How Mayo lost good guy image
It’s not that they would be classified as conservative. Nice is often seen as a poor adjective but it’s a precise one to describe what Mayo had been.
Controversy wasn’t something they skirted unless you count their decision in 2006 to warm up in front of Hill 16 prior to the All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin. Horan hasn’t been afraid to upset a few people or dabble a little in the black arts. Such is the only way to get ahead in Gaelic football nowadays.
Mayo are one of a group of All-Ireland contenders who are keen to talk themselves up at the moment. Horan and Andy Moran talked of how confident the group were of beating Galway with the captain giving a revealing insight into how the new Mayo now think: “The old Irish thing is to talk yourselves down and you can’t do that all the time.” This week Horan has tried to persuade supporters that talk of playing in August is premature but when they are speaking so assuredly about themselves they have to legislate for negative side effects.
From day one, Horan realised if Mayo were going to get anywhere the age of romance had to end. Joe Brolly’s comments placed an excessively bright light on their less appealing tactics but his analysis demonstrated just how much has changed about the county’s football under Horan. While they are racking up pretty impressive score totals they operate with the cuteness necessary to compete at the top.
Horan never mentioned the RTÉ pundit in his famous interview in January but it was blatantly obvious who he was referring to when he said: “In a two-horse race, if you have the national broadcaster proclaiming about one team and one team only, that’s going to influence officials and various things around the game. There should be no place for that type of biased discussion. It was completely unwarranted and incorrect. We’ll eventually be proven right. Did it impact the game? It’s hard to say.” We wrote at the time Mayo were right to fight their corner even if the timing of it was delayed. Similar to Jim McGuinness defending Ryan Bradley against Pat Spillane two years ago, it showed a manager sticking up for his men.
As far back as the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Cork in 2011, Mayo’s half-forward line have been the first line of defence and much of that has been about stemming or at least slowing down the opposition’s attempt to build an attack. That tactic has evolved since (read number 9) and Kevin McLoughlin is key to presenting himself as a leech-like adversary even if it means giving away a free or two. If he’s not doing that, then he is winning dirty ball like a terrier, a trait not many players in Mayo were keen to fill previously.
One might have assumed sticking up newspaper articles or quotes on dressing room walls were a thing of the past but clearly Mayo are still motivated by them as it was revealed following last month’s victory against Galway. Seemingly, they had taken exception to Galway comments in the lead-up to the Connacht quarter-final. After the same game, one Mayo player made a remark to a local journalist about a piece he had taken exception to. Sensitive souls? No, just the establishment of a siege mentality.
Mayo have been particularly spiky with some of the questions that have been thrown their way. Horan was sarcastic when it was put to him after the win over Galway that it was an even more remarkable victory considering they didn’t have all their forwards available to them. Kieran Shannon of this parish is the sports psychologist but it wouldn’t be at all surprising were he consulting the players on how they address the press. Everything said from the camp is measured unless they are talking themselves up.
Before last year’s All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin, Horan made a point of raising referee Joe McQuillan’s familiarity with Pat Gilroy’s team: “There’s a lot of commentary out there that he is very familiar with the Dublin set up and, as you said, he refereed a lot of their A versus B games this year. But, look, we’re happy with the referee that’s appointed. There’s a review committee there so if there was any questionable decisions they’d review that.” It was a thinly-veiled attempt to put the spotlight on the Cavan official and was frowned upon by referees chief Pat McEnaney who insisted he hadn’t taken charge of any in-house Dublin games.
To say Mayo are the only county indulging in gamesmanship would be inaccurate but they appear to be doing a hell of a lot more of it than they did before. The war of words between Aidan O’Shea and Paul Flynn during their league round game earlier this year was waged throughout the game. Before Niall Coleman was sent off for striking Alan Dillon last month, the Mayo forward had exchanged words with the Galway midfielder.
Donie Buckley’s certainly added a breath of fresh air to the Mayo set-up and it needed someone of his clout after losing a coach of Cian O’Neill’s acumen. Buckley is a fascinating character and works forensically on games, creating drills based on previous games or particular habits of the opposition. The forwards’ work-rate against Galway saw them turn over the ball on several occasions often by treading the line between legal and illegal play as they tackled the opponent in possession by interfering with the hand he used to control the ball.
Colm Boyle is one of our favourite footballers as the combative attitude he brings to a game hardly changes from one game to the next. Donal Vaughan, Aidan O’Shea and Keith Higgins are made from the same stuff and their conditioning this past while, under Ed Coughlan’s stellar work, has to be commended.
Attempting to break the cover they provide by strong running is anonerous task and on the odd occasion it is breached a free is usually the reward.
