Mayo will win or lose on own terms

IN the aftermath of the 2006 All-Ireland, Jack O’Connor presented himself in the Mayo dressing room and told of how the year of soul-searching and hurt endured by Kerry since the previous September’s defeat to Tyrone had been a greater motivation than the heart-ache of Mayo’s 55-year quest for Sam Maguire.

In choosing to depart from the customary plámás of the victorious manager, O’Connor ran the risk of appearing to belittle the protracted suffering of a proud footballing county.

He had the advantage of having truth on his side, however, and based on the evidence of what he had just experienced on the field of play, David Brady for one, found himself concurring with the Kerry manager.

There was, Brady later told Keith Duggan in the excellent House of Pain: Through the Rooms Of Mayo Football, a “meanness” to Kerry’s performance that gave a ring of truth to O’Connor’s contention that the desire borne of a single winter without silverware could obliterate over a half-century of yearning.

In their long battle with the ghosts of history perhaps Mayo’s greatest misfortune has been to run into teams with profound motivations of their own. In 1997 it was a Kerry team inspired by the peerless Maurice Fitzgerald and aiming to bring to an end an unprecedented fallow spell.

In 2004 and 2006, it was Kerry again, this time smarting from the raw wound of defeat to Tyrone and intent on reasserting their pre-eminence in the game. While in 1996, Meath were keen to atone for Dublin’s victory in 1995.

Back in 1989 it was Cork returning to Croke Park to atone for two consecutive All-Ireland defeats.

Writing of that final in House of Pain, Keith Duggan claims there was a moment in the latter stages when defeat seemed unthinkable to Cork while victory seemed unimaginable to Mayo.

Too often in the past, Mayo have allowed the grandeur of their quest to define them and in reaching for the great beyond they have played as if hemmed in by the horizon.

In their quarter-final victory over the All-Ireland champions they had the look of a team that finally came to appreciate the value of the ordinary arts of winning a game of football in the modern era.

Against Cork there was none of that familiar sense of a team chasing the ghosts of history around Croke Park. There was a discipline, a coherence and, yes, a “meanness” to Mayo’s performance that suggested a realisation that a great obsession can just as easily consume a team as liberate it.

The more obvious signs of difference in James Horan’s team this year is their willingness to tackle high up the field. Witness the amount of times the likes of Alan Dillon, Alan Freeman, Andy Moran, Jason Doherty when introduced, and Kevin McLoughlin in particular put pressure on the Cork backs as they tried to build from the back. See also, the amount of well-timed catches Seamus O’Shea made at critical moments from kickouts — after the concession of the Donncha O’Connor penalty, after his brother Aidan’s late hit on Noel O’Leary, directly after Kevin McLoughlin’s goal, after Enda Varley’s first point of the second half and from Alan Quirke’s kickout just before John Miskella scored Cork’s solitary second-half point. This was no happy coincidence.

There have, of course, been false dawns in the past, but the Mayo of 2011 look to have unburdened themselves of the grand narrative of 60 years of pain and platitudes. They have been helped no doubt by the relative lack of expectation from their supporters and by the measured approach of manager James Horan who told us upon arrival in MacHale Park as new Mayo manager late last September that his ambition for Mayo football merely extended to bringing “some sense and some structure” and wanting to “restore a bit of pride back into the whole thing”. You get the feeling that Mayo will win or lose on their own terms.

Should they lose they will lose as a smart team in the early stage of its cycle trying to play smart football. There will be no need for pop psychology or planning permission for an extension to the House of Pain.

So will they lose to Kerry?

They will if they foul as much as they did in the corresponding February league fixture in Castlebar when they gave away 19 frees in the first half alone. They might lose if Aidan O’Shea keeps carrying the ball into the tackle and they certainly will lose if they slacken in any way on the ferocious intensity they brought to the breaking ball against Cork.

Mayo’s kickouts have had very little in the way of contrivance about them with Robert Hennelly kicking mostly out the middle. This allows the three half backs and Kevin McLoughlin to gamble by attacking the breaking ball with manic intensity because there is usually somebody to cover if their foraging doesn’t yield results.

Apart from facing into the game with two players just recovered from hamstring injuries and two others on the bench recovering from the same, Kerry’s fear is that, like Tyrone at quarter-final stage, they could find themselves drifting unexpectedly off the back of the peleton, unable to move up through the gears. If that happens Mayo may begin dancing on the pedals as Dublin did a fortnight ago. Up to now the dancing feet have been Darran O’Sullivan’s but I’m not entirely convinced of his placing on the right wing forward position. Darran has been flourishing as a centre forward or as a roving corner forward. Playing him as an orthodox right wing forward is too restrictive and it forces him to play a particular way where a reliance on head down and solo at speed is plan A, B and C.

We saw the limitations of that gambit against Down last year and it certainly won’t work against somebody of Keith Higgins’ pace. I think Darran will rove with impunity and try to connect as early and often as possible with Gooch, O’Leary and Donaghy.

I expect Kerry to earmark certain Mayo forwards for particular attention after the surprising lack of attention given by Cork to Alan Dillon and Andy Moran. Alan Freeman has the potential to do damage and while much has been made of Cillian O’Connor’s physical development since last year, it is his ability to step off and kick off either foot that makes him an unpredictable prospect for whoever will be picking him up.

I recall watching a TG4 documentary, Baile an Tobair-Baile an Bhua, around Christmas last year and being taken by O’Connor’s role in his club’s first ever senior championship win in 2010. It was also obvious from the show that fellow Ballintubber man, James Horan, held O’Connor in high esteem. The young garsún of Mayo football is repaying that faith in bucketloads this summer.

This has all the hallmarks of a game that will be won and lost in the last 10 minutes. Taking Kerry to the wire would be viewed as an achievement in itself by many but James Horan and his crew are unlikely to have their intelligence insulted by gallant defeat.

They will have been emboldened by the success of Donegal footballers and Dublin hurlers this year and will know they have to make it count after getting this far.

If we are to believe the vibes being put out by Kerry players and management, the Down defeat last year has been a sustaining motivation for this year. The question they need to be asking themselves is how badly they want to still be playing football when the days shorten and pulses quicken. Mayo may no longer be a team in thrall to its destiny but Kerry still look to be masters of their own. Kerry to shade it.