McStay making no excuses

ON good days it's an easy gig. Speaking with the media in the aftermath of championship wins is a breeze. On Sunday evening it was different. Mayo had been beaten out the gate in Croke Park, so finding words for the press wasn't easy, but that's part of the job and Kevin McStay didn't back away from it.
As always, he was dignified, friendly and honest, but there was a sadness behind his eyes. Mayo's season had just ended under an avalanche of Dublin dazzle and he was hurting for his team.
“It’s a tough arena to be in when the Dubs are in their pomp. The gap at the end, I don’t think we deserved that gap. My overall sense at half-time was we were well in the game. We were well-positioned and the goal chance in the first half that hadn’t gone our way.
“And then the goal chance we gave away at the Hill End, then we missed one at the Canal End, they were big swings and Dublin took real oxygen from it, came alive and found their best championship form I’d say to date.
“No excuses in terms of the result, they were the better team by far, a very good Dublin team when they were at it.
“I think they selected very well, when we got the changes it was obvious to us they were very afraid of our pace up top and they were hoping to get the game to the third quarter and bring on then their pacy guys, Jack (McCaffrey) obviously in particular, Paddy Small and so on.
“But we had managed it well until half-time, we had given them a lot of problems up in the full-forward line, Tommy [Conroy] and Ryan [O’Donoghue] and Aidan [O’Shea] were busy I felt throughout that period.
“We were definitely breathing, we wanted to get to the third quarter and then the goal we give away, but you have to credit Dublin, look at the way they finished that goal. In that moment they were clinical, there was no chance that was going to be missed. That hurt us.”
A feature of the day was the blitz Dublin unleashed in the opening minutes of the second half. They put huge pressure on Colm Reape's kick-out.
“It's frightening when they press up on you,” admitted McStay.
“We had a rookie goalie, a baby goalie in terms of championship and senior experience but what he has done this year has been really, really good for Mayo and he can be one of Mayo's big 'keepers for the next ten years if he wants.
“It was a big experience for him to go up against that press today and by and large he managed it but it was tough. They were getting their kick-outs much easier than we were getting ours.”
A suggestion that Mayo suffered from having to play on three successive Sunday's didn't find a home in McStay's thinking. He was in no mood for excuses and the scheduling of games certainly wasn't something he dwelt upon.
“I don’t honestly believe it impacted, it’s not somewhere I’d be going anyway in terms of an excuse, but there is a reality that the fortnight is the better rhythm. If you drill down into it we missed three sessions because we lost to Cork. We missed Saturday, Monday, and next Thursday if we were playing fortnight on fortnight.
“So that’s a big thing we’ll have to figure out, I’m sure the format will stay pretty much the same so we’ll learn that bit, that when you are in a good position to top your group, it’s probably the best way.”
Then, like all good generals, McStay stood by his team as he recalled a season where a National League title was won before a topsy-turvy championship season yielded three wins and three defeats.
“In mitigation I’m going to say our players gave us a great spin this year, we had four rookies essentially although they were panelists for a year or two, they were rookies up around here and they will take an awful lot from this experience.
“And we had a decent spring, I have to look at this in the round and see where we are going. It’s not what we wanted and championship is championship, I totally understand that.
“But in terms of building out what we wanted, it wasn’t a bad year. It didn’t end the way we wanted, because we thought there was another round or two we might get to, but the Dubs fairly closed that door today.
“We have absolutely no excuses, that’s not the space that the group are in and we tip our hat to Dublin, they were really good.
“Good luck to them, two to go for them, we have to say goodbye.”