League campaign is a tale of two halves

If the Mayo senior footballers go on to enjoy a successful 2025, the half-time team-talk against Armagh on February 22nd will be viewed as the decisive turning point.

The change in Mayo’s fortunes since that blistering second-half display against the All-Ireland champions is quite remarkable, propelling the team from relegation fodder to title contenders.

Before reflecting on the latest league victory over Derry, it is worth recapping briefly on the bleak circumstances facing the Mayo footballers as they walked off the field at half-time in the Athletic Grounds in Armagh on that Saturday evening.

The visitors were eight points in arrears after being completely outplayed in a first-half that saw them score just three points in the first 30 minute and five in total. The dismal scoring record was in keeping with their form in the league up to that point. Despite the rule changes and, in particular, the introduction of the two-pointer, Mayo had averaged fewer points in their first three games in 2025 than in the league campaign in 2024. Victory over Tyrone in MacHale Park had been achieved against a backdrop of ultra-cautious, lateral football that saw Mayo score just four points in the opening half. The Armagh game was following an almost identical pattern, except this time Mayo were playing a team that could punish them and had done so again and again in that first-half to lead by 1-10 to 0-5. Mayo looked doomed for the drop.

And then it all changed in that second half as the men in Green and Red suddenly re-discovered their attacking flair and struck 1-12 to almost snatch the game from Armagh before settling for a draw. Wins over Kerry and Derry have followed to leave Mayo with seven league points and the possibility of a place in the final on the last weekend in March.

The team’s scoring average has soared from 15.3 points in the first three league games to 22 points in the games against Armagh, Kerry and Derry. In fact, Mayo have scored more in their last three games than Galway who were widely acknowledged as the form team in the opening rounds of the league – and certainly delivered an exhibition in score-taking on their visit to MacHale Park in early February.

The transformation in Mayo’s fortunes is perhaps best exemplified in the displays of Mattie Ruane and Ryan O’Donoghue, two players who had struggled for form in the early league encounters. Ruane’s six-point haul last Saturday was one of the finest displays by a Mayo midfielder in a long number of years. Each point was better than the next and the Breaffy man’s ability to find the necessary space to kick such a variety of scores was just a joy to watch.

O’Donoghue has also experienced a complete turnaround in his early-season form and is now back to his very best. He had a point on the board within 20 seconds of the throw-in last Sunday and remained a constant thorn in the Derry side, roaming at will between the half-forward and full-forward lines and always playing with his head up. Like all forwards, O’Donoghue will be judged by the scores he puts on the board but the Belmullet man offers so much more as a creative force. A wonderfully intelligent footballer, he links the play so well and contributes enormously to every facet of Mayo’s attacking play.

The most encouraging aspect of Mayo’s performance last Sunday was the fluid, attacking football that resulted in eight different scorers, including five of the six starting forwards. The football of the past two and a half games is in sharp contrast to the laboured, lateral keep-ball that was such an unattractive characteristic of the opening league fixtures. The attendance of fewer than 10,000 at MacHale Park for the game against Tyrone was illustrative of the public attitude to Mayo’s early league form. Supporters, who have been with this team through thick and thin, want to be entertained, and while nobody expects management to compromise on defensive necessities, there has to be a balance struck between retaining possession and risk-taking. Fortunately, Mayo are now playing with more freedom and the scores have started to flow again.

The Connacht men didn’t have it all their own way against Derry and had to battle hard for the lead in the first half, having conceded a goal after just four minutes. In fact, it wasn’t until Jordan Flynn’s stoppage time goal that Mayo regained the lead they had lost with the concession of the Derry goal. But there were positive signs from the likes of Ruane and O’Donoghue as Mayo struck 11 points up to the 35th minute, just one fewer than their total against Tyrone.

The role of O’Donoghue in Mayo’s opening goal should not be underestimated. He turned over a Derry attack at midfield and set Mayo moving in the opposite direction, culminating in Flynn rifling a fantastic shot to the net to leave the half-time score at 1-11 to 1-8 in Mayo’s favour.

The rule changes have certainly had the desired effect of improving the quality of Gaelic football – although that wouldn’t have been hard – but it seems inevitable that there will be major controversies around their implementation once the championship kicks off. The hope is that we will avoid a situation where a major championship game will be decided by an incorrect or subjective interpretation of the rules. There have been times in this league campaign when many supporters have been quite bewildered by what is unfolding in front of them and some referees and linesmen seem pretty confused too.

It is understandable that this would happen when there has been such a raft of changes but the expectation that these issues would all be resolved by the end of the league has proved to be overly optimistic. The league ends for most counties next weekend but few of them would profess to having mastered the new rule book, as evidenced by another three-on-three breach by Mayo in the opening half on Sunday.

Next weekend’s final game against Donegal will be a strange affair and could be played out between two experimental sides. The Donegal manager Jim McGuinness has denied that he will forego a place in the Division One decider in order to focus on the bigger prize of the Ulster Championship, which kicks off a week after the league final. Nobody is being fooled though and McGuinness should not have to apologise for an issue that is ultimately caused by the compressing of two competitions in a six-month window.

Mayo are in the curious position next weekend where they could (mathematically, at least) be relegated or end up in the league final. It’s debatable whether Kevin McStay wants to be competing for a league title either. He knows only too well what happened two years ago when Mayo won Division One of the league only to crash out to Roscommon in the championship a week later.

However, the fact that we are even contemplating a league final involving Mayo is an indication of just how far this team has travelled since that half-time interval against Armagh when it looked as if 2025 would be a year to forget for the county’s senior footballers. The return to form of so many key players augurs well for a provincial championship campaign that sees Mayo and Galway on opposite sides of the draw. The Tribesmen are still many people’s favourites for Sam Maguire but Mayo have certainly put themselves back into the chasing pack and will be a tough opponent for any team if they continue to produce the excellent free-scoring displays of recent weeks.