Reality check for Mayo as Tribe rules in Castlebar
John Maher of Galway takes on Mayo's Bob Tuohy in last Sunday's Division 1 encounter at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie
According to the archives, there’s no team Mayo have beaten more often than Galway in the National Football League. And even after last Sunday’s reversal the record book still shows the Green and Red to have won nine games more than they have lost to the Tribesmen – but you have to travel back 42 years to find when last Mayo shipped a heavier defeat in league battle to their arch enemy.
Kevin McStay scored four points for Mayo in that 2-16 to 0-11 loss at Tuam Stadium in November 1983. On Sunday, he watched his team slump to the county’s joint heaviest defeat to Galway in a home league fixture, the only other 10 points loss occurring in 1965 when Mayo scored two points for the entire game. Things can always be worse then.
“We had a good feeling this time last year and now we have to suck it up and take it on the cheek,” said Kevin McStay on Sunday evening, a reference to Mayo beating Galway and Dublin in last season’s opening two rounds but losing to both opponents in this year’s corresponding rounds.
“There’s no getting away from the fact we were well short of Galway. It’s their day,” added the manager. And he was right. Even an eternal optimist would have needed a happy pill to make any sort of case that Mayo were there or thereabouts of Pádraic Joyce’s team on Sunday.
Yes, in the old scoring format, the scoreboard would have read 0-19 to 0-15 and under old playing rules Galway would not have been presented three of their pointed frees nor Mayo denied a first-half point finished by Davitt Neary. So maybe in some alter universe there’s an argument this game might somehow have ended as a draw. Yet anyone among the 12,291 attendance in Castlebar’s early spring sunshine knew that this was no clash of equals; 15 of the Galway players used in MacHale Park also featured in the All-Ireland SFC final last July whereas four of Mayo’s scorers have yet to play a championship match.
Galway made three changes to the team that had beaten All-Ireland champions Armagh eight days earlier and were weakened none, with each of Liam Silke, John Maher and Shane Walsh having started that narrow final defeat to the Orchard County.
Mayo themselves made one change to the side that had started the first round loss away to Dublin, and it was the incoming Sean Morahan (he replaced wing-back Fenton Kelly) who kicked the game’s opening point inside 50 seconds, running onto Matthew Ruane’s pass to finish off his left boot. It was a false dawn however, and while would hold a one point lead at half-time, a barrage of two-points scores was to see Galway totally overwhelm Mayo on the scoreboard, and overpower them around the middle third, with the Green and Red’s demise more dramatic than the weekend before when they let slip a two points half-time lead against the Dubs in Croke Park.
Shane Walsh, four times, and Cillian Ó Curain, three times, all converted from outside the arc for the wind-assisted Tribesmen after half-time. Mayo managed one in 70 minutes. And to rub salt into their wounds, Mayo conceded three points – and had one scratched off – for failing to keep three players in their defensive half.
The hosts had trailed 1-6 to 0-2 after 15 minutes against Dublin and were 0-6 to 0-2 behind at the same stage here against Galway. Conor Reid, who had hit the net in Croke Park, whipped over another goal chance to draw the teams level at 0-2 apiece after seven minutes, but Galway reeled off the next four points – with one each from Shane Walsh, Sean Kelly, Dylan McHugh and Paul Conroy, his second of the half.
Galway’s next flag raised was a talking point. Frank Irwin had already scored Mayo’s third point and home fans thought Davitt Neary had added their fourth to close the gap to two but referee Noel Mooney was alerted to the fact that Mayo had not kept three players inside their own half. Neary’s score was disallowed and a 20-metre free awarded at the opposite end. Cillian Ó Curraoin popped that over to leave Galway 0-7 to 0-3 ahead after 19 minutes.
Joyce’s team were to score just once more before the interval however, another fisted Sean Kelly point, while Mayo stirred themselves into life. Paul Towey was particularly impressive, with the Charlestown man shooting one two-pointer and a couple of singles. Combined with a second point from Reid, off the back of an excellent cross-field delivery by Ruane, and a fisted point by Donnacha McHugh, that left the Green and Red 0-9 to 0-8 ahead at the turnaround, with McHugh ruing a mishit goal chance in the 29th minute after a superb dummy by Ryan O’Donoghue in the build-up.
Mayo’s narrow lead offered no guarantees however, with a stiff breeze about to favour a Galway side who had kicked four two-pointers against Armagh. And sure enough, they kicked four here within 15 minutes of the restart. In fact, Shane Walsh and Cillian Ó Currain had accounted for the first 13 of Galway’s second-half points before substitute Rob Finnerty arrived to kick his first of two frees, the gap having grown to 10 points when Mayo supporters began exiting with more than 12 minutes left on the clock. Stephen Coen was dismissed on 65 minutes for a second bookable offence while substitute Diarmuid O’Connor had lasted only nine minutes on the pitch, succumbing to a late tackle by Ó Currain that went unnoticed by the match officials.
Ryan O’Donoghue, from frees, and Davitt Neary, in only his second start, each kicked three points after half-time, and Towey increased his personal tally to five points with a fine late point, but like Kevin McStay admitted, this was Galway’s day.
“We did okay in the first-half, I felt we controlled a lot of the play but gave Mayo probably six or seven turnovers that led to their scores, but to kick seven twos overall was a big score,” said a delighted Pádraic Joyce.
“Against Armagh, we were poor in the first 15 or 20 minutes. Today we targeted a good start and the lads got it. They got stuck in and it’s pleasing, to be honest.” For the record, Mayo and Galway have now played 52 times in the National Football League, with 28 and 19 wins respectively, and five draws.
Scorers – Galway: Shane Walsh 0-4-1 (2tpf), Cillian Ó Curraoin 0-3-2 (3tpf, 1f), Paul Conroy 0-0-3, Sean Kelly and Rob Finnerty (2f) 0-0-2 each, Dylan McHugh and Connor Gleeson (’45) 0-0-1 each.
Mayo: Paul Towey 0-1-3, Davitt Neary and Ryan O’Donoghue (3f) 0-0-3 each.
Conor Reid 0-0-2, Sean Morahan, Donnacha McHugh and Frank Irwin 0-0-1 each.
Mayo: Colm Reape; Sam Callinan, Rory Brickenden, Enda Hession; Stephen Coen, David McBrien, Sean Morahan; Donnacha McHugh, Matthew Ruane; Conor Reid, Fergal Boland, Davitt Neary; Paul Towey, Frank Irwin, Ryan O’Donoghue. Subs: Darren McHale (for Boland 44), Diarmuid O’Connor (for Reid 46), Eoghan McLaughlin (for Ruane 52), Bob Tuohy (for O’Connor 56, inj), Cian McHale (for Irwin 61).
Galway: Connor Gleeson; Johnny McGrath, Sean Fitzgerald, Daniel O’Flaherty; Dylan McHugh, Liam Silke, Sean Kelly; Paul Conroy, Cillian McDaid; John Maher, Finnian Ó Laoi, Cein Darcy; Cillian Ó Curraoin, Shane Walsh, Sam O’Neill. Subs: Jack Glynn (for Kelly 46), Rob Finnerty (for O’Neill 48), Cathal Sweeney (for McDaid 51), Johnny Heaney (for Ó Laoi 61), Colm Costello (for Walsh 66).
REF: Noel Mooney (Cavan)
