Heroic Mayo deserve another crack
Kerry don’t win photo finishes.
Think about it. When was the last time Kerry closed out the deal when the water was rising and all in the stadium were running low on oxygen? When they were at the height of their pomp, seven years ago in the semi-final against Dublin they closed out the game impressively but the vast majority of this particular group of players had only last year’s epic semi-final as reservoir.
And we know how that finished.
History will show too, that Mayo have lost two such games against Donegal and Dublin in recent years. But these are games that this bunch of Mayo players have negotiated better and more often than this particular bunch of Kerry footballers.
Records will also show that it was Kerry who had the chances to sneak their way into the final from a James O’Donoghue shot that came off the post and an ambitious Bryan Sheehan effort from distance that ran out of puff a few yards out. But in reality, it would have been rough justice on Mayo had they been denied the reward their heroic efforts so richly deserved.
In the end, the only disappointed souls are the players and mentors who won’t get to recreate the laboratory conditions of a Croke Park replay in six days time.
Croke Park have had enough útamáling with extra-curricular activity this summer to last them a lifetime but the latest clash between a Croke Park Classic American football match and Saturday’s replay is unfortunate in the extreme.
Kerry would welcome the extra game at headquarters because in typically confident fashion, they believe in prairie birthrights and in their players’ ability to reserve their best football for their annual jaunts to Dublin. Mayo, too, would surely relish taking on and beating Kerry in a replay in Croke Park. It would certainly be another milestone for the greatest Mayo team since Seán Flanagan’s gilded generation of over 60 years ago.
Eamonn Fitzmaurice said afterwards that he had no issue with the Limerick Gaelic Grounds as choice of replay venue, and even if he did, he certainly wasn’t going to let it be known post-match. It “doesn’t play as big” being his obvious observation. But both he and James Horan (who repeated the word ‘bizarre’ a startling amount in his post-match spiel) must be seething at the audition opportunity lost for the eventual winner.
If Mayo were surprised by the levels of Kerry’s intensity in the tackle early on and in their ability to crack the Connacht champions intricate passing code, they were horrified at the red card dished out to Lee Keegan in the 33rd minute for what seemed a petulant and utterly harmless kick-back on Johnny Buckley.
Petulant and harmless yes, still technically a red card offence. So much for semi-final referees being afraid, for compassionate reasons, to dish out the reds. An appeal was inevitable and perhaps compassion might supersede technicality for once.
David Coldrick went on to police the game efficiently but his liberal interpretation of the swarm tackle caused confusion on both sides. Yet he too, has to be commended for his part in a mini-classic.
Mayo have taken some hard knock schooling these past few years but their response has always been to follow the Dylan Thomas credo of observing precisely, of recording exactly, of neglecting nothing, of fearing no foe, of never swerving from their purpose and of paying no heed to safety.
Four points down and a man down at half-time, it appeared on the resumption that all the creases had been ironed out early in the second half.
Ahead of the Cork game a few weeks ago, James Horan said that Mayo have focused specifically on ball retention and a better return rate from shots at goal as their key areas of improvement but it was a more cavalier and instinctive game that saw them score six points in the first 11 minutes of the second half to draw level.
Donnchadh Walsh and James O’Donoghue playing their usual brand of bewilderingly smart football put Kerry ahead briefly before Andy Moran (in his second super-sub impression this summer) the defiant Aidan O’Shea and the marquee man, Cillian O’Connor, decided to help their side push for home.
There were signs and signals in the closing period that Kerry were running out of steam, despite playing with a one-man advantage for the entire second half. Fitzmaurice later conceded they may have sat back too much with that extra man but if his teams tactics were such, his substitutions were brazen and bold.
Needs must, I suppose, but unleashing Kieran Donaghy, for the final dramatic moments, was an unforeseen stroke. Fitzmaurice later revealed Donaghy’s disappointment at not seeing action in the quarter-final against Galway and if the big man harboured any pent-up frustration all summer, this was going to be his last pitch at putting himself back in the frame.
It struck us even after the minor match earlier, that in their nightmares the Mayo supporters must always see a dropping ball around the square and a Kerryman soaring to meet it. With less than two minutes of normal time left on the clock, Donaghy would hardly have been blamed to have a go at goal himself but selfishness isn’t in his DNA. He made a career out of making orbiting corner forwards look good and this time O’Donoghue, was the beneficiary.
Barry John Keane and Kieran O’Leary know better than most what it is to orbit the big man and what it feels like to spend summers sitting alongside him on the bench too. All three gave notice that they are ready for action. In Darran O’Sullivan’s expected return, it now looks that there are more options available to Fitzmaurice and co than was previously thought.
David Moran, Anthony Maher and Johnny Buckley too showed in brilliant flashes that they are ready, willing and able to finally assume the mantle of responsibility around the middle.
A lot of fellas grew up yesterday.
What of Mayo and the darkly beautiful way they went about turning the familiar narrative on its head? In the modern championship, they have won once and they have lost every other way imaginable to Kerry.
And now they have drawn. They know that they are perhaps the only side that can match Dublin for sheer athleticism and strength but getting a crack at them is the key.
James Horan’s stated ambition when handed the reins four years ago was to make them “consistently competitive”. They have become that and more.
But so too have Kerry.
