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Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Biggest win of Johnno’s second coming?
BY ANTHONY HENNIGAN
I’M not sure what did most to restore my faith in the world this past week.
Was it the realisation that there are people who still care passionately enough about the society they live in that they donated a million cubic centimetres of blood just to splatter at government buildings in Bangkok and try and force Thailand’s leaders into calling an election? Or was it that some white-collar executive at Sony HQ had the good sense to cut ties with Jedward after the duo’s failure to reach No.1 in the charts with their first release?
Hmmm, let me see. A country seeks to save itself from its rulers. A record label seeks to save the rest of us from a pair of delusional Dublin teenagers.
There is no ambiguity, however, about what exactly has helped restore a huge amount of faith among Mayo football followers. The pessimists will point out that Sunday’s National League victory over Kerry, and in Tralee at that, has earned the Green and Red Division 1 safety. The optimists will have observed that Mayo’s defeat of the reigning All-Ireland and League champions has earned them a three-way shoot-out with Dublin and Cork for the Division 1 final berths.
Either way, in the midst of what is considered as tough a league campaign Mayo ever faced into, it was a good day’s work all round for John O’Mahony’s team – something to which we’ll return to in a short while.
We thought the victory might have been coupled with a defeat of Roscommon on St Patrick’s Day, where a win would have kept alive Mayo’s hopes of a fifth successive Connacht U-21 title. Now that really would have made for as successful a week’s business as one could wish for at this time of year. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
But these are quite exciting times all round for Mayo football at present. In fact, to develop an understanding as to its current strength and state – regardless that its own supporters will always be its harshest critics – you need look no further than its underage structures.
Winners of the past four provincial U-21 crowns and the past two minor titles, most recently it’s at schools level where plenty of promise has been shown. St Gerald’s, Castlebar, were convincing winners of the Connacht Colleges’ senior ‘A’ football championship, a title also won by St Colman’s, Claremorris, 12 months previous, and St Muredach’s, Ballina, were deserved winners of this year’s Connacht Colleges’ senior ‘A’ football league. And elsewhere in the prestigious senior colleges’ grade, Gortnor Abbey, Crossmolina, have defied many by advancing all the way to next Saturday’s final of the AllIreland ‘C’ football championship.
It suggests there will be a fair amount of talent for Mayo minor manager Tony Duffy to select from this season, notwithstanding his side’s opening round Connacht League defeat to Roscommon last Saturday. The squad was shorn a number of key players because of injuries and commitments to school teams.
But as is to be expected, it’s the form of Mayo’s seniors that has most people talking at present. Many wondered might the wheels be about to fall from the wagon when Dublin stole the points in Castlebar earlier this month, however, the response of Mayo could not have been more emphatic. Their defeat of Derry, Division 1 winners in 2008 and runners-up in 2009, was their first victory in the Walled City in 26 years and Derry’s first home defeat since 2007. It was followed last Sunday by a third consecutive away league win, a result that could arguably be considered the most significant thus far of John O’Mahony’s second coming.
True, victory carried with it no Connacht title or the likes. And sure didn’t Johnno’s predecessor guide Mayo to victory at the same venue in 2006! That then though was Kerry’s first outing of the season and on a night where Mayo players, far more advanced in their pre-season preparation, were overly keen to impress their new manager, Mickey Moran.
What was different about last Sunday was that Kerry carried with them back-to-back wins and a strong desire to pull away from the relegation zone. That Mayo repelled a strong Kerry 15 (Tomás Ó Sé, Killian Young, Donnacha Walsh and Paul Galvin the notable exceptions) has Green and Red followers excitedly wondering just what the rest of 2010 might hold in store.
The league, we’re told, is far from an accurate barometer as to what might unfold in any upcoming championship. Explain then why in each of the past five years that Kerry contested the National League final (1997, 2004, ’06, ’08 and ’09) they also went on to contest that year’s AllIreland final. And why then was it that Kerry’s only defeat in those five league finals, to Derry in 2008, was followed by their only All-Ireland final defeat in those same five years?
You wonder should Mayo now treat getting to this year’s Division 1 decider very seriously indeed.
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