Kerry's timely reminder that Mayo play basketball too
SUPER-SUB: Mayo substitute Eoghan McLaughlin celebrates scoring his goal against Kerry at Fitzgerald Stadium. Mayo’s bench contributed 1-3 to Saturday’s win in Killarney. Pic: INPHO/Evan Treacy
There was a brief stage midway through the second half in Killarney when, as Kevin McStay sensed it, a point wouldn’t represent a bad afternoon’s work to take back to Mayo.
All-Ireland champions Kerry were labouring, leaking like a sieve, but through the dint of stubborn denial and the dread of being the side to give up a 28-year, 40-game unbeaten championship stint at Fitzgerald Stadium, they were bullocking their way towards a comeback.
After a hat-trick of goal chances for Kerry between the 44th and 48th minutes - one saved, one deflected and one flashed wide - David Clifford made it a one-score game in the 50th minute (0-11 to 0-14). Paudie Clifford was surging, and even when Donnacha McHugh pointed at the other end, Kerry went up the field and Paul Geaney kept them honest again with a fine effort. For Mayo, it was die dog or eat the hatchet.
That was the Mayo manager’s sense in the frazzled aftermath. In the cold light of Sunday, two points was the very least the visitors to Kerry deserved. And after beating the champions in their own living room, if they felt like three, that’s fine too.
The summer road will inform us of the wider import of this drama, played out before 23,128 spectators in dead heat, but Mayo’s commanding performance and victory on Saturday felt weighted with All-Ireland significance. Perhaps it’s wiser to see whether formlines hold in round 2. When it was put to him in a sidebar conversation afterwards that Mayo still need to turn one-off specials into a compelling series, McStay gave that knowing nod, but the portents look overwhelmingly positive.
For Kerry, the road ahead has got complicated. It is in their wont to get queasy tummies at the prospect of going to Cork because they seldom know what lurks there, and the reality of that sixth sense will be played out at Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday June 3. That could be some lark by the Lee.
What is rare, certainly before Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s six years in charge as manager, was hearing a Kerry manager fessing up that the sideline had a bad day at the office. Jack O’Connor said as much in the wake of Saturday’s five-point loss, not in relation to in-game management, more pre-game set-up.
“There was a malfunction there obviously,” he said. “This was a big step up, and a big wake-up call for us. We need to learn from today. I’ve been involved with teams beaten by more than this and we’ve come back and finished the year successfully. We were beaten by Cork by eight points in '09 and won the All-Ireland afterwards. But we need to use this experience, pick our team the way we need to and set up slightly differently.”
O’Connor’s use of the word ‘malfunction’ might have been instinctive, but it was interesting. It is inconceivable that Kerry would unilaterally eschew the pragmatic system set in stone last season by coach Paddy Tally. However, it looked like it. Kerry gave up one goal in Championship 2022 – they could have conceded four on Saturday alone.
Also, their out-of-possession set-up crumbled too easily off clean possession secured by Mayo from Colm Reape kick-outs. With one downfield bomb, the Emperor had no clothes.
“We have no excuses, we were well off it,” O’Connor lamented. "It turned too much into a basketball game, up and down, that’s not the way we play. It came from giving the ball away cheaply and not being in position to defend properly.”
The evangelists of the low block must have chuckled heartily and nodded sagely at Kerry’s exposure, but there is a happy halfway. Kerry’s deviation from script was odd and out of character. O’Connor was correct that the full-back line was ‘hung out to dry’, but there will no Kerry defender looking for solace in that. Too many of them were off-colour anyway.
Aidan O’Shea was named as the official man of the match but Ryan O’Donoghue, Matty Ruane and Jack Carney were excellent too, as was James Carr. Plus McStay and co got 1-3 off a bench that was sprinkled with experience.
“This is Mayo 2023,” McStay elaborated. “Our young lads had a tough grilling in the league, we played seven elite teams. Sam Callinan was marking Shane Walsh for a period, he's got great experiences as has Donnacha McHugh and others.
“That was the big challenge for us as a group, to keep this game in the melting pot all the way through, every minute of the game and thankfully we got a little bit of a gap, so bringing on experienced players in that circumstance means you can mind the ball a bit more carefully, you don't have to be as gung-ho. It was lovely to see them all back. It's been a while.
“We have a lot of good footballers, tidy players, and they really wanted to perform in this Championship. They felt that they slipped back a bit in the previous match and they had a bit to prove to themselves perhaps. They certainly did that.”
That they did. Mayo were never led, and set a brisk pace from the first whistle.
They were only a point up on the half hour but O’Donoghue (with two), Carney and Carr gave them a five-point interval lead, 0-12 to 0-7, that was reflective of the exchanges. O’Donoghue was also denied by Shane Ryan just before the break.
The goal they threatened throughout didn’t arrive until the 60th minute, sub Eoghan McLoughlin taking O’Donoghue’s pass on the run to drill past Shane Ryan. As a cameo for the afternoon, the inability of Kerry’s defenders to track the straight-line run of the Westport man, said almost everything.
D Clifford (0-8, 3 frees), P Geaney (0-3), S O’Shea (0-3, 2 frees, 45), T O’Sullivan (0-2), D Moynihan (0-1).
R O’Donoghue (0-5, 2 frees), J Carr (0-3), A O’Shea (0-3, 2 frees, 1 mark), E McLoughlin (1-0), M Ruane (0-2), P O Hora, J Carney, J Flynn, J Doherty, D McHugh, P Durcan (0-1 each).
1 S Ryan; 2 D Casey, 3 J Foley, 4 T O’Sullivan; 5 G O’Sullivan, 6 T Morley, 7 G White; 8 D O’Connor, 9 J Barry; 10 D Moynihan, 11 S O’Shea, 12 P Clifford; 13 T Brosnan, 14 D Clifford, 15 P Geaney.
P Murphy for Morley (blood sub 23-27), P Murphy for Casey (half time); A Spillane for Brosnan (half time); R Murphy for Moynihan (45), B O Beaglaoich for Morley (58), S O’Brien for Barry (63).
: 1 C Reape; 24 P O’Hora, 3 D McBrien, 21 D McHugh; 6 C Loftus, 4 S Callinan, 2 J Coyne; 8 M Ruane, 9 D O’Connor; 12 J Flynn, 11 J Carney, 18 J Doherty; 13 A O’Shea, 14 J Carr, 15 R O’Donoghue.
P Durcan for Doherty; E Hession for Callinan (both 47); T Conroy for Carr (52); E McLaughlin for O’Hora (55); S Coen for Coyne (59).
: S Hurson (Tyrone).
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