When September used to be enough to gladden Mayo hearts

Strange to say now, given Mayo have lost six All-Irelands in their last six appearances, but there was a time when the mere act of reaching September was enough to elicit outpourings of euphoria across the county.

As is the case tomorrow, it was Tyrone who blocked Mayo’s approach to the decider back in 1989. It was the first time the counties had met in the championship and the Connacht champions were under the tutelage of John O’Mahony.

Antrim sensationally beat Offaly in the All-Ireland hurling semi-final a week later and there were more than a few who expected Tyrone to feed off the ripples that flowed in the wake of such a standout result for Ulster.

Tyrone boasted 12 players who had featured on the panel three years before as they somehow let slip an eight-point lead against Kerry in the final. Mayo? They hadn’t reached a decider since 1951.

As we know now, Mayo prevailed but what the history books don’t tell us is how that result was greeted with the county chairman at the time describing the victory as the best thing to happen to the county since the opening of Knock Airport.

Okay, less than four years had passed since Monsignor James Horan’s campaign to get the project off the ground ended and the first flights departed for Rome but the sentiment nevertheless summed up the feeling of ecstasy.

There will be no such giddiness should Mayo repeat history tomorrow but TJ Kilgallon, who lined out at centre-half back that day, remembers well the madness that ensued when they earned a shot at Cork in the ensuing final.

“For the county it was certainly a huge thing. It created great hype because it had been 38 years since we had been to an All-Ireland final and Mayo went all the way through the ’70s, from 1969 to 1981, without even winning a Connacht title.”

It is easy to forget that period now given the regularity with which Mayo have added provincial titles to their already abundant pantry but Kilgallon was typical of his generation in his exposure to a restricted diet.

Between 1967 and 1970 he looked up to men such as Eugene Rooney, Seamus O’Dowd and Jinky Joe Corcoran who halted Galway’s hunt for four-in-a-row in 1967, added another Connacht title two years later and an NFL bauble in 1970.

And then, nothing.

“The thing is though that Mayo had lots of underage talent in the ’70s. I would say that till the day I die. St Colman’s in Claremorris won an All-Ireland [in 1977] and St Jarlath’s won two [1974 and 1978] with a number of Mayo lads on board as well.

“Mayo won two All-Ireland minors as well, in ’71 and the team I was on in ’78. The U21s lost a final to a great Kerry team in ’73 — a lot of them went on to win the four-in-a-row — and then we won it in ’74. There was great talent but maybe not great teams.”

Kilgallon was there when the tide turned, in 1981, with a first Connacht title in 12 years. Another followed in 1985 as they took Dublin to a replay but ’86 and ’87 he regards as his own team’s lost year. “We never made it out of Connacht in ’86 and ’87 and that was when I felt that team was at its peak.”

Injuries and inconsistency did for them before they crossed the Shannon again in 1988 only to be bettered by Meath and the final which they lost by three points 13 months later would be the end for that generation.

“The build-up was a whole new experience for us and probably a bit hard to handle. We won two more Connacht titles after that but a new team started to come through in ’92 and ’93 and a lot of those lads from the ’80s drifted away.”

New men, same thwarted ambitions. Five more final appearances have rewarded Mayo with nothing but heartbreak since and led to a cottage industry for journalists and pundits who deal in talk of mental fragility and self-defeating layers of hype. Kilgallon sees it differently.

“Our problem back then was that we just weren’t consistent enough and there was no back door back then. For us as well, winning Connacht was almost an end in itself. I don’t think our belief was the same as the current team.

“People go on about Mayo and All-Ireland finals but look at 1996: that team came from nowhere just two years after being beaten by Leitrim. They did unbelievably well to get to the final that year.

“In ’97 they just didn’t produce the goods and most Mayo people would be honest enough to say that the teams in 2004 and 2006 just weren’t good enough. Sunday? I’d be quietly confident.”

Maybe then the county would be electrified.

Maybe.