Billy Joe Padden: Experienced Mayo players didn’t step up against Galway

I was dreading watching this game and my fears were confirmed. In the lead-up to the match I have the feeling that Galway were much stronger than Mayo in a number of areas and that's the way it played out. It might have been a bank holiday weekend, but the big defeat in Castlebar certainly put a dampener on it. 

A whole bunch of things conspired to lead to the worst possible outcome. Mayo were physically dominated, didn’t play smart football, didn’t shoot well and the experienced players didn’t play well. When all those things occur it's very hard to win football games. 

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES 

Galway have the experience of being in a couple of All-Ireland finals recently. They have dealt with the disappointment of losing those. They seem to be hungry to come back at it again.

The disparity in talent or quality, whatever way you want to describe it, between the two teams was as stark as it ever has been in the last 15 years. When you consider that Galway had Shane Walsh, Paul Conroy, Seán Kelly, Cillian McDaid, all these top-class players, available to them. And in terms of the top-ranked footballers that Mayo had available to them, maybe only Ryan O'Donoghue is in the top 50 Gaelic footballers in Ireland. The disparity is stark.

Mayo started quite well and had a couple of opportunities in those early stages with the wind. If they had turned them into scores they would have jumped out to a lead early in the first half and that might have given them confidence. It would have changed the dynamics of the game when you look at how Galway took advantage of the wind picking up in the second half. Mayo definitely needed a cushion at halftime but they weren't able to get that. 

PHYSICAL BATTLE

Even during the period when Mayo were doing well, Galway were the much more physical team and Mayo coughed up too much possession around the middle and in one-on-ones across the pitch. 

Galway were stronger in pretty much all the one-on-ones, which is somewhat understandable. Mayo had a number of young players, who haven’t much experience at this level. Davitt Neary, Conor Reid and Frank Irwin are learning their trade. Paul Towey is a bit more experienced, but he's light as well, so it's understandable that Mayo would lose some of those physical one-on-ones.

When that happens, that leaves you fighting a losing battle. There were periods of the game where Mayo weren't as aggressive as they needed to be. Sometimes when you're playing against somebody that's physically stronger, you just have to be a bit more aggressive and put your body on the line. 

We have this problem throughout the team and it might be something that takes a long time to fix because you can't just make light players really big and strong. There's limits to that.

LEADERS NEEDED

Mayo need more high-quality shooting. They don't seem to have the confidence needed. They have to get better at kicking the ball. On the positive side, it's worth mentioning Davitt Neary and Conor Reid. They don't have a lot of experience on this level, but they're showing a lot of persistence. They look like they're good athletes, they're going to get bigger and stronger.

Yet, they cannot be expected to be the men leading the charge, they're new here. But at the same time, you can't really find fault with what they're trying to do. They each got on the scoreboard.

You would be hoping for more from Ryan O'Donoghue, hoping for more from Fergal Bolland, hoping for more from Mattie Ruane. He had a great opportunity early on and the game but took his eye off the ball, trying to take it with one hand when he should have put his two hands on it and drove at goal. Even though there was a deficit in terms of experience and quality compared to the Galway team, the more experienced Mayo players didn't step up, which made it even harder.

Stephen Coen was sent off in the second half when the game was probably gone, but that's not exactly what you want from your leaders in a game like that. So really, it was a bad day at the office for Mayo. 

TWO POINT CONUNDRUM

I'm not saying that going for two-pointers is the be-all and end-all, but Gaelic football now is a much more high-scoring game. So every time you attack, you have to turn it into scores and Mayo didn't do that in the early stages of the first half. That's what cost them in the second half against Dublin in the first round, and it definitely resulted in them not being competitive in the second half against Galway because they just weren't far enough ahead. 

Shane Walsh finished up with ten points, scoring four two-pointers. Also Cillian Ó’Curraoin hit three two-pointers. That's an absolute killer. 

Can you see a situation where a Mayo player will get that? I don’t think so. Look at the other counties in Ireland at the minute. I can definitely see Sean O'Shea or David Clifford getting a bunch of two-pointers for Kerry. I can see Rian O'Neill from Armagh getting a bunch of two-pointers. Do Mayo have the tools to be successful with the new rules? I'm not sure,

To mention the big talking point of the game: I think that Mayo supporters should be disappointed about the referee not taking action when Diarmuid O'Connor gets hit late. It definitely warranted a black or yellow card.

FINALLY

It's important not to be too negative after only two league games played. Things can change quickly. Teams are going to adapt at different rates to these new rules. Teams that look like they're struggling now might look great in a couple of months' time. That's fine, because we don't know what they've worked at from a coaching point of view. I'm still optimistic in that regard, because there isn't really a whole lot of evidence when you consider the players Mayo have available at the minute, compared to some of the other teams, but it needs to quickly improve in a number of sectors.