'The walls were closing in' - Andy Moran knows Mayo cannot underestimate London again
Forewarned. A past experience of such fright that Ruislip has been planned to the nth degree and beyond. Andy Moran knows not to underestimate where danger can lurk from when London calls the green and red.
Fifteen years ago, the now Mayo manager was at centre-forward on the team that travelled across the water for a Connacht quarter-final with the Exiles. It turned into a blood-pressure-through-the-roof squeaker.
Mayo trailed by two with four minutes remaining. Their two previous championship outings from the summer before had ended in defeat to Sligo and Longford respectively. Mayo football was in a dark spot. London were threatening to turn out the lights altogether.
The whole weekend had been one long disaster ever before a ball was thrown in and football ignominy stared them square in the face. For a county with its own airport, Mayo ended up flying out of Waterford and into Southend. A trip that should have taken no more than three hours from check-in to touchdown ended up taking nine.
Moran’s recall of the afternoon Mayo eventually survived in extra-time is so brilliantly vivid that we’re more than happy for him to take over the storytelling.
“There was a stoppage for an injury late on, we were behind, and I was thinking at that moment, ‘I'm not going home’. The walls were closing in,” he begins.
“There were two lads from the Kerry panel that had just been released, and they went straight into the London panel. One of them, [Mike] Moloney, was playing full-back and put a real number on us.
“We started missing penalties, missed frees. Cillian [O’Connor] was on the bench. Alan Dillon got concussed, who would have been our other free-taker, and all of a sudden, we were at our fifth choice and I was taking frees. I never really took frees.
“So it was a real dark situation in our careers. I'll never forget walking off the pitch and Mayo fans not even talking to you. It was one of those moments where it was just horrible.
“Trevor Mortimer and Kevin McLoughlin pulled us out of it, and that team went on for the next decade to compete with the great Dublin team.”
Moran is absolutely certain that James Horan’s group, even if London had stayed ahead of them that day in 2011, would still have gone on and put together the run of four All-Ireland final appearances in six years that they did.
The consequences of a Ruislip howler would not have been to the collective. The consequences would have been suffered individually.
“They would have got there, but it probably would have been without the likes of myself, Alan Dillon, and a few of us. There would have been casualties. We probably both played okay that day, but there would have to have been casualties out of that,” he admitted.
“At that time in our life cycle as a team, we were probably very immature, but that matured us fairly quickly.”
Moran enjoyed less stressful visits in 2016, again as a player, and in more recent years as Leitrim manager. All hiccups that could potentially arise have long been addressed.
“You're always worried, but having been over there with Leitrim, I know where we’re going, where we’re staying, and what we’re doing.
“When you went over in 2011, anyone could have shown up for London. Fellas that could have been playing for Laois the week before and all of a sudden, they're playing for London, that doesn't happen anymore.”
A sharp change of pace. From near misses at McGovern Park to nuanced football observations. The Mayo boss is asked what trend has come to greatest prevalence this season. The answer comes without delay.
“After the League finals, you'd have to look at the possessions side of it, wouldn't you? We wouldn't be really like that as a team, but there was a lot of possession-based football across the four finals. The trend for me is that the kick-out is just such a huge part of the game at the moment.
“If you don't get that right, a team can put such a number on you. And if you don't have a change when it's going wrong mid-game, you're a big bother.
“You see the opposition and you try to adapt accordingly. You could have a plan for Ben Crealey for Armagh, but then you come up against Galway the week after, and they've John Maher, Matthew Tierney, D’Arcy across the middle. Sure, you have to come up with a different plan because they have three Crealeys.
“So, the new rules were brought in partly to create a bit of chaos, but the only chaos is really at the kick-out. As the game is changing, we're seeing more and more of that possession coming back in once you secure the ball.”
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