O'Donoghue still holds the compass as future arrives

The ball never seemed to rise more than a few inches off the grass.

Stephen Mooney caught it sweetly, but it was no thunderbolt – just a low skidding daisycutter that slithered across the Clones turf and nestled into the bottom corner of the net. And suddenly an afternoon that had felt comfortable became deeply uncomfortable for Mayo.

The visitors’ eleven-point half-time lead had long since shrunk. The stench of a comeback wafted across the Ulster venue. Mooney had turned away before most people had fully processed what had happened. Monaghan were back in the game, could sense Mayo anxiety and were seizing upon it. Victory was within their grasp.

For most of the afternoon, Mayo had looked fresh and vibrant. Their young forwards, Kobe McDonald and Darragh Beirne, had lit up the game. Jack Livingstone had announced himself to championship football with aplomb. Hugh O'Loughlin had helped his side maintain control around the middle third.

But Monaghan were still in the game and were now chasing down the margin, which was now only two points with a couple of minutes left. Mayo were faced with two options from their own kick-out. They could keep possession, slow everything down and let the clock become an ally. And for about a minute or so, it looked like that was the option Andy Moran’s men were pursuing – much to the delight of every Mayo cardiologist who briefly feared an afternoon of unfamiliar tranquillity.

Then, Ryan O'Donoghue received the ball and did what great footballers do when panic starts circling overhead. He took the second option.

Receiving possession out on the wing, the Belmullet man spotted a gap where others might have seen danger. He accelerated through it, drove directly at the Monaghan defence and won a free. There was nothing particularly glamorous about the moment. It won't appear on season highlights packages. Nobody will be replaying it in 20 years' time. Yet it was the most important play of the afternoon. While summer football is littered with beautiful moments, championships are often decided by sensible ones.

The moments that live longest in the memory usually arrive from fresh legs and fearless minds. But when the ground starts shifting beneath your feet, when momentum begins changing jerseys, there remains no substitute for experience. And while Mayo's brightest performers in Clones were its emerging generation, the man who ultimately held the entire thing together was the same footballer who has been doing it for years.

Of course, O'Donoghue only had a lead to protect because Mayo's younger generation had spent most of the afternoon lighting up Clones. The most encouraging aspect of Mayo's afternoon wasn't the victory itself. It was how much of it was authored by footballers who should still have plenty of championship summers ahead of them.

For years, opposition teams knew where the danger lay. Stop Ryan O'Donoghue and Mayo became infinitely easier to contain. The Belmullet man carried the scoring burden willingly enough, but there are only so many fires one footballer can extinguish in a single afternoon.

But it was the partnership between Darragh Beirne and Kobe McDonald that provided the brightest moments of the game. The goal that arrived in the first-half carried a wonderful simplicity. Beirne slipped beyond his marker and accelerated along the end-line before sending a neat pass across the face of goal. McDonald did the easy part of palming the ball to the net.

There was something refreshing about the understanding between them. One creating, the other finishing. One stretching the defence, the other finding the empty space it created.

McDonald, in particular, can spend long stretches operating on the periphery, barely noticeable amid the traffic and noise, before suddenly producing a game defining moment. Defenders have a habit of forgetting about him and the young Crossmolina man has a habit of making them pay for it – as was the case with his fetch in the final seconds of the game.

Beirne offers something different – directness and urgency and the willingness to attack a defender rather than negotiate with him. Together, they helped Mayo produce some of their most fluent attacking football of the season. And perhaps the greatest compliment you can pay either man is that they allowed O'Donoghue to become something he has rarely had the luxury of being – a supporting actor.

However, if Beirne and McDonald supplied the colour, Jack Livingstone supplied the calm.

A goalkeeper can spend the entire week before a big game convincing himself he's ready, only for the occasion to arrive and feel twice as large as he imagined. This pressure is amplified when a goalkeeper is facing into his debut. Every bounce seems crueller. Every shot travels faster. Every mistake feels permanent.

But the Breaffy man looked untouched by any of it. He executed a variety of phenomenal saves across the afternoon, but what stood out most was not the stops themselves. It was everything that surrounded them. His positioning. His decision-making. The speed with which he came off his line. The complete absence of panic.

Goalkeepers have a peculiar influence on teams. A nervous one can infect an entire defence. An assured one inoculates it. Livingstone belonged firmly in the latter category. Some goalkeepers make spectacular saves because they possess spectacular reflexes. The best ones often make them because they arrived in the right place before anyone else. Livingstone spent much of the afternoon doing precisely that.

Yet there was an uncomfortable reality beneath Livingstone's excellent debut. Every save reassured Mayo. But every save also raised a question. Because while Mayo's young goalkeeper was answering the challenges placed before him, Monaghan were still creating too many of them. And they were always going to eventually raise a green flag. In the end, they raised two.

Meanwhile, Hugh O'Loughlin put in a monumental shift around the middle third. Mayo's midfield had endured a difficult examination against Roscommon, but this felt altogether different. O'Loughlin was central to that change, claiming important catches and helping Mayo establish a foothold around the middle that saw them win most of the 50-50 breaks.

So, Clones finally offered Mayo something they have been searching for – evidence that a new generation is beginning to solidify its place within Mayo’s starting team. The youngsters gave Mayo supporters plenty of reasons to be excited about what lies ahead.

But as the championship road twists towards bigger days and sterner tests, O'Donoghue remains what he has always been – the footballer Mayo trusts when the map becomes difficult to read.

The young men may provide the fireworks; O'Donoghue still carries the compass.