Mayo must compromise on chaos if wanting to be the best

Back in the slightly less darker days of January, this writer speculated that the annexation of a Connacht title and a place in the last four of the All-Ireland series would amount to a satisfactory championship summer for Mayo. A few readers believed I was being overly pessimistic, and when Mayo drew with Dublin in the Hyde ten days ago I started to wonder whether my assessment of this current iteration of the Green and Red was indeed a bit too downbeat.

That performance against the Dubs was unquestionably the best championship display since Kevin McStay took charge two years ago, but now that we have exited to Derry at the preliminary quarter-final stage, it looks more like a short-lived success and less like a statement victory.

Losing a lead to Dublin with the final play of the game was disappointing but there was more than enough in the preceding 70-plus minutes to offer the tantalising hope that this was a breakthrough moment in the manager’s reign. What needed to happen next, of course, was a victory in the next round, and even if we went out to the likes of a Kerry or Donegal at the quarter-final stage, we could take solace from the fact that that we were victims of this crazily-condensed championship format.

I have to admit I had a sinking feeling when we drew Derry last Monday morning because they were the toughest of the three available teams. A wounded group of players managed by one of the shrewdest coaches in the modern history of the GAA was never going to be a formality, even if some Mayo supporters bizarrely believed that Derry were just waiting to be put out of their misery. Yet I still thought we’d have enough, especially in MacHale Park, to lower the flag of the Division One League champions.

It is cold comfort to know that we lost in the agonising lottery that is a penalty shoot-out, especially as we should never have found ourselves in that position. Our failure to retain a two-point lead as the clock ticked down was a reprise of our Connacht Final display where we contrived to lose the game from an equally promising position. Kevin McStay alluded to our inability to close out tight games in his post-match interviews and it is obviously an area that will require some focus when the team regroups next winter. But it doesn’t look like something that is easily fixed and it is not a new phenomenon – Mayo have been leaving the front and back doors ajar for years now and have been robbed of a lot of priceless silverware as a result.

Kevin also mentioned that Mayo are not yet a “top, top team”, but you don’t need to be a “top, top team” to win your provincial championship against an injury-ravaged Galway. Nor do you need to be a “top, top team” to close out a game against a Derry side shorn of confidence, especially when you are presented with the chances (Sam Callinan’s fisted effort and Colm Reape’s free) to slam that door shut and apply the safety lock.

‘Chaos’ ‘Chaos’ is a word that has been bandied about quite a bit this summer to describe Mayo’s style of play. The ever-burgeoning army of pundits on RTÉ, GAAGO, podcasts, etc, seem to think that Mayo need to ‘bring a little chaos to the game’ if they are to have any chance of toppling the big boys.

It’s a word that is not particularly complimentary and you certainly don’t hear it used in reference to Kerry or Dublin. If I am being honest, I think it is a little disrespectful because it seems to imply that Mayo are frenetic and impulsive even when they are at their best. When James Horan became manager way back in 2010, he famously remarked that he wanted to ‘take the bullshit out of Mayo football’; maybe Kevin McStay now needs to take the chaos out of Mayo football. Chaos doesn’t win All-Ireland titles, that’s for sure, and we certainly need to strive for more consistent performances while not compromising on our innate ability to go toe-to-toe with some of the best teams.

In truth, Mayo’s tactics have, for the most part, been disappointing in 2024. Far from being chaotic, we have exhibited a tendency to be laborious and predictable when in possession, and Derry capitalised on that on several occasions last Saturday evening. In fact, the first play of the game involved Mayo engaging in a never-ending series of lateral hand-passes for the best part of two minutes before Tommy Conroy was swallowed up in a three-man tackle and dispossessed. It set the tone for the remainder of the half and it was no surprise that we came away with just three points, and only one from play (scored by a defender).

Our style of play has to change and we need to become more adventurous. The poor attendances at matches close to home – in MacHale Park and the Hyde – tell us what the Mayo faithful think of the ultra-cautious tactics that have seen our forwards score two goals from open play across seven championship matches (and one of those was against New York). The attendance on Saturday was just shy of 14,000, which is a far cry from 2019 when Donegal came to town at the same stage of the competition and there were 27,023 in attendance.

Football is supposed to be a form of entertainment not endurance, and coaches must appreciate that these games are nothing without a fully engaged audience – as we discovered during that entirely forgettable Covid championship of 2020.

Here in Mayo we also need to appreciate the history of our game and the style of football that has traditionally been associated with the Green and Red jersey. As far back as the 1930s, Mayo footballers were regarded as brilliant exponents of the game – so much so that they were picked by Kerry as the opposition for the opening of Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney in 1936. We shouldn’t let our recent history of losing All-Ireland finals diminish our enthusiasm for playing an expansive and entertaining style of football. Indeed, if our management team can find some sort of happy compromise between caution and chaos, maybe we will have a winning formula in 2025.

But there will be a lot of pressure next year. If a Connacht title was a reasonable expectation this year, it is – in my view – absolutely essential in 2025. We have only won two Connacht senior championships in the past nine seasons – a dismal record that is a throwback to the late 1970s/early 1980s era when Mayo football was deep in the doldrums. Provincial titles may not carry the same significance in this era of back-door championships but they still tend to offer a good pointer towards the outcome of the All-Ireland series. Three of the four teams who topped their groups this year were provincial champions and the fourth (Armagh) were beaten on penalties in the Ulster Final. Mayo need to get deadly serious about winning Connacht in 2025. Whether we like it or not, Galway looked like they wanted it more in those dying minutes of the decider in Salthill a few weeks ago.

As for the All-Ireland title? It seems as far away now as at any stage since 2011. One of our most valuable players this year was Aidan O’Shea, who will be 35 in 2025. He has been a remarkable servant, not least of all this summer, but time and tide wait for no man and we need to start planning for a Mayo team without his big presence. That will not be an easy task because he clearly exerts an enormously positive influence on this group. Hopefully, he can take his intercounty form into the Mayo club championship and win the county title he so richly deserves with Breaffy. And perhaps those club games will also unearth a few players who can enhance the county team next year.