HAVING followed the fortunes of the Mayo team for the best part of four decades, since Mayo took Roscommon to extra time in the 1989 Connacht Final, it goes without saying that there have been some magnificent highs, and some demoralising lows.

Claims that being a Mayo fan is a trial or a penance are nonsense. The 1980s marked the end of a wilderness of sorts, and we have more or less competed consistently at the top end of the championship throughout the last four decades. There have been far more good days than bad ones. 

READ: GAA column: Mayo play old football in the new rules

Sunday, though, was not a good day. The eerie silence as the remains of the Mayo crowd filed out past An Sportlann back to their cars spoke volumes. A collective shellshock.

A realisation that things, are in fact, pretty bad, and the dawning sense of resignation that once again, we are going to need to tear up the script and start from scratch.

Our last championship loss to Cavan was 77 years ago in the All-Ireland final, and the referee blew that game up early. Despite Paul Faloon letting a multitude of fouls go bewilderingly unpunished, we can have no gripes with him regarding Sunday’s result. 

HAMMERED

SUNDAY was Cavan’s day. They came with a plan and an attitude, and both delivered. They outclassed us from the moment the ball was thrown in, and in doing so, delivered a three-point hammering to a county that is now undeniably at a very low ebb.

READ: PLAYER RATINGS: How the Mayo players fared against Cavan

Not since we numbly trudged out of a sodden Pearse Park in 2010 has such a sense of misery reigned. Not that it will matter to the Breffni Boys, who will now fancy their chances of progression through the group.

Mayo, meanwhile, in light of yesterday’s performance face two monumental challenges against Tyrone in Omagh, and Donegal in god-knows-where. As expected in the aftermath of a defeat like this, the reaction is strong, untempered and unforgiving.

Disappointment - even for those who checked out mentally in 2021 - still stings, but probably because there has been a sense for a while that this day was coming. 

Writing these columns since January, I have really had to check myself. It is easy to throw stones from the sideline, to hurl on the ditch, to make wild statements with no managerial experience.

But the perspective of the average fan is valid too – we do, after all, invest significantly in our hobby, and are all too often disregarded or dismissed. 

DEEP DISAPPOINTMENT

IT has given me no pleasure in the world to, week after week, worry about things like our kick-out strategy, our defensive frailties, our reluctance to embrace and adapt to the new rules.

When the current management team was appointed, I was optimistic. I wanted them to succeed. I wanted our players to taste success, to enjoy their football and to avoid being disparaged by Johnny-come-lately keyboard warriors.

Management is a lonely place. Nothing would have given me more joy than to see Kevin McStay succeed. It gives me no joy whatsoever to concede that this has not happened.

Two games remain, but it feels like the end of the road for McStay and Rochford, and the primary emotion is not anger, but disappointment. For them, for the players, and for us. And the prospect of another management recruitment campaign is appetising for precisely no-one. 

I don’t know what’s going on in the dressing room or on the training ground – but then again, nobody does. One of the biggest disappointments of this era has been the complete shutdown of communication from the camp, leading to the biggest disconnect I can remember in my years of following this team.

While it is fair to say that their predecessor had no real grá for either the media or supporters, at least there was a strong and special bond with the team themselves, something that no longer exists. 

The average supporter knows very little about our younger players. Though we are far from entitled to access to or information about amateur players, the cloak of secrecy contributes to a lack of connection and care for the people involved, and to the Mayo intercounty scene as a whole, something that is counterproductive on several levels.

Leaving fans in the dark about the team's direction and decisions fosters frustration and a sense of alienation and undermines loyalty. Yesterday’s paltry crowd should alarm our county board, who could do worse than reflect on their own role in this situation, and their huge responsibility going forward to get things right. There is a lot at stake, including money.

Of all the decisions made by management this year, none enraged this writer more than seeing Frank Irwin, unceremoniously dropped after the league campaign, insulted by his introduction in the 70th minute of the game.

Perhaps there is logic to the sideline’s management of games, but people far more qualified than I are bewildered by it, and in the absence of any credible explanation, it looks like ineptitude.

RIGID AND PREDICTABLE

THE apparent reluctance of senior management or players to embrace the new football rules has been so baffling. While other teams adapted and thrived, we remained stuck in a rigid, predictable style that opponents like Cavan have found easy to exploit.

There is a stark contrast between it and the dynamic, effective and untethered brand of football our underage teams have been showcasing.

If there is a bright spot on the horizon, it is the hope that the talent and flair we are seeing in our development teams can be protected and nurtured in the coming years, and coached and managed in a manner that encourages them to express themselves and play to their strengths.

The conservative approach we have seen for the past three years is unfathomable. What exactly are we afraid might happen if our team throws off the shackles? That we might lose an important game? Somehow, I feel that given our history, we might just cope.

A word for our hurlers, too often a footnote, who are (again) on the cusp of national success. Under the guidance of Ray Larkin, and with a fraction of the interest and investment bequeathed on our footballers, they will take on Roscommon in the Nicky Rackard Cup final on the June Bank Holiday weekend, and we could all do a lot worse than get out and support them and acknowledge their contribution to Mayo GAA. 

Mayo teams often respond well to adversity. But it would take a special kind of optimist to predict a win in Omagh on May 31.

READ: PLAYER RATINGS: How the Mayo players fared against Cavan