O'Donoghue flair masks forward line flaws

There wasn't a whole lot wrong with Ryan O'Donoghue's missed penalty in Mayo's frustrating shootout with Derry. It could've been hit a little further away from the middle of the goal and it could've been hit a little lower. By and large though, any penalty that is hit with power under pressure, and is ultimately on target, remains a solid effort. Unfortunately for Mayo's best performer this season, Derry goalkeeper Odhran Lynch went all-in and dived to his right. The gamble paid off.

The anguish was written all over the forward's body language. It was Mayo's second miss, and from there the writing was on the wall. O’Donoghue clasped his hands around the back of his neck before turning to make the long walk back to the middle of the field, tilting his head gently to the sky as if to question the motives of the footballing gods above. Of all players, he certainly didn't deserve such a cruel fate following a season that saw him carry his county on his shoulders like Titan.

Every year has injustices, but none of those year's will likely come close to O'Donoghue's last action of the 2024 season. It proved that there is truly no such thing as a fait accompli in sport.

While Mayo's season came to a premature end, it was through no fault of the Belmullet sharpshooter. The end of the county’s season may indeed have come sooner again if it wasn't for the services of the team's go-to scorer. In Mayo's first outing of the championship in New York, the side ran out 15-point victors over their hosts. O'Donoghue scored 1-13 on that day in the Bronx. That remained a persistent trend during the championship, O'Donoghue always offering a get out of jail free card when needed.

It goes without saying that Mayo would be well served with support for O'Donoghue in the full-forward line. The county cannot expect to progress if he's continuously asked to fight fires on his own. This, of course, isn't a new issue.

Mayo football has been looking for ways to address shortcomings in attack since white lines were first painted around a field. And while O'Donoghue has stepped in as a saviour of sorts, there's an argument to be made that corner-forward perhaps isn't even his best position. Coming up through the underage ranks, he pulled the strings from centre-half-forward. But needs must and, with Mayo seemingly starved of options nearer the goal, O'Donoghue has been happily filling in the gaps with remarkable efficiency in recent years.

If a gaping hole appeared in the full-back line, you wouldn’t bet against the uber-driven Belmullet man, who dabbled in a variety of sports to a high level growing up, plugging the hole there, too. He’s that type of mercurial and versatile talent.

The 25-year-old has already sealed his status as one of the great Mayo forwards, comfortably fitting into a bracket along with names like Joe Corcoran, Padraig Carney, Ciarán McDonald, Andy Moran, Cillian O’Connor and Willie Joe Padden. That the Belmullet man has just completed his fourth season as a senior intercounty player is perhaps overlooked given his importance in the current set-up. He has scored over 43% of Mayo’s overall tally in this year's championship. His individual tally of 3-48 also makes him the championship’s top scorer and though Mayo failed to reach the last eight, it will take an immense effort for any of the chasing pack to catch him over the coming weeks. If the All Stars were reflective of performances across an entire season, and not just the final rounds of the championship, O’Donoghue would've been nailed on to be receiving a statuette in the autumn.

For all O’Donoghue’s exploits in front of the posts though, the lack of a consistent supporting cast has continued to scupper Mayo’s attempts to win an All-Ireland title. So with another season over, the annual hunt for natural forwards has begun once again, as has been the case after every championship exit for as long as we care to remember.

In the aftermath of the 2021 All-Ireland defeat to Tyrone, current Mayo manager Kevin McStay addressed the paucity of elite forwards Mayo have produced throughout the years.

“Why have we not gone about fixing the absence of elite Mayo forwards over the past 30 years,” he asked in his Irish Times column as the defeat was still fresh in the mind.

“It surely has to start down at academy level where we begin to produce and coach specific types of forwards rather than just another fine all round player who often gravitates into defence and becomes these marauding attacking defenders.” But in hindsight, there may be some structural deficiencies that go beyond the inability to unearth raw natural talent in the full-forward line. The truth is we are spoiled for choice when it comes to naturally gifted forwards. Tommy Conroy, James Carr, Conor Loftus, Paul Towey and James Durcan to name just a few have all provided sufficient moments of magic on the inside forward line to suggest that they have the natural talent required to cause problems for any top defender in the country.

Yet, they have all struggled for consistency, and Mayo cannot feed on rare flashes of brilliance. And there comes a time when the issues cannot simply be pinned on an individual player’s lack of desire or mental fragility. We need to look deeper at the issue that goes beyond placing the blame at the manager’s doorstep too. For McStay has only been encountering the same issues as his predecessors.

Maybe the forwards were there all along. Maybe O’Donoghue was simply too good and was always destined to buck the trend. Maybe successive squads have been failing to play to the strengths of talented inside forwards.

Rather than bemoaning the lack of hungry forwards throughout the county, Mayo needs to realise that they perhaps have an embarrassment of riches that aren't being appropriately utilised. The question that needs to be asked is why so many of them are failing to produce in a consistent manner.

Answers on the back of a postcard to MacHale Park, Castlebar.