Novel championship pairing awaits
Sean Rice
The award winning voice of experience
YOU don’t normally associate Laois among the teams that must be
beaten before you consider a county worthy of All-Ireland honours.
Kerry, Cork, Galway, Meath, Dublin are the traditionally formidable. In
recent times Tyrone and Armagh have joined that elite group. But Laois?
. . . somehow they have not figured, and might not have been
challenging Mayo on Sunday but for their acquisition of Mick O’Dwyer as
their coach and manager.
Their clash with Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-final on Sunday is the
first meeting of the two at championship level for seventy years. Not
since Mayo crushed the O’Moore County in the All-Ireland final of 1936
have the two confronted each other in the championship. And if Laois
have yet to savour All-Ireland success, the momentum of the wave which
Mayo rode so triumphantly in the first half of the last century is long
since spent. Both counties badly need the tonic of an All-Ireland. Bar
a draw on Sunday the ambitions of only one will still survive.
While championship meetings have eluded the two ever since, they have
had regular national league jousts down the decades. In that
competition, Laois can claim one incontrovertible record: they were the
first ever National Football League champions. In the various formats
of the competition they and Mayo have been thrown together on sixteen
occasions ranging from the mid thirties up to 2003 when Laois,
re-emerging on the scene as a genuine football force, pipped Mayo at
Ballinrobe.
The balance of success in their clashes, however, weighs
heavily in favour of Mayo with thirteen wins. Laois did not have their
first win until the league of 1996/97 when they had a point to spare at
Portlaoise, a defeat attributed to the fact that Mayo were forced to
field without seven of their star players, all suspended following the
All-Ireland final replay debacle with Meath.
There was one draw between them, in 1998, and the O’Moore men’s last
win came with the advent of Mick O’Dwyer and the rise of the present
team when they had a point to spare at Ballinrobe.
Mayo have one link with the under-strength side defeated by Laois in
1996. James Nallen was centre half-back on that side, and after more
than a decade of service to the county team the Crossmolina man retains
much of his old effervescence . . . and a considerable amount of
experience. Nor are all of the Laois team as fresh as many tend to
believe. Goalkeeper Fergal Byron and forward Ian Fitzgerald were
members of that league side of ten years ago.
In November 2000 when Mayo won by a goal at Portlaoise five of the
present Laois team were in action. Only David Brady, James Gill and
Trevor Mortimer of the current panel were in the Mayo lineout.
Eight of the team which grabbed a point win over Mayo at Ballinrobe
three years ago lined out against Offaly in the recent qualifier. Only
three members of that defeated Mayo squad hold first team positions at
present . . . David Heaney, Conor Mortimer, and Andy Moran.
Those facts would suggest that Laois are the more experienced of the
two teams battling on Sunday for a place in the semi-finals. To have
rebounded with such determination following their demoralising defeat
by Dublin is a credit to the motivating skills of Mick O’Dwyer. The
Kerryman took charge of the training of the team since that defeat and
their performances reached new heights in their qualifiers . . .
against Tyrone whom they beat by three points, Meath over whom they had
six to spare, and Offaly by eight.
Offaly performance very notable
THE manner in which they dismissed Offaly left no one in doubt about
their state of mind. In terms of football they were streets ahead, and
emerged from the spoiling tactics of their close rivals with buckets of
credit for their fearless application and will to win.
Mayo’s journey to the quarter-finals has been less dramatic. None of
the turbulence experienced by Laois reached their relatively short
campaign. Nor, of course, did the quality of their performances quite
compare with that of Sunday’s rivals. We did hold our breath during the
final ten minutes or so of the Connacht final when they squeezed out a
win over Galway. But the questions raised afterwards were why Mayo had
allowed the game to come down to the wire when the title should have
been decided by half-time.
They had come into the game as outsiders. Galway’s victories over them
in key games earlier in the year, and their own listless performances
against London and Leitrim, left little room for optimism. Even though
Mayo had thirteen points to spare over London, they did not light up
Ruislip with any imaginative football. Conor Mortimer, with a total of
1-8, was the star performer.
It was not a victory that armed you with excessive confidence for their
semi-final slot with Leitrim. Nobody expected Mayo to lose, but it was
with a certain apprehension that Mayo people travelled to
Carrick-on-Shannon. They survived by the skin of their teeth, but
criticism of their performance was counterbalanced by the fact that
they were reduced to fourteen men for most of the second half. Whether
Leitrim would have done as well against a full team we’ll never know.
But before his dismissal Pat Harte had been Mayo’s star performer.
That close shave fattened scepticism about a Connacht final win. When
the crown was regained, however, it was the failure of Galway to
reproduce their old dashing form that attracted most attention. Mayo
played well, only because Galway played badly, was the general feeling.
Consequently, the buzz of similar occasions has not gripped Mayo
followers for Sunday’s match. In the face of Kerry’s awesome display
last week there is no expectation of a Mayo All-Ireland victory. Even
if they do win next Sunday, goes the argument, further progress is
beyond reach. The semi-final is the ultimate aim.
We have not heard from the Mayo camp. A blanket of silence has
enveloped training quarters. Nobody was allowed watch preparations,
nobody except those in close contact with the team knows the form, the
plans or the state of fitness of all of the players.
Concern for the full fitness of Trevor Mortimer, David Heaney, James
Nallen and Liam O’Malley was expressed following the club championship
ten days ago. You have got to feel for Trevor Mortimer if the suspected
hamstring injury which forced him to retire is to keep him out of
featuring in Sunday’s match. The Shrule man has been plagued with
injury for the past year or more and a further setback must be a
devastating blow to his morale. How serious the injury is we are not
sure. Maybe his withdrawal was a precautionary measure.
James Nallen was also nursing a hamstring injury following
Crossmolina’s club game with Breaffy, David Heaney was forced to
withdraw during Swinford’s match with Kilmeena and Liam O’Malley has
not partaken in recent training sessions . . . three sterling backs any
of which Mayo can ill afford to lose. It is thought that neither injury
is serious enough to keep Heaney and Nallen out of the game. But there
is cause for concern about O’Malley.
Sunday’s is a clash of similar styles. Like Mayo, Laois play it short
and at a staggering pace. In Brendan Quigley and Padraic Clancy they
have a pair of midfielders equal to the best in the country. The
outcome of their tussles with Ronan McGarrity and Patrick Harte could
be decisive.
Quigley had an outstanding game against Offaly, and Clancy, who
replaced the experienced Noel Garvan in the first half, made a
significant contribution to their win. On the evidence of his
performance in the Connacht final and for Ballina McGarrity is enjoying
his brightest period in the Mayo jersey and together with Harte will
not be found wanting.
In defence Aidan Fennelly, Darren Rooney, Joe Higgins and Tom Kelly are
pretty well seasoned backs. Kelly is acknowledged as one of the most
dedicated in the country. There ought to be some interesting duels
between Conor Mortimer and Higgins, Ciaran McDonald and Fennelly and
Kelly and Ger Brady.
If Mayo have a wandering star in McDonald, Laois have Billy Sheehan who
plays a similar role. He, Chris Conway, Ross Munnelly, Ian Fitzgerald
and Brian McDonald are all talented frontline men. If injury does not
deny Mayo of their big defensive names there will be a classic battle
between Dermot Geraghty, Liam O’Malley, Keith Higgins, David Heaney,
James Nallen, Peadar Gardiner and their opposite numbers, a battle of
speed, intuition and passion. The winning of the breaks is going to be
vitally important.
Mayo are once again outsiders. O’Dwyer will tell his charges that Mayo
lack heart and if Laois stick tight to them, Mayo will throw in the
towel. He’ll be cocky and confident in his assertions. This is his last
term in charge of Laois and he’ll spare none of the old cunning
measures he has adopted over the decades to plot a victory. I think,
however, that a fully fit Mayo are well capable of turning the tables,
that they have better ball skills and lack nothing in determination.
With a bit of luck Mayo can reach the semi-finals once more.
