Speed kills and this Mayo team is full of assassins

We were treated to liquid football in GAA HQ on Saturday night and a serious statement of intent from this rapidly improving Mayo side. I cannot remember a more comprehensive or impressive Mayo display in Croke Park.

This Mayo team are full of flying machines who are born to grace the wide-open expanses of our national stadium. From back to front, Mayo have pace to burn which makes them an extremely difficult team to play against. In defence, the Garrymore duo of Eoin McGreal and Enda Hession are rapid and start many attacks. Up top, defenders cannot lay a paw on Kobe McDonald or Ryan O’Donoghue. Kerry will be red-hot favourites but Mayo’s fleet of foot around the park could make it very uncomfortable for them.

You can only dance with the ladies in the dance hall, but Louth were desperately poor. The occasion seemed too big for them and they delivered a performance that made them look hopelessly out of their depth. There have not been too many All-Ireland semi-finals as one-sided as this.

The difference between the two full-forward lines and the way they were utilised was stark. I honestly cannot recall a Louth inside forward getting on the ball inside Mayo’s 21 all game. Ciarán Downey lined out at 14 and did a lot of good work out around midfield but was never an inside threat. Conor Grimes is a powerful player who worked like a Trojan up and down the left wing but he ran out of steam and again did most of his best work in the middle third. Mayo’s defence totally nullified Sam Mulroy and did not give the Wee County a sniff of a goal chance.

Mayo’s defensive shape and setup have come on leaps and bounds in recent months. The whole country was talking about Mayo’s porous defence earlier this season. They are not talking about that now. Everyone has really tightened up, the defensive unit seems to be working in tandem and the channels are plugged. That does not happen by accident. Players and management must take huge credit for identifying a weakness and dedicating themselves to improving it. That new defensive meanness will be severely stress-tested against Kerry in a couple of weeks but Mayo’s defence seems to have turned a corner and opposing teams now have to work incredibly hard for scores.

A resolute defence will give Mayo a great chance of winning most games as they have so many match-winners at the other end. Ryan O’Donoghue seems to be on a personal crusade to win Sam Maguire and claim Player of the Year. He has always been a highly focused and committed player but he looks like a man possessed right now. His 40 possessions in that match is a phenomenal statistic for an inside forward and is testament to his hunger and appetite to shape matches to his will. The statistic of scoring 1-11 is an even more important and impressive one, especially on such a huge occasion.

Of all his excellent attributes, one that is rarely cited is the sharpness of his football brain. His thinking is always a step ahead of his direct marker. When he decides to call it a day, I think he would make a great referee given his deep knowledge of the rules. Watch how he always tries to get a two-pointer off when on an advantage. Look back at the way he quickly decided to go for goal when on an advanced mark advantage in the second-half. His football mind is razor sharp. Right now, he is a footballer at the absolute peak of his powers.

For years, Ryan ploughed a lone enough furrow in Mayo’s attack as their chief marksman and talisman. The cavalry has now arrived though. It is wonderful to see ROD dovetail so beautifully with players who are on the same wavelength: fast movers, quick thinkers and high-quality technicians.

The word mercurial was invented for Kobe McDonald’s style of play. He is irrepressible and playing with the abandonment of youth. I hate to say it, as it is not a game I love or enjoy watching, but he seems an ideal fit for the AFL given the way he will be able glide around the oval. Having Saturday’s magical Croke Park experience in his memory bank will be no harm for Mayo should things not work out as planned Down Under. He felt the love from Mayo supporters in Croker on Saturday night and paid us back in spades.

As slick as Mayo were with the ball in hand, their work rate, pressing and tackling out of possession were even more satisfying. There were times in the second-half when Louth turned Mayo over several times in the same attack, but Mayo kept winning the ball back. It totally demoralised the Louthmen and was as fatal to their hopes as any score. What’s more, every time Louth tried to start an attack, they were met with a wall of Mayo men pressing, harassing and hunting rabidly.

There was a ruthlessness to Mayo that we have not seen too often before. Mayo refused to give a sucker an even break and did not give Louth a whiff of a comeback. They kept their foot on the throat. This clinical edge was typified by ROD’s two-pointer after the hooter. It was symbolic and rammed the result home.

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Normally, I would prefer to win a semi-final in a less extravagant, more scratchy fashion. Kerry’s unconvincing and somewhat lucky display is probably the ideal as it keeps minds focused, keeps lads working hard and gives management a stick to beat their players with in the coming weeks. Mayo will be underdogs either way though, so I do not think such a barnstorming semi-final victory is any harm at all. It will give this group a massive surge of confidence ahead of a mammoth task on July 26.

Some of that squad probably need to feel the love of the Mayo public again after the Roscommon nadir just 11 weeks ago. The likes of Jack Coyne, Sam Callinan, Jack Carney and Tommy Conroy were all at a low ebb confidence-wise in late spring. After a life-affirming, awe-inspiring occasion like Saturday’s, they are now cocks of the walk with chests out and chins high, playing with the confidence of men at the top of their game. Confidence and belief will be crucial if Mayo are to beat Kerry and what a shot in the arm the Mayo setup received last weekend.

Dublin provided Mayo with a template on how to give Kerry a rattle too. Kerry’s much-vaunted kickout strategy was disrupted by Dublin smashing ball and hoovering up breaks. The Dubs were very disciplined in their tackling and Kerry’s dangerous inside men were kept reasonably quiet. Dublin’s finishing and some luck eluded them, but I watched that Dublin-Kerry semi-final hopefully rather than fearfully.

Paudie Clifford will need to be sat on though. He cannot be getting his hands on 70-plus possessions the next day out, like he did on Sunday and in last year’s All-Ireland Final. For me, Enda Hession, a player in All-Star form with pace, aggression and football intelligence in abundance, is the man for the job.

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A leader is a dealer in hope and Mayo have no better man at the helm than Andy to make his players believe. The short two-week gap between semi-final and final is something Mayo have never really had the benefit of before and it is the perfect amount of time to allow bodies to recover and plans to be made. It does not give much time for the hype to reach fever pitch either, which is no harm.

For the next few days though, let us bask in Saturday’s marvellous win. Mayo supporters are totally smitten with their team again, a love that has been reignited and electrified by the verve of youth.

Let us fans go crazy, but for the next two weeks Mayo players need not worry about winning Sam, ending a famine or any other Hollywood headline. All they need to concentrate on is chasing another performance of last Saturday’s quality and intensity. If they can reach those levels again on Sunday week, anything can happen.