John Fallon: Sport needs more magical Mayo stories
A decade ago, Mayo's Ryan O’Donoghue formed part of Ireland’s defence with Liam Scales for their Centenary Shield. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
Sport’s beauty has manifested in all its glory since Mayo ended 75 years of pain on Sunday and teams from other codes can take inspiration.
Football, in particular, has been plagued by monotony; the club game generally dictated by a cycle of money fuelling success.
Only the rarified few have broken the trend.
It’s a decade since Leicester City defied their 5,000-1 odds to lift the English Premier League, optimising their inferior budget under the management of Claudio Ranieri.
Closer to home, Shelbourne weren’t quite in that realm of outsider when denying Shamrock Rovers an historic fifth crown in a row on the final day of 2024 but Damien Duff was still responsible for cultivating a shock.
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There’s no buying or selling of players at international level, only allegiance by right of birth or that of a player’s parents and grandparents.
Hence upsetting the established order is seldom, exemplified by the recent World Cup where Fifa got their way with the top four separated seeds reaching the semi-finals.
Instances of romance for the underdog, like Curacao's goal and Cape Verde’s stalemate with eventual champions Spain, were fleeting.
Greece’s improbable triumph at the 2004 European Championships remains the outlier within major tournament modern history.
Mayo created their own history but the only surprise was the drought.
The same could be said for Manchester United’s 26-year gap between league crowns, likewise Arsenal’s 22-year hiatus from the podium.
Nobody doubted Mayo’s ability to overcome any team on their day, particularly with a generational talent like Kobe McDonald in their forward line.
It was just removing the mental barrier that lingers from coming up short on so many occasions, as their manager Andy Moran knew too well.
Being unsuccessful in 13 successive finals, 11 and two replays, is bound to play tricks in the head when crunch time arrives in deciders.
For all the mockery of curses since 1951, every new squad entrant was aware of their obligation to rid the tag of chokers.
Ditto for St Patrick’s Athletic players up until 2014. New recruits tend to get asked about title ambitions whereas around Inchicore the questioning angled towards the FAI Cup.
Their predecessors finished runners-up in eight finals during a Blue Riband famine from their last win in 1961 until the day at Lansdowne Road Christy Fagan’s double downed Derry City.
You can understand why the mere mention of hoodoos grates with those armed to end them.
Moran shutting down that narrative after their semi-final was a masterstroke in easing that burden in the dressing-room, even though it didn’t dim the debate within a public infatuated with highlighting it.
People are naturally intrigued by them. There was no logic to Rory McIlroy blitzing all the majors while annually messing up at The Masters in pursuit of his Grand Slam.
Year after year, the fast starts gave way to stumbles and the player himself wasn’t shying away from the pattern being psychological. First tee nerves only seemed to grip him at Augusta.
Maybe Mayo will replicate him by stitching a couple of wins together now that the monkey has firmly been removed from their backs.
That ‘What are we all going to talk about next year? quip by McIlroy has already been applied to Mayo since Sunday but the great thing about sport is there’s always another plotline percolating.
As we move into August, focus will turn to the league across the water. At least Arsenal’s victory in May snapped the eight-year duopoly at the summit of Manchester City and Liverpool. It’s difficult to see a contender threatening that trio but that won’t stop Manchester United fans believing they can challenge for a first title since Alex Ferguson’s swansong in 2013.
Thankfully, the ultimate trophy drought topic of England’s World Cup hurt is another three years away from resurfacing but don’t expect the Irish to be rooting for that fairytale.
Jackie Hennessy scored Shelbourne’s first-ever goal in Europe against Sporting Lisbon back in 1962 and it took another team effort to rescue him from bother last Thursday.
Just as the 85-year-old was about to take his Tolka Park seat 40 minutes before the club’s Conference League tie against Nõmme Kalju, he suffered a medical emergency.
Paramedics at the venue were alerted to the worrying incident and swift action led to him being resuscitated and brought by ambulance to the nearby Mater Hospital. Once again, it underlines the benefits of having an automated external defibrillator (AED) in a public venue.
All at Shels were relieved at half-time to hear word time that the patient had recovered well to the extent he was monitoring the 5-2 win from afar.
Hennessy, who won five Ireland caps, began his LOI career at Cork Hibernians before a successful stint at Shels during which he faced Barcelona at the Nou Camp. He would later reunite with manager Gerry Doyle at St Patrick’s Athletic.
Continuing the Mayo theme, star man Ryan O’Donoghue formed part of Ireland’s defence with Liam Scales for their Centenary Shield campaign a decade ago.
Representing Our Lady's Secondary School in Belmullet, the full-back even popped with a goal in the 3-1 win over Scotland in Killarney. His other caps were against England and Northern Ireland.
Like his rival last Sunday, David Clifford, O’Donoghue participated in the Kennedy Cup at University of Limerick for Mayo before signing for Sligo Rovers U19s.
Comparisons with the great ex-Sligo graduate Séamus Coleman were floated during those formative years due to their similar full-back styles but he eventually devoted himself solely to GAA.
"I had a Sligo crest on my heart and that's not what I wanted,” he said in 2018.
“I wanted a Mayo crest on my heart and to be going out playing for Mayo.”
Scales stuck with football, earning a scholarship at UCD before joining Shamrock Rovers and then his current Celtic. Corkman Aaron Drinan was another squad member and the striker is still playing in England for Swindon Town.
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