Wanted: marginal gains for Mayo

OVER a week on from the All-Ireland Final replay, and the feeling persists that there are still more questions than answers.
The fact that we’ve pushed Dublin harder, and got closer to them, than any other team over the last two years means that Mayo are in the silver medal position now.
We shouldn’t forget that.
If they’d lost to Tyrone in the quarter-final for example, they’re off the leaderboard and only heading one way. So that’s why it was so important that Mayo went all the way to the end of the road, bitter and all as it was.
Back in my day it was ‘Hollywood or bust’, an All-Ireland or nothing.
But James Horan talks now about Mayo being ‘a championship team’ — competing consistently. That’s the way it is, and should be.
The players, backroom team and management will feel we’re close to getting what we want, but the only way to keep it that way is to get back there and stay in the mix.
Let’s look at some of the positives for Stephen Rochford from his first season.
I think Mayo’s defensive improvement this year would have to top the list.
When you consider the squad lost Tom Cunniffe for the year, Ger Cafferkey for the summer, and Chris Barrett was only able to give us a few minutes here and there, it was a serious job to get the defence locked down so tightly for so long.
Another plus is that Mayo are now as tactically sophisticated as any team out there. There’s been a definite tactical evolution by Mayo this season.
The introduction of a full-time sweeper and the way Mayo adapted their game to facilitate that move was impressive. So too was the way they pressed opposition kick-outs, and developed their own short kick-out strategy to retain possession.
Plus, you’ve got the emergence of Brendan Harrison and Paddy Durcan, not to mention the progress made by Stephen Coen. I think Coen showed the last day that he could become a man-marker in the Mayo half-back line next year. He just might be the man to pick up fellas like Shane Walsh from Galway next summer.
I still think this group of players are capable of winning an All-Ireland, but some tweaking needs to be done if the marginal gains required are to be found.
I don’t subscribe to this theory that there’s no chance of winning an All-Ireland unless we unearth a ‘marquee forward’. It’s not Championship Manager, we can’t just go out and buy one! We need to manage our squad better and try some new formations up front.
Another area I’d like to see addressed is our movement.
I’ve been saying all season that we weren’t counter-attacking properly often enough.
Lee Keegan’s goal the last day was a prime example of what can be achieved when you break hard and fast; two or three quick passes opened Dublin up, and Keegan came off the shoulder at pace to create the score. But we didn’t do it often enough.
Because our two best line-breakers (Keegan and Vaughan) were gone by half-time, what we were looking to do to create scoring chances in the second half were work two 30 yard kick passes that would open Dublin up. But we weren’t able to pull it off.
Have we got anyone to come in and freshen up the middle third of the field for us?
It’s also really important that Stephen Rochford communicates to every single one of his players as soon as possible.
He needs to listen to them now, hear what they want out to get out of the winter and next spring, and identify what obstacles are on the horizon before they even reach them.
Rochford will have learned an awful lot from the last few weeks.
His Mayo project is still a work in progress and, while we’ve certainly seen some progress, there are still improvements to be made. The question is: how do we make those small gains in 2017?

New roles can freshen things up again

I BELIEVE one of the ways we can find the marginal gains we’re looking for is to tweak the way we manage the squad and how we use players in off the bench.
Maybe there’s a case to be made for certain players, especially ones with high mileage and quite a bit of mental fatigue, to be used as impact substitutes at times in 2017.
My gut feeling at this stage is that Aidan O’Shea’s future for Mayo next season is back at midfield. His game needs a reboot.
Mayo should also try to add something to Diarmuid O’Connor’s game in the National League next year.
He was excellent in the replay and very rarely does anything wrong with the ball in his hand, but if we’re going to win an All-Ireland he needs to be better.
Diarmuid was so impressive during Mayo’s under 21 campaign back in the spring that it shouldn’t come as any major surprise that he’d lost his edge in August and September.
No athlete can peak in March and April, and carry that through for the next six months.
I’d like to see him playing across the 45 yard line in the league next year, making him the third highest forward upfield for Mayo. Make him a scoring threat again, and you might come away with an extra couple of points in big games.
Another way of tweaking things is to inject some pace into the team. Two guys who fit the bill in this regard are Evan Regan and Conor Loftus and they need plenty of game-time again next spring.
Cillian O’Connor’s role is also one that could be redefined ahead of next summer’s championship. What about trying him out at full-forward for a while? We need him closer to goal, and we need him scoring goals again like he used to.
All these things can add up to make the difference.