Mayo's inconsistencies laid bare

FOR the second time in two weeks, we’re casting the mind back over the past decade or more for a comparison for as bad a performance and result.
After the loss to Cork in Limerick, having been six points up at the three-quarter mark, we described it as the most disappointing performance/result since Longford in 2010.
This game is coming hot on its heels.
Whereas Cork was a game that Mayo blew, this was one where they were blown away.
But we don’t need to go back to Longford.
Comparisons with 2019 are inevitable. Then, after unexpectedly beating many people’s tips for All-Ireland glory, Donegal, in a ferocious contest, one week later, Mayo had to take on the might of the Dubs.
Galway took the role of Donegal this year and the Dubs remained the constant, but few predicted a similar outcome to that 2019 All-Ireland semi-final.
This was worse, though. Both games had competitive first halves before a third quarter surge saw Dublin take utter control.
But on Sunday Mayo were alarmingly flat and devoid of leadership.
Needless to say Dublin, as good as they were on Sunday, were not the team of 2019 but they gave Mayo a bigger pasting here.
From the start of the second half, Mayo looked incredibly flat. Perhaps the travails of going to Salthill caught up with them. But it wasn’t just energy levels – you could see the confidence and want draining out of a few players. That’s a big concern.
It can leave scars and doubts.
And if the tight turnaround was a big issue – and there’s every chance it was – then Mayo have only themselves to blame. They would have drawn a very erratic Tyrone and had a weekend off if they managed to hold a six point lead against Cork.
Based on what we saw of Tyrone on Saturday, that would have been an imminently more winnable fixture and might have made Mayo more considered contenders.
But would that be foolhardy? On the basis of what we saw on Sunday, yes.
Too many players are either not good enough for such considerations or not playing well enough. To be fair, it’s probably more of the latter.
We have never had more high-level competition for the inside line, but our scoring returns have not reflected that.
Too many players are unreliable in terms of consistent form. Of those who played on Sunday, all of them have had games where they have been really good.
But how many have consistently delivered? Very few.
There’s a lot of talk about timing your run and not peaking too soon in discussions around form at various stages of the year. But it’s too simplistic a way to look at Mayo.
Consider a league that started with two draws; followed by explosive wins over Tyrone and Kerry; a game they nearly blew against Roscommon; a handy win over a Donegal team in disarray followed by a final round defeat to Monaghan.
That was the precursor for a league final win over Galway, but not an impressive display.
The following week Mayo were made to look like minors by Roscommon in Castlebar.
The response to that was to go down to Killarney with a showcase win over Kerry before falling over the line against Louth. Lose to Cork, beat Galway, lose to Dublin.
The problem is not peaking too soon, it’s too many peaks and troughs.

The first half
MAYO played the better football in the first half but still found themselves one behind at half-time. It was a familiar feeling from a few All-Ireland final defeats.
Indeed, the one game where Dublin outclassed Mayo in the first half was the 2021 semi-final, the one time Mayo actually beat them in championship since 2012.
There were some encouraging signs though, along with some concerns.
Ryan O’Donoghue and Tommy Conroy were finding real form as the half went on, Aidan O’Shea was growing into it and Dublin looked vulnerable at the back.
Defensively, Mayo were doing well in the main, particularly with a man-on-man approach.
But Padraig O’Hora never looked like a fella who was fully over a stomach bug, and was very leggy in his first content with Colm Basquel.
Starting him and Eoghan McLaughlin were debatable selections.
McLaughlin is an electric sight in full flow but his football skills can be raw. With a long run of football, it is less of an issue but it is a risk when he’s coming back from an injury lay-off.
The half-time stats showed that Mayo and Dublin had both lost just one of their own kick-outs, a good return for Colm Reape considering their issues in Salthill.
However, the portents were ominous. Mayo were having to fight manfully to win every kick-out whereas Stephen Cluxton was able to find a team-mate in space with far greater ease.
Reape’s ability to pinpoint kicks has diminished in recent weeks while Cluxton looked like he was never away.
But Dublin players out the field were able to find pockets of space far easier than Mayo. Kick-outs are a two way street with the goalkeeper and his team-mates.
At half-time, we looked at the Dublin bench with concern and wondered, as good as the Mayo bench was, would Dublin have the edge here?
Incredibly, it didn’t matter. Dublin scored 1-3 inside five minutes after half-time. The kick-out issues exploded and Sam Callinan got caught in an error of judgment for Colm Basquel’s second goal.
Dublin turned the screw relentlessly. You could see in the body language of Brian Fenton the hatred they have for Mayo, the hurt they felt from 2021, in particular.
They showed no mercy, but Mayo looked stuck to the ground. Beaten from a long way out. That’s the worst part of it. Even those who weren’t confident Mayo would win thought it would be close.
But for too often this season, they’ve been woefully inconsistent and when they reproduced that against a top team, they suffered the consequences.