A warning for Mayo: Beware of Cork

SeΡn Rice

IT was not our first time being led up the garden path. But this was a trap into which Mayo sheepishly walked with eyes wide open. Two weeks before the National League final of 2010, Mayo recorded in PΡirc Uí Chaoímh a five-points win over Cork, who had already qualified for the final.
Their victory opened the door for Mayo to meet the same opposition in the final in Croke Park with hopes spilling over of capturing their 12th league title and of heralding a new football dawn for the county.
Only when Cork began to toy with them in that undistinguished final did we realise how their manager Conor Counihan and his selectors had ensnared us into believing that Mayo were the better side in PΡirc Uí Chaoímh.
They were, only because Counihan had withdrawn some of his best players for that game in Cork. In Croke Park, against a full complement, Mayo were outplayed and outfoxed. The mental damage caused in losing by eight points extended all the way to the championship that season, all the way to Longford, where they were beaten in the Qualifiers.
Two years later the two met again in another league final, Mayo’s third final in five years, and again Cork romped home by five points to win another title. Yet, because Mayo had beaten Dublin by eight points on the way, and Kerry in the replay of the semi-final, the mood in the county was more upbeat.
A new manager was in place and Mayo’s rising graph reached all the way to the All-Ireland final, losing to Donegal by four points. It was the start of a heady era that has raised Mayo’s stock to a place among the best in the country.
In five subsequent meetings the league spoils were shared with Cork, but the new Mayo claimed a significant win in the championship quarter-final of 2014 by the narrowest of margins.
Paradoxically, last season as Cork dropped to Division 2, their football reputation taking a serious knock in Munster, Mayo lost to a Rebel side on the slide. Not just any ordinary defeat either, but a nine-point trouncing, a start to their league campaign that sent shivers down Mayo spines.
That was much the same Mayo they meet on Saturday in Limerick, and not a whole lot different from the side Cork lulled into a false sense of security in that league final of 2010.
Ten members of that team seven years ago were in action against Clare in Ennis. The experience of reaching six successive All-Ireland semi-finals has filtered their play, and yet they are not free of the mental ravages of coming so frustratingly close to the finishing line so often.
It is to be hoped they will remember next weekend as they plot a way round them in Limerick how the crafty Munster men swept them aside in two league finals, and how they allowed themselves to sink so low in their league tie last season. It is to be hoped they will not wait until the second half to find form.
Beaten by eight points by Kerry in the recent Munster final and not sufficiently impressive to attract to Waterford an audience of more than 1,500 for their contest with the home county, Cork are not All-Ireland contenders.
But they will be waiting in the long grass for Mayo, waiting to exploit what many consider a serious flaw in their defence as exposed by Derry and Clare. And no one runs at defences more potently than Cork’s Paul Kerrigan, one of their more seasoned and eminent forwards.
The Nemo Rangers man was one of the side that entrapped Mayo seven years ago, one of five still endeavouring to plough new furrows for Cork. Jamie O’Sullivan and Michael Shields are there too. And in a vain bid to save face against Kerry, they called in veterans Donncha O’Connor and Alan O’Connor to help out.
Seven of the side that beat Mayo last year are also likely to field in Limerick, hoping to draw from that win enough inspiration to spring another surprise on the 2016 All-Ireland finalists.

Rochford facing a selection headache

IN their preparatory work, efforts will surely have been made in the past two weeks to plug that hole so apparent to everyone in Mayo’s recent games. It will entail greater vigilance by the Mayo forwards especially, more toil and energy in curtailing thrusts out of the opposing defence. Paul Kerrigan, who lines out at corner forward, but wanders everywhere, is a particular threat.
The availability of a full panel is reassuring for Stephen Rochford. But with so many vying for places it also provides him with a monstrous headache. Selection of the defence is a case in point. The return of Paddy Durcan and Keith Higgins after suspension poses the question: to what positions?
Against Clare, Higgins filled the vacancy left by Durcan with the command of a master tactician. Listed among the subs, the Ballyhaunis man started only after Tom Parsons pulled out and Donal Vaughan moved from defence to midfield. The benefits Higgins brought to the game were unmistakeable.
But Durcan has already made that wing back position his own, has carved out a niche as a powerful, attacking defender, one of the best in the country.
And at corner back where Higgins normally excels, Chris Barrett was brilliant against Clare. Likewise, in the other defence positions there is little room for manoeuvre. Brendan Harrison, Lee Keegan and Colm Boyle are entrenched and immovable.
And whither Donal Vaughan?
It is to be hoped this embarrassment of riches will be dispensed by management sensibly and wisely ... and to maximum effect. In its bench lies the true strength of a team’s worth.
Elsewhere, the wealth is less obvious. But Stephen Coen made strong claims for a place, having replaced Vaughan in the fourth minute against Clare and producing an honest and diligent performance.
I also like the attacking instincts of Conor Loftus, his sense of positioning and the speed of his distribution. Against Derry and Clare he fitted nicely into the forward six.
But of course, the influence of the regular stars is vital to victory. If they don’t shine, neither will Mayo. Unless the relentless passion of McLoughlin and the O’Sheas, Barrett, Higgins, Keegan and the O’Connors is reproduced over a longer period, and fewer of the mistakes that littered their first half are made, Cork will find a way by Mayo.
Collective experience of past reverses ought to be their motivation, but Cork are a different kettle of fish, polished and clever, and galvanised in the knowledge that All-Ireland medals bedeck some of their stars. Nothing short of an upswing in performance by Mayo will lever the Rebels out of a place in the quarter-finals.