John Divilly: The key Mayo management moves that ended an era
Mayo manager James Horan, left, and Aidan O'Shea after their side's victory over Dublin. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
After a decade of wonderful entertainment by the Dublin empire — where they set the standard, won All-Irelands and set previously unimaginable records — they’ve been ousted spectacularly from the 2021 championship at the penultimate hurdle.
Mayo have been a pebble in Dublin’s sandal over the last decade — annoying, constant and refusing to go away.
This time Dublin caved via a combination of unforced and forced turnovers. The unforced errors and turnovers from Dublin stunned their support into silent disbelief. Some of them had never seen a Dublin meltdown before and few believed it would unfold before their eyes after their impressive first half.
Dublin were ignoring pre-match mumblings that they were on a downward trajectory, and Mayo fell into their old habit of trying to contain their nemesis. They were failing miserably as Dublin produced a highly functional performance, playing with width, patience, composure, and scores. They were tackling crisply and suffocating Mayo every time they tried to meander through the middle.
The normally assured Mayo defence looked chaotic and disorganised. Eoghan McLaughlin badly needed his bike as Dublin’s best attacker, Paddy Small, was giving him the run around. Ciaran Kilkenny was three for three off his arch-nemesis, Lee Keegan.
Most managers would have panicked and whipped McLaughlin and Keegan, off but not James Horan. He earned his crust with some crucial introductions and re-deployments.
He made the first of his many courageous decisions with the introduction of Enda Hession to man-mark Small. Hession was colossal and showed all the natural attacking flair that’s embedded in the DNA of so many Mayo defenders.
This released Eoghan McLaughlin to the half-forward line, where he could concentrate on carrying the ball at speed and foul smarter, higher up the field, as his earlier fouls had handed Dean Rock some easy tap-overs.
Next, he redeployed Padraig O’Hora to shackle Kilkenny.
Slowly Mayo stopped the rot and started getting their coveted vital turnovers and decided to start playing their game.
Taking O’Hora off Con O’Callaghan was risky as O’Callaghan can ignite a game with a side-step, but the risk paid off in spades as neither Kilkenny or O’Callaghan scored again in the match.
Then the Big Move — giving the captain the curly finger.
The announcement “Aidan O’Shea to the bullpen” shocked a few Mayo diehards, who must have thought that the fourth official misinterpreted Horan’s intentions. No time for sentiment. Mayo needed something fresh inside as Big Aidan didn’t have the radar in tune when it came to turning his marks into scores.
While his replacement James Carr also missed some glorious chances, his movement and pace opened up more space for Tommy Conroy and Ryan O’Donoghue, especially Conroy.
Finally, the redeployment of Conroy to centre forward at the beginning of extra time put the finishing touches to Horan’s tactical redraw as Conroy blitzed through a tiring Dublin defence.
Last December, in the 2020 All-Ireland final, Eoin Murchan succeeded in nullifying the threat Conroy posed. On Saturday, Murchan was keeping a tight reign on Ryan O’Donoghue and the wily Mick Fitzsimon was curtailing Conroy. Conroy could have easily been withdrawn, but Horan stood firm with his young gun. Unfortunately for Dublin, Murchan retired due to injury in the 67th minute.
The Mayo management team spotted a potential mismatch and realigned Conroy to centre forward and introduced Darren Coen to the inside line. Conroy (0-2) and Coen (0-1) delivered.
Ironically, for the second game in succession, the opposition failed to score in the third quarter against Mayo. They threw caution to the wind in the second half and played their game.
What’s ‘their’ game? They press the opposition kick-out, they force turnovers, they drive forward relentlessly from deep, they create at least 30 scoring opportunities and they never give up. Their intensity and doggedness was typified brilliantly by Diarmuid O’Connor’s acrobatic volley to keep the ball in play from an almost certain missed 45 by Robert Hennelly. The Dublin defenders assumed it would sail harmlessly wide, but O’Connor launched himself fearlessly at the ball and kept it in play. Kevin McLoughlin picked up the scraps and fired it over to keep Mayo in the game.
However, it was really Dublin keeping Mayo in the game. It’s hard to remember when they looked so void of attacking flair and fluidity; when they tried to blast two glorious goal opportunities instead of flashing them across the parallelogram and unselfishly palm them in; when they only created one scorable free in the second half; when they tried to balloon Hail Mary’s into the square in search of goals; when they squandered so much possession and coughed up turnovers; when game-management let them down so dramatically in the dying moments, which resulted in the equaliser; when they were so ill-disciplined and picked up several black cards (and should have more only for some questionable refereeing decisions).
Indeed, some were horrendous. It’s mind-blowing how over 20,000 people can see when yellow cards should be black ones. Do referees genuinely not bother listening to linesmen; or are linesmen, umpires and fourth officials not trained to communicate through technology.
It is time for the referee assessors to organise some refresher courses.
It’s also timely for Mayo to reflect on those first-half woes. Kerry or Tyrone may not be as generous in the final.
