Durcan as much a victim of the system as downright bad luck

It’s both interesting and strange sometimes to see how differently results can be interpreted.

Kerry beat Monaghan by 10 points (0-24 to 1-11) in Killarney last Saturday and it’s said that the ‘efficient’ Kingdom ‘embellished their All-Ireland credentials’.

Mayo beat Cavan (who, it should be said, also beat Monaghan by six points in Clones in the Ulster SFC) by nine points (0-20 to 1-8) and words like ‘hesitance’ and ‘reluctance’ were used in reporting how the Green and Red got the job done in Castlebar.

And while, even in these pages and others, the current difficulties that Mayo have in scoring goals were again highlighted, the Irish Examiner suggests that Kerry’s failure to raise a green flag since St Patrick’s Day, having now drawn blanks against Galway, Cork, Clare and Monaghan, might be considered as nothing more than ‘stockpiling’.

All of the above might be utterly true of course, but that Kerry can win this year’s All-Ireland SFC and Mayo cannot is fiction. And if you’re not sure of the difference between fact and fiction, try the following statement for size: Mayo can win this year’s All-Ireland SFC with Paddy Durcan at the heart of the defence. First part fact (theoretically, I’ll grant you that), second part fiction.

The press release issued by Mayo GAA last Monday confirmed, if not in word then by association, that team captain Durcan had played his last football this year. There’s no quick fix to a cruciate ligament injury. Every Mayo supporter’s worst fear had been realised.

“Paddy Durcan is an admired figure throughout the county. Mayo GAA would like to wish him all the very best in his recovery, in which he will be supported by our medical team,” said Mayo manager Kevin McStay.

“This is very disappointing news for Paddy and for everyone involved in Mayo GAA. He is a valued player who also exhibits outstanding leadership capabilities. We will all support and rally around him in his recovery,” assured McStay who added: “Paddy will remain our captain and a vital member of our squad, where he will continue to lead and inspire us. We look forward to his return to the playing field.” 

I won’t lie, the circumstances surrounding how Paddy Durcan sustained his injury have been bothering me ever since that damned 75th minute of Saturday’s victory over Cavan. Of course it was a freakish accident that no one could have foreseen or have wished to happen, but there is a part of me that believes the Mayo management, specifically whatever the systems or tactics they are asking the players to deploy on the pitch, has to take some responsibility for Durcan’s misfortune. And here’s why.

Paddy Durcan injured himself after soloing beyond halfway only to find not a single option in front of him whereby he could have passed to a teammate. It was in turning back in search of support that his leg jarred. The infuriating thing about it all is that Paddy had been released on his jaunt up the pitch as a result of Paul Towey catching a Hail Mary kick by Cavan towards the Mayo goal-mouth. Yes, Paul Towey, who 18 hours later was scoring 3-7 for Charlestown Sarsfields in their Mayo SFL Division 1A victory over Knockmore.

Mayo were nine points in front of a terrible Cavan team but rather than Towey receiving a message from management, when introducing him in the 62nd minute, to go ‘fill your boots’, as most corner-forwards would love to hear, he was instead back inside his own 13-metre line fielding ball, the upshot being that when Paddy Durcan, who himself was only on the pitch 15 minutes having recovered from a calf injury, lifted his head to see who he might deliver the ball inside to, the only thing he saw was empty space. He turned back and booked himself surgery.

But Towey playing catch was far from the only instance of Mayo players performing duties on Saturday that seem alien to compatriots from other ‘contending’ counties. There was a huge deal made about Damien Comer venturing to midfield on one occasion for Galway against Mayo in the Connacht final to catch a kick-out when last Saturday, in the lead up to Cavan’s second-half goal, it was our own corner-forward Ryan O’Donoghue who was all the way back in the parallelogram to block the initial shot by Conor Brady that span across to the eventual finisher James Smith. But then Mayo also had their other corner-forward – and oldest player on the pitch – Cillian O’Connor retreating inside the ’45 to provide an option for Colm Reape’s kick-outs (I'm yet to see David Clifford offer that service to Kerry) while at one point in the first-half, it was Mayo defenders David McBrien and Stephen Coen who were stood alongside O’Connor inside Cavan’s 13-metre line as a makeshift full-forward line. Yet we wonder about Mayo’s lack of goal chances.

Imagine if we only asked forwards to be forwards.