Mayo fancied to lift crown at neighbours’ expense
There'll be a quick renewal of rivalries between Mayo’s Shane Boland and Sligo’s Niall Feehily as the teams meet on Sunday in the final of Allianz Hurling League Division 3A. Picture: David Farrell Photography
Mayo will hope that home comforts continue as they look to win the Division 3A title when they face Connacht rivals Sligo for the second time in three weeks on Easter Sunday.
While national finals at senior inter-county level are normally reserved for Croke Park, whomever topped Division 3A at the end of the group phase were destined to have home advantage for the final, which Mayo secured after beating the Yeats County in Kent Park a fortnight ago.
Remarkably, this would not be the first time that Mayo and Sligo have contested a Division 3 hurling final at MacHale Park, doing so some 21 years ago when the Green and Red emerged victorious. But there have been other finals too; the 1934 National Football League final between Mayo and Dublin was held there, which ended in a draw, 2-3 to 1-6, in front of 8,000 fans before Mayo won the replay in Croke Park 2-4 to 1-5, the first of six consecutive league titles for Mayo.
Going back further, the first inter-county match played at the ground was between these two counties in the 1931 National Football League, Mayo also victorious on a 0-7 to 0-2 scoreline.
Most definitely, those scorelines will not be replicated against the two highest scoring sides in this year’s Division 3A. Sligo have a slightly better record than Mayo in the scoring stats, their tally of 13-87 (126) edging out Mayo’s 10-95 (125). Their big danger man is Gerard O’Kelly Lynch, who struck 3-41 across the league, including 0-12 in their semi-final win over Cavan.
But the meanest defence in the league has undoubtedly been Mayo’s, conceding only 3-56 (65) across five games compared to Sligo’s 10-82 (112). Sligo also conceded 1-14 in the semi-final against Cavan, meaning Sligo have conceded goals across all six games played this year.
From Brian Finn and Ray Larkin’s perspective, they will be delighted with how things have gone since being appointed as Mayo’s joint managers last year, in particular from a defensive standpoint. Their Tooreen clubmate, Mayo captain David Kenny has marshalled a stubborn backline that is ably supported by young stars like Conal Hession and Luke Connor as well as Oisin Greally, Eoghan Collins and Danny Hill.
The dominant club duo of Tooreen and Ballyhaunis make up a large chunk of the panel but junior clubs like Caiseal Gaels and Moytura also feature, with the Moytura pairing John Heraty and Joseph Burke having made a big impact.
Up front, Adrian and Cormac Phillps, Liam Lavin, Eoin Delaney and Michael Farrell provide the firepower while the return of the talismanic Shane Boland is a major boost after missing the first three games while he was away in Australia.
Even though they have put up impressive tallies across their five games, there is still room for improvement across the team in front of the posts. There have been high wide counts against Armagh (17), Monaghan (11) and Cavan (14) and they know if a similar tally is posted in the final, Sligo will punish them.
That was almost the case a fortnight ago when Mayo hit six in the first-half and another four efforts drop short, albeit into a strong crosswind. But the Green and Red rallied brilliantly in the second-half to win out 2-12 to 0-14, having scored only three points in the first.
Should they find that level of performance like they did in Kent Park and across the league campaign as a whole, then Mayo should have too much for the Black and White.
