Rovers give dazzling display for the cameras

I’ve been back and over the country in the last few weeks, always on the wrong side. East when I should have been west, west when I should have been east. You know the feeling, the feet out of step. Anyway, east side, I watched my local side Belmullet take on Crossmolina on TG4 on Sunday. It felt strange, seeing Nephin in the background, familiar houses across the road from St Tiernan’s Park, a ground I happened to attend on its official opening in June 1970, when Mayo played Down. Tempus fugit, 55 years ago this year.

My heart was with Belmullet and the hopes were high. Two good results in the group stage and an unlucky loss to Breaffy. But then Breaffy did a Mayo on it against Westport the day before and that refocused my mind on the real money that Crossmolina are. Double All-Ireland champions has to mean something, once at senior, another at intermediate. A calling card of sorts. Home ground, depth and blend of youth and the experience of Conor Loftus and Jordan Flynn.

For me the game was essentially a bloodless win for Crossmolina. True, Belmullet fought hard and showed guts but Crossmolina, like a clever boxer, kept them at arm’s length throughout, with scores coming regularly and from all angles.

Loftus was the libero at six and for the first 20 minutes he dictated the play. Setting up scores, nailing a two pointer and managing the back line, the lad showed what Kevin McStay envisaged a number of years ago.

We had the old and the young meeting on the same pitch. The peerless and wonderful Shane Nallen, I recall him as the Mayo minor goalkeeper in the 2005 All-Ireland final. On Sunday he was doing what he has consistently done for twenty seasons, turning in an eight out of ten performance. Chris Barrett and Pearse Hanley were on that same Mayo team, both now retired but Shane performs timelessly. The young came in the form of Kobe McDonald, not even born when Shane was playing that Croke Park final.

Sometimes it happens in front of you and you know it’s special, be it a moment or a person. McDonald Jnr has all the advantages and all the disadvantages that a promising player needs or can do without. A famous parent, an icon, an enigma that Ciarán McDonald himself was. What a billing to live up to.

No stranger to many in Mayo but not known nationally, this week Kobe McDonald has started that climb to greatness. No, he’s not a David Clifford, nor indeed a clone of his father, but has a different skillset, with an ability to get on the ball, get rid of the ball and be in the right place at the right time. That will do for now. Scoring when it mattered, early and at key moments, running onto a beautiful dinked Loftus pass and giving it the coup de grâce it deserved, Kobe showed he belonged.

The trick, not for Crossmolina but for Mayo and we supporters, is to manage our expectations for the boy. And boy he is. Too young to be interviewed for TG4 on receipt of his Man of the Match award, Kobe had school to attend to the next morning. What a wonderful way to live your life. Let the body grow, leave him to mature at his own pace, use him as a team player not a saviour; God knows we’ve had enough false prophets in Mayo. Let’s let the boy breathe but acknowledge we just might have a gem on our hands.

Jordan Flynn looked fresh. After the All-Ireland U20 final loss to Kildare in 2018, here in the Western People I asked for patience and understanding for the young man. We all need an arm around the shoulder at times, not a kick when on the ground. Flynn has matured into a leader. Next year on the Mayo senior team maybe leave him in for the throw up… it’s time to empower the next generation of county leaders. Also give Loftus another run. Dublin’s Denis Bastick was 28 before he made his championship debut for the Dubs. Loftus has more experience than Denis had at that stage, time to unleash it now.

And Belmullet? I’m disappointed. Not for me, at 73 I’m long over that type of pain. but I’m disappointed for them. They never fired from the start and the annoying thing is that they have the ammunition to do it but somehow or other, on Sunday it was damp. Ryan O’Donoghue was too far up to get serviced properly in those early stages. Beyond the peerless Loftus and in no man’s land, Belmullet’s talisman couldn’t get the hand on the tiller. Not his fault nor his team’s. Crossmolina’s game-plan played out to perfection. It just wasn’t Belmullet’s day.

Finally, and it’s just my own bug bear, TG4 came to town. Their coverage and reporting was, as always, excellent. It’s a pity though that we in Mayo hadn’t a single player, official or commentator to join in and speak Irish. I know full well that many involved or attached to Belmullet are fluent in the tongue. It would have been nice to see it heard. On Saturday in Dublin city centre over 25,000 people marched on behalf of our teanga naisúnta. It would have been fitting to hear it on TG4 bearing in mind its visit to the Erris border.

Best wishes, good health and recovery to my great friend Henry ‘Henny’ Keane from Tarmon Hill, Fálmòr – my own area. Henny is representative of many Erris people who travel the length and breadth of the country following club and county.