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23 Oct 2025

GAA column: Mayo simply weren't clinical enough against Donegal

Billy Joe Padden is talking tactics after Mayo bow out of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship following defeat against Donegal

GAA column: Mayo simply weren't clinical enough against Donegal

Mayo supporters in Dr Hyde Park Roscommon last Sunday. Pic: Conor McKeown

MAYO’S season is now definitely over and that’s hugely disappointing. The players put huge passion and effort into the campaign and I feel sorry for them.

They deserve to be in the final 12 but the brutal facts are - Mayo are out and their season has ended.

The end was heart breaking, yet again, and Mayo don’t seem to have learned a lot from last season when Dublin scored a late point in similar circumstances. That final play came from a great long kick-out by Donegal keeper Shaun Patton.

READ: Mayo's season ended by Donegal buzzer-beater

The attack should have been stopped. The Donegal player should have been pulled down before he got a run at the defence. Did Mayo get an opportunity to do that? Did they get close enough to Cíaran Moore to do that?

Then, once he got running and got within 50 yards of the posts he couldn’t be fouled with somebody like Michael Murphy around, because he’d kick the free. 

There probably was an opportunity available over the first 15 or 10 yards where they could have fouled him, but I'm just not sure that there was any Mayo player close enough to do that. No doubt, that would have been the smart play in that moment.

It was clear, that Donegal would go for the winner, if they won the kickout, because no matter what the result was in Hyde Park they were safe at that stage.

It was in their interest to have Mayo out of the Championship in comparison to Cavan. Mayo would give them more trouble if the teams met again down the line.

WATCH NOW: Stephen Rochford on Donegal loss: 'That's what we're missing' 

LIKE AMERICAN FOOTBALL

IT was such a heart breaking end because Mayo had done well to get the equalising score from Fergal Boland.

It was a phenomenal bit of play, great crossfield ball, worked into the right area, Boland had the courage, which he always does.

He struck a beautiful ball with his laces, cutting across it, into the wind, a brilliant point. 

But it was like watching some of those American football games where teams want to have the ball in the final play of the day, when the game is tight.

Sometimes, teams without the ball are left vulnerable and the other team can just tear the heart out of your chest by beating you in the last play of the game. That's what Donegal did.

Otherwise there's very little that one can argue with, or find fault in, in that second-half performance from Mayo.

They could have been a bit more clinical, there were a couple of shots that dropped into the ‘keeper's hands. That was understandable considering the way the wind was.

Paddy Durcan missed one that he'd normally get. However, after going in three points down at half time and facing into the wind in the second half, we saw the courage, the guts, the physicality, the work rate of Mayo.

All those attributes were really to the fore, and that's what put Mayo in that position to get something out of that game.

POSITIVES

THE goal was really well-worked. Jordan Flynn won the ball, David McBrien raced it forward, Aidan O'Shea flicked it on and it smacked Jack Carney in the face.

He controlled it and got it across to McBrien, who swivelled and put it low into the corner. It was a great team goal and said a lot about Mayo’s mentality at that stage. 

In general, McBrien had a particularly powerful game. Him playing midfield the last couple of games has been a real revelation, It's something we'll have to look at in the future. He's added physicality there and you see the best of him driving forward with the ball.

Goalkeeper Colm Reape had a particularly good game when you consider most of his kickouts were pretty good, and adding in those crucial saves, that denied Donegal a goal in at least two instances.

I would query as to why he needed to be where he was on that long kickout when McBrearty ran though on the end of Shaun Patton’s kick-out.

Reape ended up redeeming himself and saving the goal, but that kick-out cost us a point because Murphy scores from the 45.

CRUCIAL CAVAN GAME

MAYO may deserve to be in the last 12, given their displays against Tyrone and Donegal, but they're not, and that's mainly because of the way they played against Cavan.

They showed none of the work rate, aggression, character required that day and let Cavan walk all over them. 

The second reason is they just don't have the ability to score enough. On Sunday, in the first half, they had the wind behind them and played for 10 minutes with an extra man. Yet, they just couldn't capitalise offensively.

NO TWO-POINT THREAT

THAT inability meant Mayo were not contenders and I’ve had that view all season.

They should have taken advantage of the situation in the first half and built up a six, seven, eight-point lead, but they couldn’t come anywhere near that.

They weren't clinical enough. Matthew Ruane had a shot for a two-pointer from a really good position, in front of the goal and it dropped short.

The ball quickly made its way up the other end and Murphy kicked a two-pointer. That was a huge four-point swing and it clearly shows if you're not capable of taking such opportunities, you're not a contender.

OPPORTUNITY

MAYO have to use time wisely now. It's important to focus on the technical side of things, more so than the mental, in terms of being a better football team. 

We have to have physical men around the middle of the field that can catch the ball over the head. We have to have forwards who can kick two-pointers and are good in one-on-one situations and can take on their defenders.

We have to have forwards who can manufacture a goal when needed. 

Those sort of technical elements, the sort of things that would have helped in the first half on Sunday are the things that Mayo need to focus on now, more so than what outside people will be saying about Mayo.

Let them talk about that. Mayo need to focus on what will make them better.

PRIDE

I said three weeks ago that the season was done. I definitely did not expect to see the courageous reaction that Mayo put in in those last two games.

I'm very proud of that. Aidan O'Shea was inspirational in that last 15, 20 minutes. Ryan O'Donoghue kept plugging away. Jack Carney worked like hell.

McHugh did well when he was on the field, and you see the potential of Conal Dawson and Davitt Neary.

There's a lot of good work, a lot of good effort, a lot of courage shown by a lot of players. There’s a team to build on.

PLAYER RATINGS: How the Mayo players fared against Donegal

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