Tyrone losing killer instinct

One of those “but the winners won’t worry about that” kind of days. But Tyrone should worry about it.

All day long these two teams passed the parcel over and back until eventually, when the music stopped, Tyrone found themselves on the winner’s chair. Somebody had to. Mayo had no discernible game-plan and were unable to capitalise on the window of opportunity thrown their way by a Tyrone side but a pale shadow of the two All-Ireland teams.

Only 27,834 went through the turnstiles for this Round Three Qualifier clash at Croke Park on Saturday, and the entire affair was devoid of atmosphere. Tyrone and Mayo have suffered difficult championship exits in recent seasons, and the wounds inflicted by those defeats were all too visible in a game where both sides lacked conviction.

Mayo lined out without team captain Ronan McGarrity and Trevor Mortimer due to injury, and they opted for a full reshuffle of the defence which was given such a torrid time of it against Galway in the Connacht final.

Tyrone dominated early on but didn’t punish with the kind of ruthlessness that was once their USP. They went 0-4 to 0-1 ahead, with points from Davy Harte, Enda McGinley, Sean Cavanagh and Tommy McGuigan, but the latter’s performance summarised Tyrone’s day.

Just a week after his man-of-the-match display against Westmeath, McGuigan had a ducks-would-drown type of day. He kicked three first-half wides, one a clear-cut goal opportunity after 26 minutes.

Indeed, the sight of that effort arcing around the far goalpost stirred Mayo and, inside a minute, and totally contrary to the flow of play, they were celebrating a beautifully-constructed goal of their own, and the one-point lead — 1-3 to 0-5 — it gave them.

The goal featured perceptive build-up work by Andy Moran, Tom Parsons and Pat Harte, whose flick across an open goal gave Conor Mortimer the simplest task of palming it to the net.

Outplayed for long periods, Mayo retired with a one-point cushion — 1-5 to 0-7.

But even then there were worrying omens. Harte had moved to full-forward so that he could present a physical challenge in front of goal — Mayo had spent the first 20 minutes kicking high balls into small forwards, one of the oldest sins in the book. But he was unable to come out for the second-half due to a tummy bug.

Trevor Mortimer came on and brought even more power to the mix, but not as much guile, and this was a notable factor in a second half where Mayo had plenty of possession but sorely lacked the poise to edge themselves home.

For 15 minutes after the restart, they settled into the box seat and drove relentlessly at Tyrone. Their yield? A measly two points from Conor Mortimer. He might have converted the second of these chances into a goal that might have given Mayo some badly-needed breathing-space, but, as so often is the case with him, he opted instead for a point.

It left Mayo 1-7 to 0-7 ahead, and, alas for O’Mahony in the second year of his unhappy second reign as Mayo supremo, that was as good as it got.

Between the 52nd and 61st minutes, Tyrone scored six unanswered points — Tommy McGuigan (free), Colin McCullagh (free), rampant sub. Martin Penrose, Sean Cavanagh, McCullagh, and Cavanagh (free) again. That put them ahead by three points — 0-13 to 1-7 — and the inescapable air of desperation about Mayo’s late rally (producing two pointed frees from Dillon and Mortimer) meant Tyrone were able to hold on.

They dispatched Parsons to the edge of the square and he almost had a goal in the 69th minute, only for play to be brought back for a Mayo free. Ultimately, it was the deployment of Cavanagh that won the day for Tyrone.

He rotated between full-forward and centre half-forward, and even drifted out to midfield to lend a hand there. Along with Enda McGinley, Penrose and McCullagh, he guided Tyrone through.

“It was all about energy, all about effort, sheer hard work. That’s the bottom line if you work hard enough the results might come,” was Mickey Harte’s summary of events afterwards. After some low-lying seasons, he felt his players “today took back a little of their standing for themselves.”

Inevitably, O’Mahony was asked about his own future after two years where his only championship wins were against Cavan and Sligo. “I took this job two years ago for a three-year term,” he said.

“I have given it absolutely everything along with all my backroom team, everything I can. The way the GAA works is you might have a three-year term, but I have never stayed in any job when I wasn’t wanted.

“That would be the situation now as well. I’m willing to live by my commitment. Obviously I have to sit down with the county board and see what they want, and we will go forward from there.

“I am not going to monopolise or say I had a three-year year term. All I can say is I have to sit down with (selectors) Tommy (Lyons) and Kieran (Gallagher) yet and probably say I would want to continue, see how the dust settles.”

Scorers for Tyrone: S Cavanagh 0-4 (1f), T McGuigan 0-2 (2f), C McCullagh 0-2 (1f), R McMenamin 0-1, D Harte 0-1, M Penrose 0-1, B Dooher 0-1, E McGinley 0-1.

Scorers for Mayo: C Mortimer 1-4 (3f), A Dillon 0-3 (3f), BJ Padden 0-2.

TYRONE: J Devine; Justin McMahon, C Gourley, C Gormley; D Harte, R McMenamin, P Jordan; R Mellon, E McGinley; B Dooher, B McGuigan, Joe McMahon; C McCullagh, S Cavanagh, T McGuigan. Subs: C Holmes for B McGuigan, 47; M Penrose for Mellon, 47; D Carlin for Harte, 54; O Mulligan for T McGuigan, 67; D MCCaul for McMenamin, 70.

MAYO: D Clarke; K Higgins, T Cunniffe, A Higgins; P Gardiner, J Nallen, T Howley; D Heaney, T Parsons; A Moran, P Harte, BJ Padden; C Mortimer, A Dillon, A Kilcoyne. Subs: T Mortimer for P Harte, half-time; A Campbell for A Kilcoyne, 55; P Kelly for T Howley, 62; R McGarrity for A Moran, 63.

Referee: C Reilly, Meath.