WE’RE only a wet week into Championship in the first season of the “new rules,” but you get the sense that it won’t be long before a statue of Jim Gavin appears alongside Michael Cusack in Croke Park. 

Not content with being probably the most successful Gaelic Football manager of all time, he has managed to spearhead the resuscitation of a sport which was gasping for air.

He has also probably – and possibly unintentionally – managed to save the much-maligned provincial series. Give the man a crown. 

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On Sunday nights, instead of so-called pundits moaning about how un-entertained they have been, we get actual analysis. On Mondays, the columns of the sports journalists and opinion writers are brimming with joy.

Never mind the five-in-a-row. For a man that didn’t even smile a whole lot as a winning manager, Jim and his FRC team have managed to inject the sport with a fresh sense of joy and almost rid it of the self-flagellation and misery that characterised it for so long in recent years.

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I say ‘almost’, because some of us are still prone to the odd bit of misery. Particularly those whose own counties seem inexplicably reluctant to embrace the rule enhancements that have breathed life back into the game elsewhere.

The commentary around the Connacht Final certainly benefited from the new optimism, because if you weren’t there, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d missed a classic for the ages, when in reality, it was nothing of the sort.

It wasn’t a bad game, granted, but in comparison to the tension of the Leinster final and the all-out theatre of the Ulster final – probably one of the greatest games of football ever played - it was firmly in the ha’penny place, down in no small part to Mayo’s ultimately disappointing approach to the game. 

WINNERS AT LAST

I CAN’T imagine there were many Mayo supporters in the land who didn’t feel a small bit envious watching Louth winning their first Leinster title in 68 years.

While we are handing out crowns, let’s include one for Leinster GAA Chairman Derek Kent, who finally took the bold and overdue step of taking Dublin out of Croke Park for a Leinster semi-final.

It’s likely, given the declining gate receipts, that this decision was informed by financial considerations more than ones of atmosphere or fairness, but it had the effect of levelling the playing field.

Even though it’s likely that doing so would have affected that phenomenal Dublin team of a decade ago not one iota, it should have been done back then.

But better late than never. Returning to the Leinster final, I can’t imagine either that there were too many Mayo supporters hoping Meath might prevail (we do after all have long memories and are excellent grudge-bearers). 

For Louth, the prospect of putting the 2010 decider to bed – I saw it described in the Irish Times at the weekend as “a final that has never really ended” - made for a powerful enough narrative, without the added possibility of ending a decades-long drought.

It was tense, it was dramatic, it was beautiful, and a reminder that fairytales can become reality. There’s no reason to suspect we won’t have many more big days in this year’s championship, but Sam Mulroy’s pure joy while lifting the Delaney Cup is surely one of the year’s most iconic images.

The mood is somewhat more sombre back home. But surely we in Mayo can look to the resurrection of the Wee County – a county with a population similar to ourselves – as a reminder that even when it comes to summiting the most formidable, the most daunting, the most elusive of peaks, it is possible to climb the mountain. 

While Sam Mulroy’s grin couldn’t but warm the heart on Sunday, it was his words that resonated most.

“Do we go on like we don't believe and keep playing like that, or do we keep believing? You have to change something. If you don't change anything, nothing changes... You're just building.

You're stacking up evidence every single day that you can do something special... It’s just one of those things – why not us?”
‘Why not us?’, indeed. 

GROUNDED IN REALITY

PERHAPS having an outside manager is significant, too. Ger Brennan’s words also struck a chord: “Belief is intrinsic. It’s spiritual.

It’s psychological. But it’s also quite measured. When we look at the gym stats, the fitness stats, the shots-to-scores ratios, body fat. All these things can be measured. That which is measured gets done.”  

Brennan’s philosophy, therefore, is grounded in reality, not romance. He speaks of gym stats, fitness metrics, and shot-to-score ratios.

That scientific approach to belief - when combined with the ability to read a game and quickly adapt your approach to make the right adjustments as needed - is a sound one, because it removes the emotion, the psychological fear of losing, and the pressure of history from the equation.

Keep moving. Keep building. Look at where you are. Look at where you want to be, and go after it, step by step. Next ball. Belief is fairly simple, when it comes down to it.

Mayo’s approach in the past has felt similar, but does not at the moment. Louth also won a phenomenal amount of breaking ball in the middle of the field.

Their game management and composure going down the stretch was outstanding, even it did evoke excruciating memories of Mayo’s 46 passes versus Tyrone in Croke Park back in 2016.

When the ball was kicked into the Cusack stand, the place went wild. Some Louth fans even made it onto the pitch after the final whistle. The stuff of dreams.

Contrast Louth’s provincial final win with Mayo’s loss to Galway, which just felt like déjà vu. Johnny McGrath spoke after the game of Galway’s confidence in tight, high-pressure matches.

That confidence is born not just of talent, but of preparation and clarity of roles, something that was clearly lacking in Mayo’s last play of the game. Heart alone is not enough; nor is wanting to win.

Structure and strategy are paramount, along with, now, maximising the opportunities available under the new rules. Only then can we hope to turn our own tales of near-misses into stories of triumph.

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