Éamonn Fitzmaurice: Could the six-week wait actually suit Mayo?

James Horan's men need a target man inside and the obvious candidate is Aidan O'Shea. 

MY BALL: Galway's Cillian McDaid gets to the ball ahead of Enda Hession of Mayo in Castlebar. 

THE Connacht championship quarter-final at McHale Park in Castlebar was a really enjoyable encounter. 

The fact that both Mayo and Galway were happy to go long with the majority of their kickouts added to it as a contest. Ultimately it was a huge win for Galway, and a necessary win for the Padraic Joyce project. His big guns delivered with Paul Conroy, Damien Comer, Johnny Heaney and Shane Walsh all making significant contributions. 

Beating Mayo in Castlebar is a statement win and sets them on their way. A Galway team playing with confidence is a dangerous animal and enjoyable to watch. With due respect to Sligo and Leitrim, it is shaping up like a Galway-Roscommon Connacht final at the end of May. Roscommon have done well to beat them twice already, but trying to beat a team for the third time in the same season will be awkward at best.

Prior to yesterdays match, I felt that for Galway to win, they would have to keep a clean sheet. That has been the pattern in the last six battles between these counties going back to 2016. Galway won the first three and conceded a total of one goal across the three games, in 2017, when they won by a point. 

The last three that Mayo won they have scored four goals in the three games. It was critical for Galway to be solid at the back and arrest the pattern from the league where they were scoring freely, but also conceding too much. In particular they had to stamp out the type of goal that Diarmuid Murtagh scored in the Division 2 league final - and Matthew Ruane scored in last year's Connacht final in Croke Park - where they had bodies back but stood off the man in possession. 

The system they employed in Castlebar was highly effective. Dylan McHugh and Kieran Molloy were both selected as wing backs but without the ball they tucked in, in front of the ‘D’ to clog up the channel that Mayo love to run through. When Mayo attacked down the wing, the nearest sweeper pushed at the ball or doubled up on the Mayo attacker when required. It worked well for them. Mayo continued to bludgeon their way through that area even though it was well clogged up. They did draw fouls but other than the second quarter when Finian O Laoi was in the sin bin for a black card they never carried a consistent threat. They were relying on individuals, in moments, where Ryan O'Donoghue in particular excelled. 

Johnny Heaney was also central to the Galway defensive system. He is an intelligent footballer and is good with and without the ball. He dropped back and helped Molloy, in particular, allowing him to drop in and close down the space for Mayo. He also got forward to score 1-1. One cameo near the end highlighted the Galway defensive mentality perfectly when Kevin McLoughlin crossed a dangerous looking ball to Aidan O'Shea and when it broke off him, Liam Silke flung himself at the ball winning it when it looked as if O'Donoghue was lining up a goal chance. This illustrated a clear defensive intent about Galway.

The watching Andy Moran will have done his homework for the next day out. He will know the most effective way to counter this system is 1) to have a target man in in the full forward line. One of the sweepers will have to drop deeper which creates space outside for the runners. Secondly,  and possibly more importantly, McHugh’s and Molloy’s direct opponent has to be a factor high up the field and occupy them. Diarmuid O'Connor was at times but Conor Loftus wasn’t. These wing forwards need to make hard runs across the line and get on ball between the lines. If they get on ball there they can put it inside or release runners making the sweepers job much more difficult. Mayo didn’t ask enough questions of McHugh and Molloy yesterday. Leitrim may not ask them either the next day out but Roscommon certainly will.

Mayo now face into the qualifiers. They don’t have a game for six weeks, which seems an eternity - but it may actually suit them. They will be able to rehab the walking wounded. They will need Rob Hennelly, Paddy Durcan and Oisín Mullen back in particular. Jordan Flynn had a great league also and was missed yesterday. They may look to get some club action into the likes of Cillian O'Connor to accelerate his return to the top of his game. If they get their house in order they will be dangerous in the back door and would be real awkward opposition in an All Ireland quarter final.

There are two critical areas they have to fix. They have to add variety to their attack. When their running game is in full flow and they are allowed punch holes through the central channel they are very hard to stop. This is often reliant on first phase football though. If they are slowed down and delayed they find it hard to score enough. Secondly, I think they need a target man inside. To me this is the obvious role for Aidan O Shea. He is an excellent ball winner and hard to compete against physically, has good basketball hands and is unselfish. He isn’t going to score a huge amount of points himself but he will create and distract. In fact he is more likely to score a goal than a point. By consistently having him inside Mayo can run the ball outside and can kick inside. Variety - teams that do both are hard to defend against. 

Secondly they have to figure out how to become more clinical. When they did create the chances they were far from prolific. Prior to the 66th minute when they found themselves six points down their accuracy in the second half was a startling 18%, having scored twice from eleven attacks. Overall they scored 16 points from 31 shots. A conversion rate of 52% isn’t going to win too many games, and yet they only lost by a point. 

Some of the shots were from ambitious positions but in general their shooting was technically well below par. One thing they didn’t lack (again) is that incredible spirit. When Lee Keegan kicked his point on the 66th minute to draw the gap back to five it had the look of a consolation score. Instead it spurred them on and they just ran out of time. This spirit is what will make them such a sticky opponent should they survive to the All-Ireland quarter finals. Sort out their shooting and add variety to their attack and they will once more be a big part of the conversation.

Sunday was Galway's afternoon, though. Their dander is up now and they will look forward with optimism. They also have plenty to work on. Their kickout, in particular, will be something that they will look to polish up over the next fortnight. They only won 47% of their long kickout and Mayo scored six points from this. They were creating pockets of space but there was an element of chance about many of their restarts. The deeper into the championship they go the more of a factor this will become. For the moment they can enjoy the fact that they finally managed to defeat a James Horan managed Mayo team in the Connacht Championship.

*Credit to Johnny Bradley and RTÉ for the statistics