Mayo GAA column: Lack of goal scoring chances still a concern

Let's cut to the chase. Mayo have made a great start to this phase of the championship with their win over Cavan in the opening round of the All-Ireland series on Saturday. Now each challenge in this format is going to get a bit more difficult and that's the way you would want it when you're a team that's low on confidence and coming back from a bad defeat in the Connacht final.

Mayo jumped the first hurdle with with ease in Castlebar, however it will be more difficult against Roscommon and then it'll be even more difficult against Dublin the match after that.

It's important to say that we probably won't really know how much we can trust this team or what this team can rely on themselves, until all three of those games are in the rear-view mirror and you can assess how the performances as a whole.

Mayo started the game in the right way on Saturday. They didn't let the sting and defeat against Galway impact on their intensity levels or their urgency, they went on and dominated. That gives credit to their mental preparation for the game.

Another indicator for that was the fact that every time Cavan threatened to get themselves back into the game like they did at the end of the first half, Mayo responded excellently in the start of the second half to dominate the game and push that lead out again.

CHANGE-UP

It was good to see the management team changing tack somewhat as well. They responded and changed things up a little with Darren McHale coming into the half-forward line. However, I'd also say that Fergal Boland was very unlucky not to play any minutes at all because he's been a really good player for Mayo any time he has taken to the pitch. He's going to be valuable in the upcoming games, whatever role he has.

It's clear to me, when you bring in McHale and when you bring in Cillian O'Connor as well, you're changing the type of movement you have in your full forward line.

McHale is an excellent link man. He's really good at working sideline to sideline across the field, creating angles like that to lay the ball off to people. He scored a lovely point himself as well, in the second half, when he stepped inside nicely.

BOOST

The big takeaway from this game is the positive that Cillian O'Connor brought. He is a huge boost for Mayo, as sharp as he looked, as confident as he looked, kicking the ball, he looked in complete control of all the points that he took.

With Cillian you have that real finisher's instinct. His movement is at its best when he's moving left to right, trying to get in behind defenders, trying to move, get defenders to move. You know, he'll jink left and then go back right. And that actually created more space in the forward line.

Credit to him as he has had to deal with a lot of niggly injuries over the last couple of years, but that's a huge bonus for Mayo.

It gives Ryan O'Donoghue and Tommy Conroy that bit of freedom, that they know that he can be the deepest player forward, and then Ryan can go to the top of the 'D' or even out to the half-forward line. And we know that he has the attributes to be involved in the game out there as well.

Look, you have to caveat it at all stages with the fact that Cavan were particularly poor, but Cillian O'Connor probably does not get the credit he deserves in a Mayo context. When you consider that he is the all-time leading scorer in championships, he's been absolutely outstanding for Mayo season on season, and sometimes it nearly felt like he's an afterthought over the last couple of seasons because he hasn't been available as often as we would all have liked. But it really is a huge positive to have him operating in the team

NEGATIVES

The major negative is as we stand now, we don't know the status of Paddy Durcan after his injury. We're all keen to get him back playing. He was a huge loss to Mayo. It's going to be very difficult for Mayo to have any big wins without him in the team when you consider that Mayo still aren't really creating any goal chances.

It's probably through that sort of strike, dynamic running from the half-back line that Mayo have created goal-scoring chances in the past. Paddy Durcan is probably your big player in squad at the minute to do that consistently. All we can do is send our very best wishes to him - a very fine man.

Looking forward Roscommon in two weeks will be another step up the ladder. It'll be significantly harder to play against Roscommon than it was earlier in the year when we beat them in the league and then the championship. Mentally it's hard to go to play the one team, a local rival, three times in a season and beat them.

The positive from the Cavan game is that the operation of the full forward line was the best 70 minutes of forward play we've seen this season, when you consider that Mayo consistently scored throughout each quarter of the game. The only negative is that we're still not creating those goal-scoring chances. That is still the biggest concern together with the doubtful future for Paddy Durcan. Nothing is ever simple when it comes to speaking about Mayo's championship chances.