Wary Mayo leave the hype behind

IT started in 1989. John O’Mahony had organised a behind closed doors training session in Ballina’s James Stephens Park the week after Mayo had beaten Tyrone in the All-Ireland final. Word spread around the town. From there it went around the county and 5,000 people turned up to the secret meeting.

It was the start of a crazy few weeks. Cars, houses and sheep were painted red and green, schools turned out posters and slogans like sweat shops, Willie Joe Padden became immortalised through song as a viking and attempts were made to get it on Top of the Pops.

Those heady days of wild hope have been associated with Mayo football ever since, intertwined with the losses that followed in the 1996, ’97, ’04 and ’06 finals.

Outside the county there’s a belief that Mayo hype precipitates a Mayo loss. But over the years, with each loss, the excitement has been replaced with a coldness. Hype led to pain. The pain led to great hurt. The fluttering flags have been put away in the attic. The face paints saved for the Salmon festival in July or Siamsa Sraide in August.

And this week it’s quiet in Mayo.

“The other aspect is, with Kerry involved, because there’s been so much recent history with the last three All-Ireland finals all being against Kerry,” said two-time Mayo manager O’Mahony. “Some people have said to me this week that it’s a pity it had to be against Kerry again. People think of past history.”

Those Kerry final losses, particularly the last two, eliminated that hype from the county’s football scene. From the days of 5,000 at a training session, barely 5,000 turned up for the quarter-final victory over Cork.

The London extra-time result had something to do it with, as did the economic misery afflicting the west of Ireland, but the reality is that only an All-Ireland title would allow the county’s supporters reach those same levels. “You’re starting to see a few flags on cars but when I think back to the heady days of ’89 when you had thousands at training,” said O’Mahony. We used the old pitch in Castlebar on MacHale Road and used the main dressing rooms there. Half the panel would tog out in one dressing room and the other half in the other one. Everyone was learning that year but you had 2-3,000 up to 5,000 at a training session. I remember after the training was over you’d go into one dressing room and you’d need to get the lads over form the other one to talk to them. But it was impossible because there were so many kids around and people looking for autographs.”

He got to see it from the other side in 1998 when he was managing Galway. The Tribesmen weren’t as desperate for success given the hurlers All-Ireland titles in ’87 and ’88. Their last training session in Ballinasloe attracted 200 supporters and, as John put it: “most of them were looking for tickets.”

Their opponents Kildare were surrounded by hype with every stretch of the county was covered in white.

“I remember speaking to Mick O’Dwyer and he had a situation where Kildare went crazy. He said to me he was sorry he didn’t take the team away for the week.”

But O’Mahony never thought that would be a good idea: “This hype was well meant. It was good will.

“But it’s nothing like that in Mayo at all anymore. First of all there’s a downturn in the economy and more people have issues with their lives. It’d be unthinkable in that ‘89-’96 period that you’d two you had two quarter-finals in Croke Park and you had only 22,000 people at it. That would have been unthinkable at that stage.

“But, where getting to a final in ‘89 would have been a moral victory almost, getting to the closing stages until the deal is closed is not a big a deal anymore. There have been so many near misses and disappointments since then.”

The bookies believe Sunday will be another one and the supporters won’t allow themselves get caught up with it. A crowd of 35,000 would be a major achievement for the GAA’s marketing gurus. For once Mayo and Kerry believe the same thing, there’s no point getting excited until the team have won something.