Mike Quirke: Mayo let down by sideline weakness

Earlier in the summer, after the Munster final replay between Kerry and Cork, I highlighted championship games with a short one-week turnaround are where managers and coaches earn their crust.

Their ability to watch the drawn game, analyse it, and pick out a few golden nuggets from the debris should inform the adjustments they make for the replay. It’s an opportunity for management to show everybody just how sharp and clever they are tactically. It’s their time to shine, if you will, or, as happened last Saturday night, it can also make you look as dull as dishwater.

I’m fully aware being a Monday morning quarter-back is the easiest position in the world to play… you can never be wrong. Hindsight is a great selector. And when a team loses a championship game, the immediate over-reaction amongst supporters is the decisions taken by management were invariably the wrong ones. Every call gets scrutinised. Unfairly in most cases, but less so in this one I feel.