Ten reasons why Mayo will 'bate' Galway
Paul Towey before the Mayo v Galway game in the National League earlier this year at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park. Home advantage could prove crucial in this Sunday's Connacht SFC final. Picture: INPHO/James Crombie
Will Galway bate Mayo? No, I don’t think so. And here are 10 reasons why:
In the last 10 Connacht finals featuring Mayo and Galway, the home team has won 7 of those encounters. Drilling down even further, in the last 35 years Galway have only won one Connacht final against Mayo in MacHale Park (2008). While Mayo have not always been invincible at home in recent times, the statistics show that home advantage still matters in provincial deciders.
Galway were spellbinding in a nine-point demolition of Roscommon. Mayo laboured but did what they had to do against Leitrim. As a player, I always preferred winning ugly in semi-finals and saving your best for final day. Finals are the time to peak.
Galway are genuine All-Ireland contenders and may feel they have bigger fish to fry in the months ahead. They have won three Connacht titles in a row, so winning another may not be a priority. Mayo, on the other hand, cannot allow Galway to make it four in a row in our backyard. A lot of this Mayo squad have yet to win a Connacht senior crown, and I’m sure they will move heaven and earth to do just that. In short, Mayo’s need is much greater.
It looks like neither will play a full game at the weekend. Comer may make a brief appearance from the bench, but Walsh, struggling with two separate muscle injuries, will do well to even be togged. It’s a pity we won’t see all the best players going at it on the day, but what an opportunity for Mayo to face Galway without their two leading forwards. Rob Finnerty is a good player and performed excellently against Roscommon, but I believe Mayo have the defenders to curb his influence. He is a player Mayo can get at, disrupt and upset. His celebratory hair-ruffling and head-patting of Mayo defenders in last year’s final won’t be forgotten either.
Without sounding hyperbolic, this could be a legacy-defining match for the pair. It’s hard to see the management team seeing out the fourth and final year of their term if they don’t clinch a Connacht or All-Ireland crown this year. Neither McStay nor Rochford has managed Mayo to a Connacht senior title yet, so this is a huge game for them. Two great football men who have done so much for Mayo football. They’re due one, they deserve one and they will be desperate to make sure their charges are victorious on Sunday.
The bullet from Belmullet is in sparkling form right now, yet he has found Galway — and Johnny McGrath in particular — a tricky opponent in recent matches. There is no shame in that, as Caherlistrane man McGrath is one of the best corner-backs in Ireland right now. O’Donoghue, however, is the ultimate competitor and will be sick of hearing that McGrath has a good record against him. Expect ROD to be champing at the bit to play the game of his life and get one over McGrath once and for all.
Forewarned is forearmed. Galway have adapted better than most counties to the new rules and have been excellent exponents of catching kickout marks and kicking two-pointers. Céin Darcy, Matthew Tierney and John Maher have been lording the skies, while Paul Conroy and Shane Walsh have been raising red flags for fun. Mayo have had plenty of prior notice of this and will surely have been working hard of late to mitigate Galway’s strengths in these areas. Mayo’s year has been building towards a Galway Connacht final for months now, and I expect that McStay and Rochford will have cooked up some special plans to hammer the hammer.
Galway may have Comer to call upon in the dying stages, but Mayo have their own trump cards, with O’Connor and Durcan waiting in the wings. Diarmuid made a very positive contribution when introduced in the second half against Leitrim, and by all accounts, Paddy showed well in a challenge match against Carlow 10 days ago. If the game is tight going down the home straight — and I expect it will be — bringing two of Mayo’s greats into the fold will give everyone a huge lift and could be decisive.
For once, there is no great talk or expectation about Mayo going into a big match. The players will take great freedom from that. Mayo are rank outsiders — 13/5 with Paddy Power. These is unprecedentedly long odds, given the topsy-turvy nature of Galway-Mayo games and the fact that we are at home. Write off Mayo at your peril. The balance of power in Connacht shifts regularly from Galway to Mayo. The law of averages suggests that it’s Mayo’s time to win again.
All the pressure, however, will be on Galway to perform. In most people’s eyes, they are All-Ireland contenders and should have won last year’s decider — but they didn’t. They are a good team, but not a great one yet. Their form badly tailed off in the latter stages of the league, a competition they definitely wanted to win.
My Galway-supporting clubmates in Oranmore are cock-sure that they will win on Sunday; the only question in their minds is by how much. There is an immense opportunity to knock them off their perch. What a great position for Mayo to be in.
Saturday, May 3, is Mayo Day all around the world — a day to celebrate the many places and people of our wonderful county. It goes without saying that there has been a bit of a detachment between the Mayo crowds and this Mayo team in recent seasons and the number of followers has waned. If ever there was a time to circle the wagons, rally the troops and get behind our men, then now is it. The crowd needs to help put the fire in the players’ bellies and give them the courage to attack, attack, attack, à la the second half against Armagh or the first half against Kerry in this year’s NFL. A Mayo team with the crowd behind them and furious momentum to their play is almost unstoppable.
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Winston Churchill once remarked that “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” In the world of Mayo football, there are plenty of pessimists. Let’s choose optimism and face Sunday’s difficult challenge head on. This Connacht title is there for the taking.
Churchill might have urged us to fight our old enemy on the beaches of Old Head, Bertra and Keem, but this time around, we’ll stick to the grass. MacHale Park will be our battleground. Galway better be ready.
