Mayo walk on Waterford

Mayo walk on Waterford

Mayo        1-19
Waterford  0-8

Edwin McGreal

FOR Mayo there was an awkwardness about the challenge posed last Saturday. All-Ireland championships, by their very nature, tend to get harder game by game.
But the new format of the Ladies championship means that Mayo had to go from the raw intensity of a gruelling Connacht final back into a league format against a side they were expected to beat comfortably.
It is akin to asking the Kerry men’s team to go from a Munster final win over Cork to a league clash against Fermanagh. It was, naturally, going to be extremely difficult for Mayo to continue where they left off in Tuam Stadium.
So it was not altogether surprising then that Frank Browne’s team laboured at stages on Saturday. The fact that they could do this and still win by 14 points tells you plenty about the Waterford challenge.
A repeat of the 1999 All-Ireland final it wasn’t. After the first quarter you could see from the body language of both teams that they knew what the outcome was going to be; it was just a case of going through the formalities of playing out time.
Mayo led after 17 first half minutes by 0-7 to 0-1 and it was their reaching of a comfort zone that enabled Waterford to outscore them 0-3 to 0-2 for the rest of the half. It was the only spell of anything approaching dominance that the Deise enjoyed as Mayo simply did what they had to do in the second half.
What will please Frank Browne most were the attacking alternatives Mayo had to Cora Staunton. The Carnacon sharpshooter top-scored with 1-10 but, nonetheless, players like Lisa Cafferkey, Aoife Herbert and Fiona McHale gave Waterford plenty to think about and therefore meant they couldn’t simply limit their defensive plan to stopping Staunton.
Mayo had options aplenty and the two-player full-forward line of Herbert (making her first senior championship start) and Cafferkey worked a treat with Stuanton fitting in on the ‘40.
Sometimes Mayo were not as direct as they could have been and often times the forward line was crowded but the round-robin will present the chance to iron out these creases.
Waterford’s Mary O’Rourke pointed on six minutes but that was but a momentary blip as Mayo flew from the blocks. Two well-taken points from Fiona McHale, allied to a wonderful run and point from Lisa Cafferkey (including a superb solo dummy) settled Mayo and efforts from Cora Staunton (free), Chris Heffernan, McHale and Staunton again saw them 0-7 to 0-1 up.
Waterford had only a handful of players who could press for places in the Mayo team and corner-forward Mary O’Rourke was one of these. She had a great duel with Nuala Ó Sé which broke pretty even. She kicked three good frees, against only one point from Staunton, as the gap was trimmed to four but Mayo had the last say of the half, Staunton converting a free after she was fouled herself.
The sides went score for score early in the second half. Staunton (2) and Jackie Moran were on target for Mayo, efforts cancelled out by two O’Rouke frees and a point from Aoife Murphy.
But Mayo blew Waterford away in the last 13 minutes. The Munster standard-bearers would score once more, substitute Marian Ryan on target, while Mayo kicked 1-7 at the town end of the Gaelic Grounds. Lisa Cafferkey, Cora Staunton (twice) and Michelle Kelly all pointed – the first of Staunton’s brace worthy of special mention after a powerful run from Martha Carter set it up – before Staunton struck the game’s only goal.
Nuala Ó Sé initiated the move which involved a wonderful short pass from Aoife Herbert to Fiona McHale and she in turn found Staunton who, with two players literally hanging out of her, decided not to pick the ball up and ran with it on the deck before finishing.
Mayo would add three more scores, a Staunton free and two wonderful points from distance. Claire Egan was on target first time around and Staunton kicked with ease from 40 metres in the closing seconds.
Their next outing comes next Sunday against Kerry in Ennis.