Mayo found badly wanting when it mattered most

He did not mean it disrespectfully, because he is not that type of fella, but when Mark Dowd said afterwards his team would need to be ready for ‘tougher challenges’ down the line, it told you plenty about what we had just witnessed in MacHale Park.

No matter how Dowd viewed this clash in advance, that was surely not something he expected to be saying afterwards.

The winners were a remarkable 7/2 outsiders on the day – crazy odds. But I don’t think anyone looking at this game in advance reckoned on just how good Roscommon were going to be. And just how awful Mayo were going to be.

Ten points by no means flattered the winners and, early in the second-half, a comfortable victory already looked inevitable.

They were gliding across the ground. They were ravenous for dirty ball. They were clever with their movement, particularly on kick-outs and also with their defensive setup. And they were ruthless in front of the posts.

They did all of this without Daire Cregg, who many would have considered their best forward before the weekend. Diarmuid Murtagh and Enda Smith might want a word about that now.

They also did it minus a flotilla of St Brigid’s players, particularly Brian Stack, Ruairí Fallon and Ben O’Carroll.

They are potentially All-Ireland contenders now. Their challenge is to bring consistency and win the games where they are favourites and where there is expectation, something recently retired forward Donie Smith highlighted as a major Achilles heel this week.

Where their season takes them is full of possibilities because this is the best Roscommon team this writer has seen, or, certainly, the best display from them.

But it takes two to tango, and for all that was good about Roscommon, Mayo were dreadful. If it was the best I’ve seen from Roscommon, it was among the worst from Mayo.

Losing this game was always a distinct possibility, but I am not sure anyone saw Mayo being this abject.

Whatever about the first-half, Mayo’s second-half performance was a capitulation. When Mayo went behind, that was when the need for players to stand up was at its greatest yet time and time again, when it came to kickouts and any 50-50 battles, it was invariably a primrose and blue jersey that came up with the size 5.

When Mayo should have been pressing the Roscommon kickout to within an inch of its life, Conor Carroll was able to get short kickouts off, find players in space and, if it came to it, when he had to go long to a contest, Roscommon either caught it clean or pounced on the break.

While there was a serious shot of adrenaline coursing through the veins of the Roscommon players, something in the psyche of the Mayo players waved a white flag long before the game was gone from them.

Mayo have had trouble with kickouts and winning primary possession in recent years but never in any of those games did we see them so devoid of the stomach needed for that battle. It is a lot easier for those of us watching from the margins to be critical but one thing that was hard to criticise Mayo about for the decade of All-Ireland finals was heart.

Sure, some lazy analysis talked about ‘bottling’ but that was a group who arguably overachieved and were, ultimately, short in quality compared to the likes of Dublin.

But they died with their boots on and you were proud of how they personified the song – stout-hearted men from the county Mayo.

It pains me to say it but the lack of heart on Sunday was so galling. That should never happen to a Mayo team. It was embarrassing – and particularly for the players themselves.

This is usually the stage where people say we will now see what they are made of. But this was such a chastening defeat and revealed so many problems that it can really be a very damaging result.

Andy Moran bristled at a question afterwards if this was potentially a generational defeat. Time will tell but while much of the criticism afterwards has been shot in his direction and he has ultimate responsibility, it is the players who need to atone just as much, if not more.

Moran seemed to be caught by surprise by how good Roscommon were on their kickout but Mayo have never been strong enough on primary possession in recent years to be anything but wary.

There were warning signs about our defence in the league but little changed in Mayo’s approach on Sunday. Big decisions now need to be made all over the field.

But above and beyond all of that was how little fight Mayo brought.

Very few players can stand tall after this and it is telling that Mayo’s best player, by some distance, was an 18-year-old debutant.

Kobe McDonald was excellent and shouldered far more responsibility than a newbie should. But he had to.

Conor Loftus was excellent in the first-half but, Moran acknowledged, tired after half-time considering he is only back from injury.

Two or three more did well at times but so many players fell below the required standard.

Much of the ire has focused on older players Moran once lined out alongside — Rob Hennelly, Aidan O'Shea and Cillian O'Connor among them.

There is merit in the discussion around the performances of the two starters in particular, Hennelly and O’Shea. Roscommon scored 1-11 off Mayo’s kickouts and that is often too easy to fire in the direction of the goalkeeper. But 1-1 in the first-half off two poor short kick-outs was pivotal in Roscommon getting footholds in this game and in sensing blood in terms of how vulnerable Mayo were to a press on the kickout, which they demonstrated to chilling effect in the third quarter (where they outscored Mayo 0-12 to 0-4).

But when performance levels across the board, from all age brackets bar a teenager, are so bad, it is hard to narrow the focus into one key area.

Perhaps we are reaping what we didn’t sow at underage. It is worth pointing out that across the current Mayo group aged roughly 22 to 29, the county won only one Connacht minor and one Connacht under-20 title in their era.

That amounts to just one minor crown from 2015 to 2021 and one under-20 from 2017 to 2024. So perhaps the raw materials are not great and utilising older, experienced players is understandable. Add in the fact we have been struggling, as a county at all grades, to produce enough top-end midfielders, and there is deeper introspection needed.

But after Sunday, all bets are off.

Because whatever about quality, there is a certain base standard for Mayo footballers in terms of attitude and application and too many Mayo players fell way short of that. And no matter what their age, they need to be looking very nervously over their shoulder now ahead of selection for Mayo’s next game in four to five weeks’ time.

Mayo have lost home advantage for the opening round of the newly structured All-Ireland championship but the fear is the nature of the defeat means that could be the least of their worries.

Mayo have four or five weeks to respond, but the first real test of character came against Roscommon – and Mayo failed it badly.