Draw brings clarity for Mayo

THE long wait is finally over. Mayo now know what their upcoming championship match involves – a trip to Killarney. After weeks of uncertainty about what’s next, they now have clarity. That’s always good for players and managers, because you can focus in on exactly who’ll you be playing against, where and when, and what your role will be.
In advance of last week’s draw, Kevin McStay and his back-room will have been ‘self-scouting’. They’ll have looked at the things that worked really well for them in the league, and work on those in training. They’ll also try to tidy up some of the things that didn’t work so well for them that need improvement, including showing more patience in the final third late in games. Getting injured players fit will also have been a major focus.
I think playing Kerry away is a good draw for Mayo.
Because even if Mayo lose, they still have two more opportunities to get themselves into the knockout stages. They have an opportunity to go and put a plan in place for Seán O’Shea and David Clifford, in a scenario where the stakes are not sky-high.
So I think the Kerry game is a real opportunity for Mayo to just see how the last few weeks have worked, have a real cut, and answer a few questions: what have we improved on? Where are we at? Are the energy levels back up?
I expect Mayo will play whoever is most in-form, which means many changes might be made.
It’s a very difficult first day out, but a real marker for Mayo to test themselves.
Not very many teams go down to Kerry and win. If things go really badly in Kerry, I suppose it could knock confidence. But what Kevin McStay will be looking for first and foremost is a strong performance. If we can get something out of that game, great; that would put Mayo in a really strong position. But it’s not the end of the world if Mayo don’t win.
There are very few games more difficult than going down to Kerry in championship. So it’ll be really good preparation for the knockout stages if we get there. I used to always feel in my own playing career that if you can perform away from home in Dublin or Tyrone or Kerry or Galway, that’s a really good marker of your abilities as an inter-county footballer.
Usually that was only previously done possible in Kerry in league football; now there’s an opportunity to go and do that in championship. And no group will respect you more than the Kerry supporters if you can go down and do it in their backyard.
So if you’re a player who’s trying to enhance your reputation on the national level – if you’re Ryan O’Donoghue, Paddy Durcan, or Mattie Ruane – performing really well down there will definitely add to your credentials. I’m really looking forward to seeing it play out.
What I hope to see from Mayo is a consistent style of play and being able to perform the game-plan for longer periods. The Mayo management team are in their first year, and the league can be helter-skelter. So the last few weeks will have been a real opportunity for them to sit back, take stock, provide a real evaluation of what they’ve done so far and what has worked and hasn’t worked.
So I think these last couple of weeks will prove to be very valuable.

Thinking about the group
IN theory, Mayo could play Dublin in the second game of the group stages, but like almost everybody else, I expect the Dubs to win the Leinster title. That means we’ll be facing a home game against Louth, which I think is also a good draw. Louth aren’t very experienced at this level, and there’ll be a big crowd in Castlebar.
That second game is a great opportunity for Mayo to either get back on track (if we lose to Kerry) or really hammer it home (if we’ve got a result in Killarney).
In many respects, this second game is probably the most important of the group. And I think the way the draw and the fixtures have worked out is a real positive for Mayo in that regard.
Finally, Mayo will play Cork at a neutral venue. Cork-Mayo games have been dangerous.
I think we all remember the 2017 match in Limerick – a high-scoring, end-to-end affair.
You don’t know what you’re going to get with Cork. They have some good footballers. I don’t know whether they’ll be consistent over three games in a group stage like that. But I do think there’s a big performance in them somewhere, and I just hope it’s not against Mayo!
So Mayo need to go into that game with points on the board, knowing exactly what they need to do, and see it out.
Mayo have a chance to build on what they’ve been doing over the last couple of weeks, and now they can tweak their approach with their opponents in mind. I don’t see Mayo drastically changing their approach compared to what we saw in the league.
I think you’ll see a team that are very much focused on quality possession, dominating the middle third, attacking out of all areas of the field, and really trying to organise that full-forward line, utilising the qualities that we have there.
Trying to get more football for Tommy Conroy, get James Carr back on the field, having an idea of what situations and what way you want to use Aidan O’Shea.
Looking at the overall draw, the provincial championships and the All-Ireland series now feel like two very separate competitions. I think Mayo will have parked the disappointment of the Connacht Championship quite quickly.
The nature of the championship structure will result in teams doing that. The provincial finals began last weekend, yet apart from the teams involved and their own supporters, many people won’t have had a very keen eye on the games played last Sunday.
Mayo fans aren’t the only ones already looking ahead to the group games.