Gilvarry salutes senior role models as minor marvels bridge 28-year gap

More than once we tried to make Enda Gilvarry put this into some sort of perspective.

To place into a context all those All-Ireland final defeats and one county’s culture of close-but-no-cigar.

A member of the last Mayo side to claim an All-Ireland minor title, in 1985, there were few men better placed to do just that but he refused the opportunity to expound on what made these guys different to all those who came before.

“I’m not sure what the difference is. Every bunch of young men has their own unique style and character. The seniors have been brilliant role models for us this year in the way they’ve gone about their game and played.”

Gilvarry bore the look and demeanour of a man who needed to spend a long time in a dark and quiet place and admitted as much by answering a query as to his involvement next year by claiming he had no designs further than his couch.

Twice in the second-half Mayo built up seemingly bullet-proof leads only to suffer the agony of having those advantages whittled down by a county for whom persistence is now an accepted part of their DNA.

“I’d give credit to Tyrone for coming back. For most of that game Tyrone were dominant. We were stuttering and they were the more fluent team. We got a run of scores late on (in the first half and the second half) to give us the cushion.”

His opposite number had no qualms with the result. The better side won, Mickey Donnelly admitted and, in truth, he saw the writing on the dressing room wall when the sides took five at half-time.

Tyrone had enjoyed the better of a poor first-half but their efforts were stymied by an inability to make it pay on the scoreboard.

“We felt we were shooting from the wrong areas of the field,” said Donnelly, “under the Hogan Stand. We didn’t work the ball centrally and as a result we kicked it short and wide. We were a wee bit rash defensively.”

Still, there was no blame. Seven of their starters will be back next year, 11 of their panel in total. This will stand to Tyrone.

Mayo can only hope that this is the beginning of a similar spell now that the ghosts of ‘85 have been exorcised.

“We didn’t feel any kind of bogeys, 28 years,” said Gilvarry.

“My claim to fame is gone. It has to be a huge boost. There’s been huge work gone in and we hadn’t got the rewards over the last few years and a lot of hard work has to be done to make sure this doesn’t happen once in 28 years again.”