Conor Mortimer raises doubts over Mayo’s new tactics

Conor Mortimer believes Mayo have not improved their team from last year and insists Aidan O’Shea is not a full-forward.

Despite making those assessments, the 2006 All Star forward believes his native county will edge Dublin in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final.

He has been impressed with O’Shea’s conversion to the edge of the square but reckons midfield is still his best position and worries Lee Keegan may have his hands full with Paul Flynn or Diarmuid Connolly, curbing his attacking threat.

“I played alongside him (O’Shea) at full-forward and he wasn’t a great full-forward at that time. It wasn’t his position and I still don’t think it’s his position. He’s a midfielder, he’s not a full-forward but it’s working for the cause and that’s what it boils down to. He’s a great man to win a ball, his hands are like shovels. It’s a matter of the corner forwards making the right runs off him because against Dublin when you get ball you won’t have space to run through four or five defenders and kicking a score.

“He’s a great player to be playing alongside now. He’ll lay off ball to you all day. It’s up to the lads who are there now to do it. I think that’s what Dublin will try and do: try and stop the ball getting into O’Shea rather than try and stop O’Shea. If they do that and keep Lee Keegan defending... Lee Keegan was involved in 2-9 of the 2-13 in the last game. He’ll be on Connolly or Flynn and it’s highly unlikely he’ll be involved in that type of scoring again. If you take his influence out, it’s up to everyone else to step up.”

Mortimer expects sparks between the sides at the weekend, believing there is residual nine years on from Mayo’s dramatic All-Ireland semi-final win.

“I think it goes back to 2006. Dublin lost the game, as opposed to us winning the game. We were seven or eight points down with 15 minutes to go in an All-Ireland semi-final. If we were in that position and lost it, we would have been better off not going back to Mayo. The last couple of years, there has been niggle but at the end of the day Dublin have won the big one. Winning semi-finals? Great but we haven’t beaten Dublin in a final and that 2013 game was probably Dublin’s poorest performance of the year. That was what Mayo people thought after: that we couldn’t beat Dublin when they played badly. You don’t see the big teams coughing up goals like we did that day.

“Have we a stronger team now? I don’t think we do. After the Donegal game, you could say we’re structurally better at the back but they had no choice because we had been leaking goals all championship. There were two against Sligo and it should have been three or four against Galway. Barry Moran did a good job back there against Donegal and maybe they are waking up to the fact that every team needs a sweeper at some stage in a game.

“I don’t think Barry Moran will be sweeping again. The high ball won’t be huge for Dublin. They don’t have a big man inside.”

He’s surprised at how many have taken a dimmer view of Dublin’s All-Ireland chances following the quarter-final win over Fermanagh. But he fancies Mayo, who he says beat an “already finished “ Donegal, to spoil anunproven Dublin team.

“If Dublin perform at 100% no team will touch them but Mayo won’t let them play to their potential. I could see them winning by two or three points. If they can get ball into O’Shea they will profit. Bringing O’Shea out, if things in the middle aren’t working, won’t coincide with what Mayo need to do.

“One to 15 on both teams marking each player out of 10, Dublin might have 100 and Mayo 96 or 97 but I have a sneaky feeling Mayo will get through it.”