Crushing defeat in the Kingdom for Mayo

National Hurling League Division 2 – Round 6 

Kerry 6-24 

Mayo 0-15 

Anthony Hennigan at Austin Stack Park, Tralee 

This isn’t how it was meant to be.

Only one team across all five divisions has a worse scoring difference than Mayo after six rounds of the National Hurling League. But given Down are in 1B coming up against the likes of Clare, Dublin and Wexford, you could probably forgive them for that.

Promotion has been as difficult for the Mourne men as it has been for Mayo, whose stint in Division 2 was all but confirmed as over last Sunday. A victory over Westmeath in the final round of matches would save the Green and Red from relegation but given the Lake County have lost just once in five and have already drawn with a Kerry side that had 27 points to spare over Mayo on Sunday, it’s a result that seems highly unlikely, particularly given that Westmeath retain a mathematical chance of reaching the Division 2 final.

Coupled with a 29 points defeat to Laois in the opening round and five games with just one league point to show, it’s been a difficult spring for Ray Larkin’s side. Very difficult.

That said, on the same weekend 12 months previous, it was Mayo who had 19 points to spare in a league game against a Roscommon side that would bounce back and beat them in the final of the Nicky Rackard Cup at Croke Park. The league is the league, as that terrible saying goes.

Still, a conversation for some other day is that 20 years ago Mayo lost a Division 2 semi-final by one point to a Kerry side that would acquit itself well against Dublin in the final. The following year Dublin finished above Limerick and Antrim in the Division 1 table. Mayo, meanwhile, have now lost five consecutive league games to the Kingdom, the last three by a combined total of 62 points.

This latest mismatch saw three goals between the 13th and 16th minutes help Kerry into a fifteen points lead before the opening quarter had even been finalised. Full-forward Oisin Maunsell scored the first and set up the second for Michael Slattery who set up the third for Gavin Dooley, an early substitute for an injured Jordan Conway who already had a point to his name. Just imagine if Conway had remained on the field; he’s one of Kerry’s most deadly attackers. As it was, his replacement Dooley struck 2-2 before replaced himself with still fifteen minutes of the game left to play. A case of the haves and the have nots if ever there was.

Mayo were already 3-9 to 0-3 behind, their points coming from placed balls by Cormac Phillips and Shane Boland either side of one from play by Ryan Duffy.

Phillips is the only Ballyhaunis player featuring for Mayo at present, a glaring dynamic – given his club has pushed Tooreen right to the wire in each of the past two Mayo SHC finals – but for which there are some mitigating factors. But not even the imports with Mayo lineage from Kinvara, Ballygar and Loughrea in Galway, or Granagh-Ballingarry in Limerick, along with Tooreen’s septet, were any match for Kerry on this occasion.

Centre-forward Colin Walsh slammed home a fourth Kerry goal in the 33rd minute and coupled with his pair of first-half points and those by Ronan Walsh, four frees, Oisin Maunsell, four, Gavin Dooley, two, Michael Leane, a gorgeous effort by the wing-back from 80 metres, Michael Slattery, Tom Doyle and Kyle O’Connor, the hosts were 24 points ahead by half-time, 4-17 to 0-5.

With that in mind, the second-half might be seen as something of a small triumph for Mayo considering the margin between the teams had only been increased by three points come full-time. And yet things had got worse for the visitors before they got better, with Dooley drilling home another 1-1 inside three minutes of the restart.

Shane Boland and Cormac Phillips, a free, struck over Mayo’s opening two points of the second-half but Tom Doyle’s second point of the game left Kerry 5-19 to 0-7 in front after 40 minutes.

Mayo, who are operating a championship tier below Kerry and two tiers below some of the other counties in Division 2, did rally somewhat and actually scored six of the game’s next seven points between the 41st and 55th minutes. Midfielder Daniel Huane added one to the pair he had scored during the game’s second quarter while Phillips was on target twice from play and Shane Boland twice from frees and once from play.

The latter duo pointed seven times from placed balls throughout the course of the contest but Kerry had an excellent free-taker of their own in midfielder Ronan Walsh who finished the game with six points. Oisin Maunsell, who was a real handful throughout for Mayo full-back Oisin Ivers, would also end the game with six points, except five of those were from play, while he also added a late second goal to the one he had scored in the first-half, as the Mayo defence yet again parted far too easily.

Cormac Phillips, from a ’65 and a free, picked off Mayo’s final points but Kerry substitutes Jack Sheehan and Daniel Casey negated those to become their side’s tenth and eleventh scorers of the afternoon, with Casey thwarted by Mayo goalkeeper Bobby Douglas in his attempt to net the hosts a seventh goal before full-time.

Mayo are next in action on Saturday, March 21 when they host Westmeath at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park. Throw in is at 1pm. Kerry will look to secure a win – and a divisional final berth – when they visit Trim to play Meath on the same day.

Scorers – Kerry: Oisin Maunsell 2-6 (0-1f), Gavin Dooley 2-2, Ronan Walsh 0-6f, Colin Walsh 1-2, Michael Slattery 1-1, Tom Doyle 0-2, Michael Leane, Jordan Conway, Kyle O’Connor, Jack Sheehan and Daniel Casey 0-1 each.

Mayo: Cormac Phillips 0-6 (3f, 1 ’65), Shane Boland 0-5 (3f), Daniel Huane 0-3, Ryan Duffy 0-1.

Kerry: Diarmuid Quirke; Eric Leen, Sean McGrath, Seamie Foran; James O’Connor, Kyle O’Connor, Michael Leane; Kevin Goulding, Ronan Walsh; Tom Doyle, Colin Walsh, Jordan Brick; Michael Slattery, Oisin Maunsell, Jordan Conway. Subs: Gavin Dooley (for Conway 10, inj), Keith Carmody (for Goulding ht), Daniel Casey (for Brick 41), Adam Segal (for R Walsh 46-48, temp), Dara Kearney (for Leen 51), Jack Sheehan (for Dooley 54).

Mayo: Bobby Douglas; Michael Gallagher, Oisin Ivers, Connor Murray; Shane O’Brien, David Kenny, Ryan Duffy; Oisin Greally, Daniel Huane; Eoin Delaney, Cormac Phillips, Sean Kenny; Corey Scahill, Paudie Murphy, Shane Boland. Subs: Anthony Rowland (for Gallagher 26), Joseph Burke (for Murray ht), Brendan Sheridan (for S Kenny 46), Fionan Burke (for Duffy 50, inj), John Heraty (for Murphy 59).

REF: Nicholas O’Toole (Waterford)