More natural half-forwards needed for Mayo

AFTER Saturday’s disappointment I’m very disappointed for Kevin McStay and his management team and disappointed for the players, but the result proves there’s still a lot of work to be done.

Once again Mayo weren’t able to close out a game. The easiest way to sort that out is to be further ahead going down the stretch - and to be further ahead, you have to play better for the full 70 minutes.

But it’s pretty clear that Mayo’s only 70-minute performance this year came again Dublin and they definitely didn’t have that in their locker against Derry or any other day either.

To start at the beginning. I was very surprised there weren’t changes to the starting team. I know they say, if it's not broke, don't fix it, but if you're to have any chance, you have to, taper your squad in such energy-sapping circumstances.

I thought Cillian O'Connor and Enda Hession would start to give extra impetus to the whole thing because the game against Dublin was so intense for so long, only six days earlier.

We then saw a very flat performance in the first half, which was really poor. Only three scores, at home, on the pitch, they should know well – one from a defender and two frees from Ryan O'Donoghue, what does that tell you?

Mayo went right back to where they were three or four weeks ago, when they weren't getting enough out of the team going forward. Personally, I think Cillian O’Connor has been very harshly treated. He has been dealing with injuries, but he was very impactful in the turnaround of Mayo's attacking play against Cavan and he linked some good play against Roscommon as well.

I'm not saying he's out there to be a big scorer, but he's a clever footballer, he knows what's required and he can create chances for other players as well.

It's no surprise that the productivity of the forward line starts to reduce the less time he spends on the field. And I think that first half on Saturday clearly showed that.

_{Fergal Boland pictured on the crowd during Mayo's All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final defeat to Derry (Pic: Conor McKeown)}

BLANKET DEFENCE

Mayo's attacking performance was not anywhere near good enough. Why aren't they breaking down a blanket defence? It's been in front of their eyes and clearly evident for a number of years.

We've seen Mayo teams struggle mightily against blanket defensive set-ups and we've seen them play some really exciting open football against teams that were much more open.

It's the same old story. Maybe we should give Derry their credit. It looked like they were playing much better than they had over the last couple of weeks. Having to come to Castlebar probably energised them, knowing that the way they play football would have a high chance of success against this Mayo team. And that probably was a huge boost to them during the week.

What's the problem with Mayo and blanket defences? I think Mayo have very few natural half-forwards playing and therefore there's square pegs in round holes. Players who are used to playing in that area of the field, used to working from midfield to attack, used to dealing with traffic and used to dealing with players being around them, aren't being utilised.

We saw how well many players could operate in this space in the past – men like Alan Dillon and Kevin McLoughlin. They could deal with all these challenges, find space in the half-forward line and still get a score.

Unfortunately at the minute, Mayo just don't have players operating at that level. And to be honest, management are not picking players to perform there regularly.

Boland got a spin earlier in the year and McHale got a spin later in the year. Both of them did some good things, there's no doubt about that. But we didn't see them together and they're two natural half-forwards.

MENTAL IMPACT

I am a bit surprised that Mayo weren't more engaged mentally, that they weren't sharper. This was a big disappointment, given all the work said to be done on this aspect. Management also didn't use their bench in a way that would give you some hope for the future. That's something they'll have to look at.

They didn't seem to have confidence in some players they had on the bench and the confidence to use them, which was very unfortunate. Playing high-intensity championship games three weekends in a row means management have to use 22 or 23 players minimum, but they didn't seem committed to doing that. It may be a case of the talent not being there, but it definitely hurt them.

However, it's not all doom and gloom despite what the vast majority of Mayo people are feeling right now. Tommy Conroy's coming back into form, Ryan O'Donoghue is operating at the very top level and remarkably, Aidan O'Shea has been playing really good football, while a couple of those young defenders continue to improve.

However, there is a huge amount of room for improvement if Mayo want to keep their season alive for longer next year.