Record league defeat is a reality check to Mayo

As the last of the Mayo supporters passed through the Castleisland roundabout on their way out of Kerry on Saturday evening they encountered a checkpoint where Gardaí were conducting roadside breath tests. But the Mayo fans couldn’t have been any more sober, not that you would have begrudged any had they reached for a stiff drink after watching Mayo’s heaviest defeat in league or championship in 33 years.

Not since the year of pushing cars around carparks and Cork winning the 1993 All-Ireland SFC semi-final by 20 points has a Mayo team suffered as one-sided a result than when Kerry won by 16 points (2-29 to 0-19) at Austin Stack Park last Saturday.

But it gets worse. As far as we can ascertain, never in the history of the National Football League has a Mayo team lost by as much as in Tralee on Saturday, with the 16 points difference eclipsing the 15 points trimming that Kerry gave Mayo in the 2022 NFL Division 1 final (3-19 to 0-13) or the 14 points that Dublin twice had to spare – at MacHale Park in the fifth round of the league in 2015 (2-18 to 0-10) and in Croke Park in the final league game of 1993 (1-19 to 0-8).

Nor was Saturday’s margin skewed in a historical context by the advent of the two point score because for every one of those that Kerry kicked on Saturday (six), Mayo actually kicked just the same. But that was just about the only statistic in which they had matched the Kingdom.

“I think that old saying about it never being as good as it seems or never being as bad as it seems, I think that’s what you need to take away from it,” said Andy Moran afterwards in what is his biggest test yet as Mayo manager.

“After Armagh, we knew they were within a kick of the ball, that could have went either way, but we end up on eight points and they end up on two. Today, if Kerry get a run on you they’re going to beat you and they’ll beat you well, so you just need to be careful with it, you need to mind it.” 

But having travelled to Tralee on the back of four wins from five and as the second highest scoring team across all four divisions, Moran was willing to accept that the result was a huge setback – yet immediately issued a challenge to his players.

“It will definitely hit confidence levels, let’s not beat around. I’ve been in this situation myself where you get beat like that and you see the gap you have to make up. But you’ve two choices then, you either try to close the gap or you give up on it.

“We’ll be looking at the players’ character and demeanour over the next couple of weeks and if they’re willing to go and chase it, we’ll go and chase it with the boys who are willing to chase it. But there’s a big gap there lads, and there was a big gap last year between Kerry and everyone else, and everyone else is just trying to close that gap.

“You learn hard lessons along the way, you’re trying to develop a team, it’s not going to be overnight. We’re as well to see it now than to see it in a couple of months’ time,” offered the manager.

Playing with the breeze at their backs for the first-half and with 18-year-old Kobe McDonald starting his first senior game, Mayo had made a decent start to Saturday’s game, leading 0-9 to 0-4 after 18 minutes, but the concession of eight consecutive points left them chasing the match at half-time.

“To fade away like that was very disappointing,” said Andy Moran.

“I don’t think I was particularly happy with the way we were playing anyway. We were kicking the ball too straight, there was no angles in our attack, so I’m not sure it was that good when we were that far ahead.

“I don’t think we did a lot to help ourselves. We know what Kerry can do, we’ve seen them last year in the All-Ireland quarter, semi-final and final, they’re a very, very good team, All-Ireland champions, some of the best players in the country, so we just need to look at ourselves.

“We tried to get the fight back in the second-half but every time you press up on Kerry then, to get the ball back, they’re just kicking two pointers. If you give them that lead at half-time and they’re playing with the wind in the second-half, you’re in big bother.

“You try to close the gaps, you try to close the spaces for Clifford and O’Shea and these guys, but then you go behind and you have to leave spaces and you have to leave gaps and then they can exploit you.

“You need to keep yourself in the game for as long as you can but if you are chasing the game against them and the space is there, they’re going to exploit it.” 

Moran paused for a moment when asked about what positives Mayo could take from the outing. He cited the experience gained by U20 players Darragh Beirne and Kobe McDonald in learning what it’s like to field against the All-Ireland champions.

“I think physically [Kerry] seem to be a couple of months ahead of us, not in terms of running but in terms of size, in terms of power they seem to have done great work, and we just need to get there. It might take us a while.

“Next week is a huge opportunity for fellas, playing against the Rossies. We’ll be able to get a look at a good few players next weekend,” suggested Moran.

The game against Roscommon has take on added significance following their victory over Donegal last Sunday which has moved them to eight points, level in the table with Mayo, one point behind both Donegal and Kerry who play Monaghan (already relegated) and Armagh respectively.

Armagh, who have home advantage against the Kingdom, could really do with a win to guarantee their safety and were they were to achieve that, the winners of Mayo-Roscommon would find themselves in the Division 1 final.

/////box off///// 

National Football League Division 1 – Round 7 

Sunday, March 22 

3.30pm in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar 

Mayo v Roscommon 

REF: TBC