Mayo will lick their wounds, but watch ’em bounce back
Okay, Mayo fielded and folded in the big game in a manner which we have come to know only too well down the decades.
Yes the Cork side had little more than a training spin and the crowd did not get value for money in that one.
Cork have blooded and tested a raft of new players for the sterner Championship battles ahead.
Mayo will lick their wounds and, beyond doubt, will produce the kind of beautiful football we know they are capable of to cause some huge upset against the odds later in the summer.
We have that to look forward to now in only a matter of weeks.
But what about Limerick in the Division 4 final? Their overjoyed captain Seanie Buckley pointed out after their narrow victory over Waterford that it is over a century since a Limerick side seized a national football title.
That two-point win will be remembered in the county for a long, long time. I come from an underdog county that has never even won an Ulster football title never mind Sam Maguire.
We remember an All-Ireland junior back in 1959 with the clarity you have when the silverware always goes elsewhere.
Limerick crashed through their ceiling in winning that title. Those ceilings are set at different heights for counties like ours.
The fact of the matter is thatLimerick have already had probably their best day of this year.
Nobody expects them to travel too far in the Munster Championship that will be dominated again by The Kingdom and the Rebels who so easily cantered home against Mayo.
In Limerick come September there will still be pride in winning that title.
The ceilings are indeed at different levels.
Top sides will never appreciate just how much it mattered to Waterford just to honourably contest that final and come so close to winning it.
The perennial championship core teams who fight it out at the top table might think that those title battles in the lower divisions don’t really matter.
For those of us below the top table however they are far from scraps from the masters’ tables.
They are titles, achievements, victories to warm the heart. Viva Limerick.
The Armagh and Down clash at the top of Division Two was more akin to the blooding and building battle amongst the big boys.
Both can look forward to being in the frenzied Ulster cockpit shortly and either or both could have a long enough Championship run. Again it was a close thing but for what it is worth there might be more latent promise amongst the losers on the day than in Armagh, still so heavily dependent on Steven McDonnell.
Unlike Limerick either or both useful enough sides might have big Championship days ahead.
But what about Sligo? They won the Division Three title clash against Antrim with five points to spare.
Will that feat survive as their most successful game of the year?
Given their recent form one might believe so but there is an intriguing twist to the tail of this one.
That is because Sligo played the fluidly confident brand of football which Mayo should have been displaying against Cork the next day. They looked top class against an Antrim team which gave them a good test all the way.
Does anyone think that Sligo at home under Benbulben will lie down and assume their statistical status when Mayo come calling in the Championship in about six weeks time?
There should be a game worth relishing. If Mayo play as badly and show the lack of spirit which they showed against Cork then they will surely have all their feathers singed off again in the heat of championship battle.
One way or another the team honed by Kevin Walsh (former Galway midfielder) will test them to their limits in this western battle of neighbours.
It could be the liveliest of openers for the Connacht Championship.
And then, knowing Mayo, they are more likely to produce the kind of champagne football that is matchless when they get it right and so thrilling to watch.
But one thing is for sure. Sligo will not fear their arrival for the battle.
They will cast a cold eye on them and hope for another good day.
And it could happen too.
* Contact: cormac66@hotmail.com
