'The response will be what defines this panel now'

HOW many times since 2011 had we bundled ourselves into the car to head for Croke Park to support Mayo? And, today, passing through Roscommon, just how many tractors would slow us down on the journey there and back? These were the two questions posed as we optimistically set off for Dublin early on Sunday morning, back in more innocent times.
Guesses for the first went from 33 to 54.
We picked 2011 as it marked the start of this era of Mayo football, and thanks to the very excellent search feature on the Mayo GAA Blog results archive page, it appears that Mayo have played in Croke Park no fewer than 46 times since 2011. Just the 22,000-odd km travelled then, over half the circumference of the earth.
Incidentally, the first game within that period was a round five NFL game against Dublin, which we lost on a scoreline of 4-15 to 3-13.
For a while, it didn’t look like we were in for a repeat.
The first half of the game was exciting, entertaining and competitive, even if there was a nagging feeling that we should have been further ahead. We didn’t anticipate the ending, and a day later, our heads are still spinning.
Three rows from the front of the Cusack stand, there was no escaping what played out in front of us, and no speedy escape at the end. Another game of two halves against Dublin. We weren’t good enough, and they were excellent.
There isn’t much more to be said, in this column at least.
Losing the game was disappointing. The manner of the loss was doubly so. And the obnoxious jeering and goading from a group of so-called Dublin “supporters” behind us in the Cusack stand was truly the icing on the cake.
Winning alone must get boring after a while. It heaped misery upon the day and we weren’t sorry when the winds lifted and the heavens opened and to see that not one of these sunshine supporters had had the foresight to bring a jacket. Far be it from me to be spiteful, but I fervently hope every one of them has a bad headcold today.
Thankfully, not all opposition fans are cut from the same cloth.
We were beating a hasty retreat out the back of the Davin stand, when we spotted a familiar figure in primrose and gold. Roscommon’s Paddy Joe Burke seemed bewildered to be accosted by a bunch of Mayo fans desperate for distraction but was as warm and chatty as you’d expect. He understood the pain of a loss, he assured us, and he had been shouting for the neighbours, along with his lovely wife from Sligo.
As a supporter, you will have good days, bad days, and everything in between, and there is no point sugarcoating it — Sunday was a bad day. Our worst championship defeat since back in 2006, it awakened unpleasant memories of the humiliation and disappointment of a bygone era of Mayo football. A reminder that we have not always had it so good.
There will be no-one more disappointed this week but the team and management. As we arrived back to Swinford to go our separate ways to Castlebar and Ballina the team were doing the same, and their deflation was clear as they disembarked from the bus.
Perspective does arrive. The signs were there since the start of the championship; it was just the extremity of the collapse that was a surprise. In year one of the McStay era we will have to be content with a league title – not to be sniffed at - and the blooding of a few new players. The loss of Lee and Oisin proved significant in the end, and sadly, we are likely to see some more departures in the coming months.
The response will be what defines this panel now.
Kevin McStay and Stephen Rochford have work to do. Defensive and goalkeeping coaching work, and scouting work too, as the attention turns to clubs. Equally, the Mayo footballers have work to do, to prove that they, too, are as resilient as their predecessors of the last decade. They will surely rise to that challenge.
For the rest of us it was a long, sombre and tiring drive home, with one consolation of two being that it wasn’t another final we’d lost.
And the other? Well, let’s go back to our second question of the morning.
When both highlights of your day are Roscommon-related, you know it’s been a rough one. But despite an enthusiastically observed tradition of match-day morning farming activity along the N5 in Roscommon, not once on our return journey did we find ourselves stuck behind a slow-moving tractor on a bad road. Paddy Joe must have had a word.
There is always a positive to be found somewhere, even if sometimes, you have to really scrape the barrel. Until next year, over and out.