they know that there will be payback in the long term.
It’s hard to ignore the sense that Mayo’s race is finally run
They are blessed to be getting an early down payment, and it is not just that the likes of Eoghan Ban Gallagher, Jason McGee, Michael Langan, Kevin Mulligan and Jamie Brennan have made the step-up look easy – it won’t be possible to get a true measure of that until they front up against Tyrone today – but they are already embracing the future.
And look at the impact it has had on the senior Donegal players – the likes of Paddy McGrath, Frank McGlynn, Ryan Hughes and, above all, Michael Murphy have all been inspired by their arrival.
You can see that in the lightness of their pervading mood. They know they have a team – and I expect them to see off Tyrone today – with a future.
Check out Mayo last Sunday and what did they have to cling to?
They are looking at the same faces for the last seven years and that is killing them softly.
They were not good enough when they were at their best in 2014, so how can they really believe they can do it now?
They don’t, not any more. They are a strong team, a group to be admired for their resilience but a time comes in the stage of every team’s lifecycle when it needs to be broken up and rebuilt.
That day has come for Mayo.