Progress already visible on a lot of fronts for Moran and Mayo

Mayo’s victory over Roscommon last Sunday came with the confirmation that manager Andy Moran’s commitment is to the overall wellbeing of the team, rather than just maximising everything this year, writes Kevin Egan.

The mission was to show up and put some momentum together in advance of the National League, and for enough players to put their hands up that Andy Moran and his selectors would have some real headaches in picking their best team for the trip to Salthill on Sunday week.

By half-time, Mayo were well on their way to ticking both of those boxes. Three points up after playing into a deceptively strong wind, they had one foot and four toes from the second foot in the FBD League final. Moreover, they did so by playing an intelligent, effective and cohesive brand of football that was strong in all the key phases; primary possession, defence, score creation.

That gave the players the scope to broaden their remit, and so they duly spent the second half emulating the work of American agents stationed in a Middle-Eastern oil producing nation. After extracting what they needed, they set about fomenting dissention and chaos among the natives just for good measure.

Roscommon manager Mark Dowd commendably declined the option of blaming on the absence of Enda Smith, David Murray, or indeed his very substantial St Brigid’s contingent when he reflected on the game afterwards, but he still covered a lot of the standard ground for January, referring to giving players game time and plenty of references to ‘learnings’.

The biggest lesson he learned is that a first round trip to Killarney, to be undertaken without Brian Stack, Ruaidhrí Fallon, Ben O’Carroll and half a dozen more St Brigid’s players, could be yet another traumatic afternoon. And in a calendar where there is not much time to take a breather and reset, another heavy defeat to the All-Ireland champions could really wobble the Rossies’ season before it starts.

The league game between Roscommon and Mayo is still more than two months away but the ground has been weakened under the feet of Sunday’s home team, and with a tough Spring ahead, they could be in very vulnerable shape by the time the Connacht Championship rolls around and a rematch between the counties in the semi-final.

But enough of Roscommon’s fortunes. No FBD fixture should be taken as gold standard form, but even looking at the game through a sceptical lens, Mayo’s overall performance wasn’t fool’s gold either.

When it came to meeting, short, medium and long-term goals, there was progress on a lot of fronts.

Short-term first and a year after it was introduced as part of the sport of gaelic football, it finally looks as if Mayo are embracing the two-pointer. The county’s issues in this regard in 2025 were well-documented with an average of less than one per game across league and championship, but six orange flags in the second half of this tie bodes well.

Caveats first. Because the wind tends to blow straight down the ground from the Graveyard end towards the town, this is fertile ground for shooters. Also, Mayo hit six from eight attempts, and that’s not including Rob Hennelly’s two 45s. That’s an inordinately high return from distance, and if the GAA ever succumbs to an equivalent of soccer’s xG metric, then this would be one where the expected harvest would have been exceeded by a distance.

That said, the quality of the chances that were created were of the highest order, all bar a couple struck from the perfect distance, with little or no pressure on the shooter. The accuracy rate was high because the shot selection and buildup was impeccable.

More Roscommon pressure around the arc would have opened up more space close to goal too, and as Mayo demonstrated in the first-half, they were happy to work it through the hands to try and create goal chances as well, so there was that variation in the team’s attack.

Another big short term goal is one-on-one defence, a big concern for a county that is never short of an attacking half-back but not always over-endowed with lockdown inside backs.

The news that Jack Coyne wasn’t going to take part could have been seen as the loss of the first option to shut down the opposition’s star attacker, and there’s no doubt that Daire Cregg’s goal might not have happened if the Ballyhaunis player was picking him up.

Nonetheless it was notable that while Roscommon shot eight first-half wides, five of those were from long deliveries where the ball outran the intended receiver. That doesn’t happen if the target player gets separation from his man. In that case the ball can be kicked to him instead of into space for him to run onto, but without that long-ball connection, Roscommon were starved of chances.

Medium term goals would centre around player development. Ryan O’Donoghue continues to add more and more playmaking to his already-impressive all-round game, Paddy Durcan’s 27 minute cameo was sprinkled with moments of real quality from the Castlebar man who will effectively be a new player this year, while Enda Hession and Cathal Keaveney burst forward with intent and purpose. Rob Hennelly making two fine saves to deny Eoin Ward and Eoin Colleran is a step on the comeback journey for the Raheny club player too.

There was also commitment to the long-term future of Mayo football in the form of giving playing minutes to players that realistically shouldn’t be in the mix for significant championship playing time in 2026.

Tom Lydon, Darragh Beirne, Seamus Howard, John McMonagle, they all looked comfortable in this company even though Lydon and Beirne will likely be solely focused on the U20 championship in a few months. Howard and McMonagle operate in sectors where there is no way to survive without heft and power and it’s tough to have enough of that at 20 years of age when you’re playing Division One football. Even for talented players like them, 2026 is unlikely to be the year when they become regular features for a Mayo senior team.

Nonetheless, this game will aid their career progression and stand to them as they continue their development, while their inclusion confirms what everyone knew, which is that Andy Moran’s commitment is to the overall wellbeing of Mayo, rather than just maximising everything this year.

On a final note, the impending arrival of Mayo’s league game in Salthill will ensure that next Sunday’s tie in Tuam Stadium will be a bout of shadow boxing.

That’s not to say that it will be pointless. It will serve as a chance for both managers to give more game time to players that they don’t expect to use extensively in Pearse Stadium and a few players might step up and deliver performances that force the hand of Moran, or Pádraic Joyce.

However, neither gaffer will want to show their hand in the game that will be forgotten about by May, so that made it all the more important for the shell of Mayo’s first team to put in a strong showing in the Hyde, which they did.

Leaving their opponents shell-shocked into the bargain was the cherry on top.