'Mayo weren’t able to match Dublin’s pace and intensity'

MAYO’S heaviest championship defeat for 17 years followed the trend of games like the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Dublin or last year’s loss to Kerry where they were just blown away.
One of the most obvious things that struck me was that we weren’t able to live with Dublin’s pace and intensity in the third quarter, and there was always a possibility that might happen because Mayo had only been playing in fits and starts, for very short periods, since the win against Kerry.
The All-Ireland champions played into Mayo’s hands that day and they looked undercooked.
Sunday was a different ball game, there was no element of surprise.
Dublin knew they were in a game going in at half-time, but they had obviously prepared very well for it.
Eoin Murchan went off, Jack McCaffrey came in. Leaving Ciaran Kilkenny off was a big gamble but Colm Basquel was the form player and paid back in spades.
Dessie Farrell got his calls right. Mayo didn’t.
Padraig O’Hora didn’t look fit, and our forwardline really didn’t function at all, bar a period in the first half when Ryan O’Donoghue and Tommy Conroy shot some good scores.
Mayo weren’t able to match Dublin’s pace and intensity in the second half, but I don’t put all that down to fatigue or conditioning, although there’s no doubt that playing three games in a row was a huge factor.
The reality is that Mayo would have had a much better chance of winning an All-Ireland quarter-final if they hadn’t gone and lost to Cork.
Apart from the chance to recharge the batteries, the extra two or three training sessions that they could have fitted in with an extra week — instead of having to go and play Galway — would have helped in terms of tactical preparation. Mayo lost out on that.
So energy levels were a factor, but so was Mayo’s form coming into the weekend.
Not enough players were in good form recently.
Diarmuid O’Connor and Ryan O’Donoghue have played well in flashes over the last few weeks, and Tommy Conroy and Jordan Flynn have made impacts, but apart from that we didn’t have eight or nine players who were playing well.
Some of the younger players learned some harsh lessons against Dublin.
But that happens, and that’s part of developing as an inter-county footballer.
You have to be able to deal with disappointments and situations where you were bested.
Take Sam Callinan, for example, who tried to shepherd a ball out of play and was punished.
It wasn’t the right thing to do and resulted in a killer goal during the third quarter.
You could see heads drop after that, and Eoghan McLaughlin’s miss down at the other end added to it.
All of Mayo’s defenders had their own issues to deal with at different times.
You could see O’Hora didn’t look right, didn’t look his usual self, and that can happen when you’re coming back from illness. For Dublin’s first goal, he didn’t attack the ball in the air and Colm Basquel made the most of the opportunity.
Two of the biggest frustrations for the management and supporters would be that Mayo conceded two goals that were totally avoidable, and that’s an absolute killer against Dublin.
But you have to acknowledge the brilliance of some of these Dublin players.
The way they reacted in the second half — Brian Fenton, James McCarthy, Mick Fitzsimons. . And to be able to bring on Jack McCaffrey and Ciaran Kilkenny, it really was remarkable.

Rebuilding mode
One of the big questions coming away from Sunday, from a Mayo perspective, is how do certain players deal with this mentally and put it into context?
We thought this going to be a rebuilding year at the start of the year.
In a rebuilding year, young lads get a chance, you learn a lot about them, and some older players get fazed out.
They’re there to teach some of the good habits and set an example, but they’re not going to be there in the long-term.
But I think we felt we’d moved away from a transition or rebuilding phase when we won the National League and went down to Kerry and won.
But now that Mayo’s season is over, I think a lot of us are reverting back to what we said earlier in the year! That we are actually in a rebuild mode.
So how does Kevin McStay approach that in the three remaining years of his term?
The militant approach would be to leave some of the players who lined out against Dublin on Sunday on the side of the field.
Maybe it’s necessary though because players need a message, in some respects.
What happened on Sunday has happened all too often over the last few years. And it can’t be allowed to happen again if Mayo have designs on winning an All-Ireland.
There are players in this Mayo squad in their mid-20s who played in Croke Park for the first time on Sunday, and then you have experienced footballers like Paddy Durcan, Stephen Coen and Mattie Ruane. But have they been scarred by the defeats?
Only they know the answer to that question.
But I would say that it’s going to take a big mental effort for them to put themselves back in a position like they were today, and to overcome some of the issues that arose.
It’s going to be very interesting to see what the Mayo squad looks like next year.
If Sunday proved anything, it’s that Mayo are really really poor playing into a blanket defence. It’s why games like this one, and Kerry last year, get away from us.
Sometimes it’s like we’re trying to knock down a concrete wall with a spoon.
Mayo struggled to make headway and then were killed on the counter-attack when Dublin turned over the ball.
So if Mayo find themselves three or four points behind, the game is nearly gone against a team as good as Dublin.
That’s something that requires hours and hours of work on the training ground.
If that doesn’t work, then maybe it’s time to change the personnel.
Because the forwardline we’ve seen over the last few months haven’t been able to show the guile, confidence and know-how to open up defensive shells.
That’s the biggest tactical shortcoming that I saw on Sunday.
Some people will point to the issues with the kick-outs, but it’s ironic that probably Mayo’s best move of the match came when Colm Reape went long to Aidan O’Shea, he went long to Ryan O’Donoghue, and he scored.
That underlined to me that Mayo haven’t been using O’Shea in the right way.
Another perennial question that remains unanswered.