Mayo badly served by safety first philosophy
But things are not as desperate as they appear.
It’s a question posed in circles as diverse as economic forums, sociology lectures and self-help classes. In a sporting context we’re long used to teams and supporters bigging themselves up in late spring with talk of this being ‘The Year’ only to see the great delusion unfold in early summer.
Until recently nobody did pathological optimism better than the Mayo football supporter. A series of dispiriting defeats in big matches had left him desolate at times but his capacity for renewal knew no bounds and he returned year on year, game on game ready to take on the world again.
The tide of negativity sweeping through the western county since their away defeat to Down just under three weeks ago is hard to fathom in this context. Mayo are on a desperately bad run of three successive defeats (Down, Donegal and Cork) compounded by a disappointing showing against Roscommon in the Connacht U21 championship, but with Dublin at home this evening and an already qualified Kerry to come next weekend, their fate is very much in their own hands.
Their cause isn’t being helped by the absolute extremes of the introspection within Mayo football. James Horan, outwardly a man of even temper and considered opinion, didn’t sugar coat it when analysing the performance against Down.
“We wouldn’t have won a Division 4 game today,” he said.
His erstwhile forward colleague in the powerful team of the mid-’90s, Ray Dempsey, had this much to say when reflecting on the defeat of his U21 charges: “Getting into a Mayo panel is not good enough but, unfortunately, it is for some of these players.”
Because they invest so much of their hearts in their football, Mayo folk are constantly in a state of either/or. Either they are ecstatic after victory or indulging in bouts of extreme self-flagellation in defeat.
To Horan’s credit he offered a fairly reasoned opinion after the one-point defeat to Cork. “We should have won it. We gave away a couple of hand-passes near the end and that’s what killed us. When we needed to hold onto the ball we panicked a little bit.”
A dispassionate analysis of the Cork game confirms Mayo’s real issue last Sunday in Castlebar is indeed the amount of times they give the ball away between the two 70-yard lines. The desire to give the killer pass is seeing good footballers like Alan Dillon, Donal Vaughan, Keith Higgins and even last year’s All Star Andy Moran kick the ball from too far back the field. They are trying to force the point of attack and in doing so are turning over possession repeatedly.
They also showed a lack of ambition from the Mayo sideline in their use of extra man Shane McHale following Mark Collins’ dismissal just before half-time. This was the second game in a row Mayo had the extra man for much of the game but for some reason teams like Mayo (and Laois in Killarney last Sunday) don’t go for the jugular in these situations.
Just after Collins’ dismissal Mayo led at half-time by 0-7 to 0-3. They were 0-11 to 0-6 ahead after Kevin McLoughlin’s slaloming run in the 51st minute but Cork wore them down in the last 20 minutes and outscored Mayo 0-8 to 0-2.
This, I would argue, is as a direct result of the safety first attitude so prevalent in today’s game and although it protects the goal, it does a disservice to some really good players. Ironically, the one goal conceded by Mayo this season came against Down when Mayo themselves were playing with 14 men. These happenings are not accidental and lessons should be learned.
In ignoring them Mayo will find themselves once more like a dog chasing its tail, running around in great big circles and meeting itself again on the starting line. Now that really would be depressing.
