Galway ask Mayo some hard questions
The visitors exposed some imperfections in Mayo’s solid performance last weekend
Sean Rice
JOE KERNAN’S Galway returned on Sunday to the scene of their debacle two weeks earlier, with a hunger to make amends. And while they lost by three points in a game eminently more balanced than that of their previous visit, they exposed enough imperfections in Mayo’s performance to lack no confidence whenever they meet again.
I had hoped John O’Mahony would field a side of peripherals for this FBD final, that he wouldn’t show his hand against a depleted Galway in case the two meet in the championship. Deep down I confess to have harboured a fear that Mayo might lose this one.
The manager ensured they didn’t, and the prize of a trip in the fall to New York did reflect Mayo’s form in the league, even if old faults, which the first match had concealed, tended to resurface.
He’ll know now that there is no room for complacency at midfield where on Sunday Barry Cullinane and Niall Coleman more than held their own with Ronan McGarrity and Tom Parsons.
Coleman was particularly effective, and while McGarrity’s midfield instincts are returning, the inconsistency of Tom Parsons’ work-rate is a haunting problem. You can’t but admire his style and ability in outfielding taller players. But his tendency to fade for long periods allows opponents to gain a foothold that can swing a game.
In notching the opening score McGarrity eased Mayo into the game, but it was his second point that propelled a winning surge from his colleagues.
That score came after Galway had equalised for the first time, following some fifteen minutes of authoritive football. Mayo needed a tonic then and in providing it McGarrity, although less dominant than in the previous games, showed some leadership and courage.
Following his poor display at midfield against Mayo, Joe Bergin was moved to full-forward, and there were occasions in the first half when he threw the Mayo defence into confusion. Ger Cafferkey was not convincing while confronted with Bergin, but the full-back was more his old self in the second half when the Moylough man took over at centre half-forward.
It was then Trevor Howley’s turn to worry, and he looks ever more a wing-back player than the centre-half into which management seems determined to convert him.
Because he had played with NUIG, Mayo did not have Kieran Conroy with whom to experiment. But there is also an argument for utilising Alan Feeney in that central position where his height and speed would be an advantage. At corner back on Sunday, Feeney was more than adequate.
Andy Moran¹s consistently hard work was again evident, and Seamus O’Shea was equally busy and strong and effective. His brother, a bit unlucky with a good strike after the break, is still struggling to win back his old confidence, but with persistence it will come.
Chris Barrett will be fighting hard for a wing back place after his gutsy performance, and Enda Varley may keep Conor Mortimer on the bench for a while.
Dynamic duo are back home
MEANWHILE, the globetrotters are back, and they provide further options for John O’Mahony as he builds for the championship. How quickly Conor Mortimer and Alan Dillon regain their places will depend on how long getting back into shape will take … and how urgently they are required in the forward line.
Mentally, the two may have benefited from the break, but match fitness will take some time. In the meantime those who have stood in for them during the FBD and the early stages of the league will be striving to keep the tourists out of the team as long as they can. It’s a good position in which the manager and his selectors find themselves … every place being hotly contested.
Dillon has been arguably Mayo’s best forward for the past couple of years and his experience is vital in any serious competition. Mortimer went off the boil a little last season and found himself on a few occasions confined to the bench.
Sipping soda in the sun on Bondi Beach may have created an enviable skin tone. Whether it will have whetted their appetites for a return to the wintry conditions of Ireland’s football fields is another matter.
Televised trials and tribulations
TRIAL by television. It’s the big story just now. A video review has singled out Mark Ronaldson for a month’s suspension following an incident near the end of Mayo’s league match with Tyrone.
A week earlier, three Tyrone players incurred the wrath of Pat McEneaney following similar evidence in their league match with Derry.
The Central Competitions Control Committee asked the referees in each case if after studying a video of the offences they would like to review the yellow card penalties issued to the players.
Retrospective punishment by referees has stirred heated controversy. The three Tyrone players were forced out of the team hours after being selected to line out against Mayo at Omagh. The short notice allowed no time even to change the line-out on the match programme.
Is it any wonder manager Mickey Harte was rankled following his makshift side’s one point defeat to Mayo? We’ll never know whether the inclusion of Justin McMahon, Conor Gormley or Martin Penrose would have made the difference between victory and defeat — for their replacements made the best of their lucky break in impressing their manager — but the morale of the side as a whole could hardly have been unaffected.
Harte’s grouse is not with the offences as such, but with the system of trial by television footage which if it is to be fair, he says, should apply to all league matches, not just the chosen few each weekend. The manager has a point.
In the final match of his refereeing career John Bannon refused to review his decision when requested by the CCCC, even though footage revealed John Miskella should have been sent off in last year¹s All-Ireland semi-final.
GAA President Christy Cooney defended the course of action taken by the committee, stating that if there is an “incident deemed to be greater than in the referee’s report, and particularly when the referee has not seen it, there is an onus on the CCCC to take a course of action.”
But the CCCC took no action when Tadgh Kennelly recklessly charged Nicholas Murphy during the throw-in of the All-Ireland final last September.
That happened on the blind side of the referee, but the footage revealed the full horror of the tackle. Kennelly boasted about it to the writer of his book, but recanted when confronted with the naked words in print, and the revulsion they caused.
Lack of consistency in decisions made by the CCCC on the foot of video evidence will only deepen the suspicion that the laws are not evenly applied. That’s what Mickey Harte had in mind when he criticised the lack of uniformity in that system of judgement.
Just a thought …
Short-sleeved jerseys worn by some Mayo players in wet conditions contribute in my opinion to the problems they experience in being easily dispossessed. Bare arms find little grip on a ball as slippery as a bar of soap.
