Green and Red to stay on course for Croker visit
Mayo’s Luke Connor and Armagh’s Alex O’Boyle during this season's league clash. Picture: David Farrell Photography
After a Bank Holiday weekend free of gametime for the Mayo senior hurlers, they are back out on the field for what will be a crucial Nicky Rackard Cup encounter against Armagh next Saturday afternoon in Castlebar.
It won’t be the first time that these the two teams have crossed paths in MacHale Park this year, as they did so at the beginning of February in Round 2 of the Allianz Hurling League. A close contest was expected against the physical Orchard men and despite registering double the amount of scores than the visitors in the first-half, Mayo still led only by four at half-time after conceding a penalty just before the turnaround.
On the day, however, Mayo’s defence was in top form and kept Armagh totally scoreless from play in the second-half as they ran 1-18 to 2-7 winners.
The league would ultimately prove to be a fruitful one under the management of Ray Larkin and Brian Finn as Mayo won all of their games in the league phase and then beat Sligo in MacHale Park to win the Division 3A title.
Expectations were high coming into the championship and so it was that Mayo overcame Monaghan 4-24 to 2-8 in the opening round. However, the Green and Red looked out-of-sorts when beaten 0-21 to 0-14 by last year’s Nicky Rackard Cup runners-up Donegal in O’Donnell Park, Letterkenny.
It can be argued that it was the first time since last season that Mayo had encountered an opponent of the quality of Donegal, who were operating in Allianz Hurling League Division 2B, and after the game Brian Finn admitted as much.
“It was probably a wake-up for us. We haven’t played, probably, at that level so far this year, so a lot of learnings from it.” That said, Mayo did themselves no favours. Delivery into the attack was poor and it resulted in only an eight-point return from the six forwards, with goalkeeper Bobby Douglas the team’s top scorer on the day with four points.
The Green and Red bounced back emphatically, however, with a 14-point win away to Louth, where the forwards on this occasion more than made up for their profligacy in Letterkenny as between them they hit 3-13 of the team’s 3-22 tally. But whether they have learned much from that game is hard to tell given they shelled out a similar hammering in the league phase to the Wee County.
A much stiffer test will come from Armagh, who are looking for a second win in the championship after beating Louth in Round 2, albeit it was only by a single point. They were also beaten by seven points in Round 1 against Donegal and lost by the bare minimum against Roscommon in Round 3, so the suspicion is that Mayo – if performing somewhere close to their optimum – should be too strong for the guests on Saturday.
There will also be one eye on the encounter between Roscommon and Donegal in Dr Hyde Park in what is a battle between the two sides who can still boast 100% records in this year’s Nicky Rackard Cup. Donegal will be expected to beat the Shannonsiders though, which would mean that if Mayo do see off Armagh, then their final round tie with Roscommon would effectively act as a playoff to decide who joins Donegal in the decider next month in Croke Park.
Mayo must fulfil their part of the deal first and should they keep Armagh dangerman Alex O’Boyle at bay, they’ll have gone a long way to getting the better of the Ulster side’s challenge.
Verdict: Mayo
