Seán Rice
ASSUMPTIONS of Dublin superiority took a knock on Saturday when Mayo withstood the revival of their U-21s with refreshing mental and physical resilience.
Dramatically, and with ice-cool nerves, Conor Loftus kicked the winning point from a free in injury time to reach the All-Ireland final for the first time in ten years.
Fifteen minutes earlier, their hopes had nose-dived. An interval lead of six points had disappeared and Mayo suddenly found themselves trailing by four. It was nothing short of a spectacular reversal.
And then it turned. Diarmuid O’Connor turned it. And a spectacular crash had become a victory to remember. The irrepressible O’Connor was at the root of the resurgence. All others responded with renewed conviction, and all shared greatly in the success.
But O’Connor was the key man. He reads the game astutely. He scored the goal in the tenth minute that stunned Dublin. All through, he was Mayo’s enduring dynamo.
Dublin assigned to him in the second half a marker to do nothing else but stop O’Connor. He did, briefly. But ultimately nothing could, and it was the tenacity of the wing forward that won the final free from which Loftus scored the winner.
Of course, the Ballintubber wonder could not have achieved so much without significant help from those around him. Once ignited, nothing stubbed out the flame that burned throughout the field. In taking on the Dublin defence and scoring the equaliser with his weaker left foot two minutes from the end, Matthew Ruane embodied their fire.
Dublin may have had every right to believe that Colm Basquel, with Mayo blood in his veins, had won them a place in the final when he propelled the Leinster champions into the lead on the 60th minute.
But in a late blinding surge, Mayo’s greater strength of mind won them control, and the steadying nerve of Conor Loftus in nailing down two remaining vital frees the match.
It was a win plotted through a maze of concerns. And Mayo succeeded in the way that Dublin manager Dessie Farrell described their win over Kildare in the Leinster final: “They worked it out for themselves,” he said.
Having so startlingly fallen behind after the break, losing a ten-points turnover in the process, Mayo struggled to regain some semblance of equality in the first quarter of the second half.
Where Matthew Ruane and Stephen Coen ruled midfield for 30 minutes, Dublin had now begun to prosper. The very effective tight marking of half-backs Michael Plunkett, Michael Hall and Shairoze Akram loosened somewhat under extreme pressure and gaps appeared in the centre.
Their first half composure had dissipated. The forwards were stifled for possession. Ten minutes after the resumption, their half-time lead of six points had disappeared. Less than ten minutes later, they had fallen into arrears of four points. It seemed all up.
It was such a change from the fluency of the opening half, when full-backs Eoin O’Donoghue, Seamus Cunniffe, David Kenny ruled, and Plunkett, Hall and Akram were in easy and graceful control.
Dublin hadn’t their opening score for 15 minutes. Mayo by then were up 1-4, O’Connor’s goal from a centre by Liam Irwin knocking the heart out of the Leinster champions.
Loftus was winning everything at centre-forward, and while the full-forward line of Liam Irwin, Fionán Duffy and Brian Reape were less effective than normal, the Dublin defence looked nervy and brittle under pressure exerted by Coen, Ruane, O’Connor, Loftus, Fergal Boland and from the searing thrusts of Akram.
Four points was Dublin’s total at half-time. And when midfielder Andrew Foley and forwards Con O’Callaghan and Colm Basquel raised their game after the break, Mayo lost their way.
O’Callaghan’s goal in the 39th minute seemed cataclysmic. A minute later, Dublin were ahead for the first time and, playing with a swagger, sensed victory.
Points by Irwin and Boland failed to dent Dublin’s landslide, but three further confidently struck points by the Breaffy man and improvements wrought by the introduction of James Carr and James Kelly brought wisps of hope to Mayo supporters.
Then came Ruane’s equaliser and the signal for the drama of those heart-stopping final minutes ... a reproduction of the quality with which most of those young men won minor All-Irelands three years ago.
The day two umpires got the line in ‘North Final’ of 1968
THEY have grown old together, but gathered in the Broadhaven Bay Hotel on Friday night, they were a sight to make an old man feel young.
It is almost 50 years since North Mayo won the county senior championship, the last amalgamated team to enter the annals of successful Mayo senior sides, and the North Board honoured them with scrolls and medals in an evening of reminiscence and evocation.
Yours truly was among them ... as the last man standing who covered that final in 1968, in which North Mayo beat Ballina Stephenites by three points.
And providing us with copies of the programme and reports from his vast collection of memorabilia, PJ Hughes rescued from the mists of our memory the details of that unique final.
For Johnny Carey, Mayo’s first All-Star and full-back on that winning side, the minutiae of the occasion were also somewhat vague. His clearest memory was of an earlier game with East Mayo when the ball from a shot by Jim Fleming hit the crossbar and flew over the bar.
“Green and white flags were raised by the two umpires, signalling a goal and a point. After five minutes of argument involving players, spectators and umpires, referee Dickie Conaboy sent both umpires to the line.”
North Mayo’s was a team of stars captained by the inimitable Joe Corcoran whose artistry still lights up so much of our memory. Midfielder PJ Loftus, who for some years raked the skies for Mayo, still retains a lot of his old agility, and a young promising PJ King scored one their two goals.
There were three McDonagh brothers, Pat, Tony and Vincent in that side. Pat died a young man. Tony who lined out for Mayo on many occasions, and who lives in Castlebar, represented him and also stood in for other brother Vincent.
Midfielder Gerry O’Connor, still lithe enough you would think to acquit himself well on any side, was present together with his Ardnaree club-mates Michael Melvin and the great-hearted wingback Benny Lynch.
Their dynamic full-forward Peter Hughes, who is ill, was represented by his wife Mary, and vivid memories of his stellar years with Knockmore with whom he later won a host of county senior medals, playing well into his forties, were warmly recalled.
Crossmolina’s JJ Tolan and Willie O’Boyle were also vital members of that side, but sadly, three other stalwarts – centre back Frank Reynolds, lion-hearted PJ Gilmartin and Pat McDonagh – have passed on. Members of their families represented them at the function.
It was no night for formalities, so fine speeches were laid aside as master of ceremonies Seán Mac Éil paid tribute to organisers PJ King, North Board officers, Mick Herr, John Walker and Mick Timlin, and to tireless behind-the-scenes worker PJ Hughes.
That final also marked the end of the career of one of the country’s finest defenders. Mayo star Willie Casey, who captained Ballina at full-back that day, bowed out after 18 years, having been honoured by Connacht and Ireland selectors.
