No secrets just hard work as Coen and comrades get back on track

He had been just about the only bright spark on an otherwise dour day for Mayo football the fortnight before. As long as the odds were on Cavan beating the Green and Red in the opening round of the All-Ireland SFC, the odds of Stephen Coen scoring four points from play would have been multiples of that. But such is the unpredictability of Mayo football, on Saturday it was the Green and Red who were overturning the odds and Coen’s fellow defenders, Rory Brickenden and Jason Coyne, scoring their first-ever championship points. Tyrone just didn’t know what had hit them.

“I’m delighted that we’ve put in a good performance,” said Coen rather understatedly, following Mayo’s very impressive 2-17 to 1-13 victory in Omagh.

That Mayo had beaten the Red Hands shouldn’t be that much of a surprise – the county has won five of the seven championship matches between them – but forget about tradition, the backdrop to this fixture was of two teams showing wildly different form. Where Mayo were arguably fortunate to have only lost by three points at home to the Breffni minnows, and where poor health had since caused their manager Kevin McStay to stand aside, and where the GAA president had felt it necessary to visit an embattled county board, Tyrone had flattened arch rivals Donegal. Saturday, for Malachy O’Rourke’s side, was meant to be straightforward. But nobody had told Mayo.

Whatever questions had been thrown at the team, none were as hard as the questions the players had asked of themselves, assured Stephen Coen.

“We’re a united group and we’ve worked pretty hard in the last two weeks, as we have all season, so we bore the fruits of that today.

“Cavan brought energy to the last game and they deserved to beat us. We brought it today and we deserved our win. If teams want to be consistent, that means no one can be consistent. That’s just what happened today.

“Our effort around the breaking ball was excellent today. We didn’t win as many in the Cavan game. That’s a very tangible statistic,” added the Hollymount-Carramore man who suggested all of Mayo’s key stats would also have improved on their previous performance.

Nor was Coen willing to put all that down to the two-week break they had leading into last Saturday evening’s game.

“We had a two week break ahead of Cavan as well,” he remarked quickly. “I don’t want to disrespect Cavan and their win. They deserved their win.

“There’s a lot of really good teams out there and everyone fancies that they can beat each other. All we’re focusing on is hard work and pushing on at every training session and getting better,” the Hollymount-Carramore man added.

“Every team is good from now on and we just have to focus every two weeks, push on, push on, work for each other and we’ll be aiming to get two points [against Donegal] if we can.” 

After his exploits of the previous game, Stephen Coen had just the one shot at the Tyrone posts, and that sailed wide during a spell shortly after half-time that saw the home side outscore Mayo by 1-6 to 0-2 to move to within one point after 55 minutes. But the Green and Red steadied the ship impressively, with newcomers Sean Morahan, Conal Dawson and Bob Tuohy, who all started, and substitutes Davitt Neary and Fenton Kelly, whose grandfather had passed during the week, all playing crucial roles.

“Look, they earned their spot. We’ve a very competitive group and it’s very tight to see who gets picked. Everyone’s deserving. The most important thing is everyone’s attitude when they come off the bench as well” insisted Stephen Coen.

“We’ve seen it all year, there’s breezes, there’s winds, there’s two-pointers, it changes the momentum. Every team has purple patches and it’s how you navigate through it. Thankfully we did that today so onwards and upwards now for two weeks,” said Coen who reserved a mention for Kevin McStay.

“We’re very united and we’ve a very tight circle and Kevin is an equal part in that. We’re working hard for each other all the time so I’m just happy to get the win.”