The ‘cocktail of hesitation’ that cost Mayo their season
DISTRAUGHT: Mayo’s Aidan O’Shea at the final whistle. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile.
The St Eunan’s flyer in front of the graveyard with his right leg. This is how it ends. Swift and deliberate, a knife in the gut that delivers instant agony.
Ciarán Moore sliced through, leaving Mayo bodies strewn across the Dr Hyde Park field.
Beware the runner on the left flank. Fergal Boland looked to have secured Mayo’s place in the preliminary quarter-final when he came off the bench to kick a sensational point.
Instead, he joins an ill-fated catalogue of great scores that are soon forgotten because of the famous final point that came after it. Clear a place alongside Kieran Donaghy’s awesome point in the 2011 final or Patrick Horgan’s would be winner in 2013.
A booming Shaun Patton kickout offered Moore an opportunity to demonstrate his blistering pace. Donegal take second and a home preliminary quarter-final. Down the road, Mayo are in for a hard winter.
After a slow start, they somehow hit the front thanks to a harsh Peadar Mogan black card. Matthew Ruane rushed Ciaran Thompson into a turnover and Ryan O’Donoghue swept up the break. In the rush, he collided with Mogan and became entangled in his legs. Paul Faloon deemed it a deliberate trip.
Even still, Donegal led 0-9 to 0-7 at half-time. Michael Murphy was in the midst of a fine battle with Donnacha McHugh and raised the first orange flag with a free. O’Donoghue struggled to shake off Brendan McCole. Jack Coyne had the shackles on Oisin Gallen. Not quite a stalemate, but attritional and tense.
“We weren't the best version of ourselves in that first half,” said Stephen Rochford afterwards. “We were just a little bit passive. We didn't take the ball to it.
“We probably took a couple of shots, dropped shorts, some wide. There's a tendency then to say, oh God, we need to get better shots. It's all a cocktail of hesitation.”
Case closed. The story of their season. Only once in this championship have they hit over 30 shots in a game. Their final tally was 28 on Sunday with three missed two-point shots. Donegal kicked two out of four two-point attempts.
To their credit, Mayo showed enormous heart. That is what they always do. An inaccurate spell at the start of the second half had Jim McGuinness agitated on the sideline.
A rare Murphy mistake paved the way for David McBrien to goal. He instigated the breakaway by bursting from the Murphy slip, Aidan O’Shea linked up with Jack Carney before McBrien closed it out.
Finally, the game began to descend towards bedlam. Daire Ó Baoill swung over a huge effort from outside the arc. Murphy was determined to produce salvation.
He scored, he claimed a lunge-bursting kickout, he kicked a 45 after Colm Reape scrambled back to deny Patrick McBrearty a goal.
Their opponents were in the grindhouse by then. In reality, it is where they’ve resided for months. McHugh limped off with a hamstring issue suffered just before Murphy scored.
Enda Hession endured similar. Davitt Neary came in and had to come back off. Diarmuid O’Connor, Tommy Conroy and Eoghan McLaughlin were all unavailable due to injury. It combined to cripple them.
There were tactical flaws too. A terrific defence was never going to make up for their inconsistent attack.
“Did we get to a full 70? Look, I mean, bar the Galway game, we had a good league,” reasoned Rochford. “We would have probably been just a tad disappointed on some of the things we did in the final. But obviously we had one eye on the Championship.
“We were probably getting ourselves to get ready for getting through the Connacht Championship and if we could get our things together and have a right cut at the Connacht final and we did. We just came up short no more than today.
“You know, two fine teams, we just came up short. We'd be disappointed with it, but it's nothing to be ashamed of and I think we still remain as competitive.”
A summer terminated before it has even begun. Outside the dressing room post-match was mournful silence. Injured players stand alone with mute tears. Exhausted combats limp to the bus where they first try to console a devastated team-mate crumpled over on the steps. County board representatives stand glumly. Dark clouds gathering.
Not that bright skies hang over Donegal either. McGuinness wouldn’t be drawn on their recent injuries but the physical toll was obvious. The route ahead is daunting. A worry lingers with the form of some key forwards.
Yet it is a comfort that they had a chance to now work through those concerns. Mayo don’t have that privilege.
M. Murphy 0-5 (1 tpf, 1 45); P. Mogan, C. Moore, C. Thompson (1 free), D. Ó Baoill (tp), C. O’Donnell 0-2 each; F. Roarty, C. McColgan, S. O’Donnell, O. Gallen 0-1 each.
R. O’Donoghue 0-6 (5 frees); D. McBrien 1-0; D. McHale 0-3; C. Dawson 0-2; D. McHugh, J. Carney, J. Flynn, F. Boland 0-1 each.
S. Patton; F. Roarty, B. McCole, P. Mogan; R. McHugh, E. Gallagher, C. Moore; H. McFadden, M. Langan; C. McColgan, C. Thompson, S. O’Donnell; C. O’Donnell, M. Murphy, O. Gallen.
J. McGee for McFadden, D. Ó Baoill for Gallen (both 52); P. McBrearty for McHugh (58); E. McHugh for S. O’Donnell (67).
C. Reape, J. Coyne, D. McHugh, E. Hession; S. Coen, R. Brickenden, P. Durcan; D. McBrien, M. Ruane; B. Tuohy, J. Carney, C. Dawson; A. O’Shea, D. McHale, R. O’Donoghue.
J. Flynn for Tuohy (23); D. Neary for McHugh (42 – Inj); S. Morahan for Hession (52); P. Towey for Neary (56); F. Boland for Coen (68).
P. Faloon (Down).
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