Mayo-Dublin mightn’t be that different to Donegal game, says Cillian

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Daniel Carey

A JOKE did the rounds after the now infamous All-Ireland semi-final of 2011 between Dublin and Donegal. Hinting that the massed defence employed by Donegal had spread beyond the confines of the field, it suggested that Colm McFadden had to drive the bus home afterwards, because everyone else was ‘down the back’.
Shortly after we took up position outside the Mayo dressing-room on Saturday night, we spotted JJ Connelly behind the wheel of the team bus. The son of County Board chairman Mike Connelly may be wise beyond his years, but we were surprised to see him given that role. However, the smiles his move provoked made clear that this was a 30-second prank, and that Noel O’Malley would, as usual, be at the helm when the vehicle left Croke Park.
The Donegal defensive system has been tweaked and honed in the years since 2011, of course, and doesn’t quite carry the shock value it did four years ago. Dublin still have a reputation as have-a-go gunslingers, but the reality may be a little more complicated, according to Mayo’s Cillian O’Connor.
Asked whether the semi-final against the Dubs would be a completely different type of game from last Saturday’s, the Ballintubber man said: “It’s hard to know. We haven’t really given any thought to them [Dublin] yet. We’ll have to go away and watch their games and see. But they play a fairly defensive game as well. They drop men back – Cian O’Sullivan was sweeping there in front of [SeΡn] Quigley against Fermanagh. So I suppose it mightn’t be that different. But we’ll go and watch the tape and see.”
O’Connor offers plenty of adjectives to describe the game against Donegal – enjoyable, tough, abrasive, physical, and fast-paced (especially early on). Always a thoughtful analyst of games, he says there’s plenty for Mayo to chew over from Saturday’s performance, both good and bad.
“Well primarily, it’s a ticket to the semi-final,” he told The Mayo News. “That’s the biggest thing. It’s just a relief to get over them, knock them out and get into a semi. I suppose we didn’t concede that much ... [we were] defensively solid. We got some good success from the runners, from the half-back line and midfield. And I suppose the negatives are there to see. We know ourselves we could have put them away a lot earlier, and we could have been more clinical. So we’ve plenty again to work on.”
The two-time Young Footballer of the Year, an All Star in 2014, says things have gone well since the Connacht final. The competition for places has been ‘massive’ from ‘the six or seven lads’ outside the match-day 26.
“Some tough calls had to be made, because there was a lot of lads absolutely flying, and training was brilliant coming into the game. I suppose you don’t know until you go out and play, but we had a good few sessions and we felt good coming into it.”