Seán Rice
THE daffodils are in bloom and Mayo have begun to stretch themselves. In this tense drama at Clones, legs had begun to lose power, lungs were at bursting point, and still they drove on ... fearlessly and strikingly.
In the end – as Robbie Hennelly scored the winning points from frees to claim Mayo’s first success of the league – you were left breathless, almost as spun out as the players, by the intensity of it all.
From the throw-in it was championship stuff. You were gripped by the quality of Mayo’s pursuit of victory, by their self-belief in overcoming the dismissals of Aidan O’Shea and Lee Keegan, by the ferocity with which Colm Boyle rallied his players, and by the brilliant interventions of Diarmuid O’Connor. In short, by the unflinching courage of all of the 20 men sent in to rescue Mayo’s sinking league campaign.
Safety has not yet been secured. The precipitous cliff still confronts them. Sunday’s grapple with Kerry – their third week clinging to the edge – is another massive test of Mayo’s willpower, and vital in their bid to hold onto first division status.
Ideal conditions added to the flavour of this crucial test at Clones. The battle for every ball was fought passionately. By the tenth minute, they were all square at two points apiece.
At that stage Aidan O’Shea was given a black card for an offence that warranted no harsher a correction that a yellow. Nor did their defence deserve the sanction of a penalty when trying to defend the weight of forwards pushing them back as they tried to deal with a high ball.
But penalty it was, and although the brilliant Hennelly, who had earlier dealt spectacularly with an open goal chance by Karl O’Connell, saved the shot, ace marksman Conor McManus was able sweep the parried ball into the net.
The reply from Mayo was swift and telling when nippy Conor Loftus, a late replacement for Jason Doherty, stole in from the left wing to turn the ball low into the net from a tight angle.
Boyle, who captained the team, was now leading by example, driving his players, tackling obsessively with no regard for his own safety, and – together with the indefatigable Diarmuid O’Connor – all the time urging, prompting, willing.
At midfield Tom Parsons fielded beautifully and Seamus O’Shea, who replaced Jason Gibbons from the start, was back to his old bustling ways, back helping out, up in support, always on the move.
To Ger Cafferkey was handed the task of curbing Monaghan’s Conor McManus. The Mayo man succeeded impressively, holding their key marksman scoreless from play.
Beside him, Lee Keegan and the ever-improving Brendan Harrison were equally alert to every Monaghan bid to break down their defence. In front of them Michael Hall and Shane Nally, both drawing from their captain’s example, defended and distributed intelligently.
All of this successful concentration allowed Conor O’Shea (who is steadily cutting a niche for himself up front), Evan Regan and O’Connor not only to wipe out a three-point deficit but also to go in front at the interval, even though the strength of Aidan O’Shea was missed at full-forward.
Could they sustain the pace at which the game was being played? That was the half-time imponderable among the Mayo supporters. But when the hard-working Jason Doherty, who came on for O’Shea, and O’Connor stretched that lead to five points six minutes into the second half, Monaghan came to realise the difficulties with which they were faced.
O’Connor’s goal was smartly finished, the ball dispatched with a flick of his foot, having taken advantage of a moment’s hesitancy in the Monaghan defence.
To be fair to Monaghan, they nail-bitingly clawed back that lead, mainly through frees by McManus. It was an anxious period in Mayo’s game because Keegan was given a black card, and the industrious Kevin McLoughlin and Jason Doherty had missed good opportunities for goals, having themselves opened up the Monaghan defence.
When the hosts did get things back to level terms, we would then have gladly settled for a draw. But not this determined Mayo bunch.
Adroit substitutions helped maintain their momentum in those final nerve-wrecking moments. Jason Gibbons came in, not for any midfielder, but for the spent Conor O’Shea, and brought his strength and fielding powers to help out a flagging defence.
Mikie Sweeney, fresh and tricky, had the Monaghan defence scrambling, and Donal Vaughan did some useful work also. But it was the steady nerves of goalkeeper Robert Hennelly who finally nailed down victory with a couple of great points from both wings.
Another championship dress rehearsal awaits
THE scramble for points grows stiffer. No opposition is now an easy target. The league has taken on the intensity of championship competition, all bidding to avoid relegation.
That vigorous win over Monaghan will have buoyed hopes that Mayo will survive, stripped as they are of much of their experienced talent.
Every game is crucial now none more so that the visit of Kerry on Sunday after their defeat of high-flying Donegal last Sunday.
League results between Mayo and Kerry have been less lopsided than championship conclusions. Since 1928 the two have met on 40 occasions, Kerry winning 21, Mayo 15 and there have been four draws. Kerry’s mastery of their championship meetings attests to their traditional casual approach to the league up to recent years.
In the early rounds they have been vulnerable. Mayo went to Killarney last year and won by seven points. The hosts were without Marc Ó Sé, Cooper, Enright, Donaghy and O’Mahony. Roscommon took advantage of the skeleton side they fielded some weeks ago to surprise them.
Many of their big guns were back for their first win this season, over Down, and last Sunday, all of them were well prepared for the visit of Donegal.
One experiment that seems to have paid off was the selection of Paul Murphy at centre forward. That conversion from half-back to half-forward is likely to be continued on Sunday. Donaghy, Cooper and perhaps Moran are also likely to be in the starting 15.
Cooper is not now the force that humiliated Mayo on one or two occasions. But Moran at midfield is almost impossible to out-fetch. Mayo handled the big man well in the league in Killarney. But in Limerick two years ago he was the primary source of Kerry inspiration, and Donaghy profited from his deliveries.
The very thought of how they were treated in that semi-final ought to be enough to raise the hackles on every Mayo player on Sunday. One league victory since that defeat is not sufficient redress for the Limerick experience. Mayo have won their last four league meetings against Kerry. A win on Sunday would be as sweet as any.
Brotherly love
THE three O’Shea brothers who lined out for Mayo last Sunday are not the first three brothers to play in the same Mayo team. In 2003 the three Mortimers from Shrule – Kenneth, Trevor and Conor – were members of the side defeated by Fermanagh in the quarter-final of the championship.
And back in 1940, Jimmy Laffey was sprung from the bench to join brothers Tim and Peter in the Connacht semi-final replay against Sligo.
