The unlikely road nobody would have chosen

We owe Roscommon a debt of gratitude.

Not just the seniors for their chastising defeat of Mayo in the Connacht semi-final and the introspection that forced.

But their Under 20s too for their surprise win over a highly rated Mayo side three days later.

That week was a hard one in Mayo as we wondered if our seniors had shipped a generational defeat and watched as a generational under 20 team whom many of us had All-Ireland hopes for lost the Connacht final.

But a mere eleven weeks later, those four days have become season defining in the most unlikely positive way.

How could losing twice to Roscommon be seen as positive? Well you’d have been given short shrift if you said it that week in April!

And it is not a template we would suggest trying to replicate. But the arc of the season has risen from that week and also because of that week.

The senior loss exposed systemic issues with Mayo in every line of the field and the five weeks before the Monaghan game allowed time to work on them.

Some of these issues had been apparent in the league. For instance, defensively we struggled massively against both Donegal and Kerry and shipped heavy defeats.

Winning primary possession has been a concern for the past couple of years. What the Roscommon game revealed is that if Mayo do not have the right level of intent and ferocity around the middle of the field, they can get quickly overrun.

Personnel wise, while Andy Moran baulked at suggestions of a ‘generational defeat’, it was the last game where Aidan O’Shea and Rob Hennelly started while Paddy Durcan was dropped for the Monaghan game too.

It meant that of the starting teams from the 2016 and 2017, only Durcan, just twice, have started since.

The five weeks between the Roscommon and Monaghan game allowed Moran to go back to the drawing board with many facets of his approach. It’s arguable that is what the league could have been used for but it wasn’t entirely wasted either as Mayo showed much more attacking intent and got minutes into the likes of Kobe McDonald and Darragh Beirne.

But it is reasonable to say, overall, the league was not utilized well.

It is incredible too that Mayo were actually rewarded with the defeat.

We recall interviewing Andy Moran after the game and he confirmed a feeling many people had going into the Roscommon game about its real importance.

The prize for winning was less about the path to a Connacht title and far more about being one of the eight provincial finalists for the All-Ireland draw.

If you recall, the structure was set up that the eight provincial finalists would have a home draw in the first round against a team who had lost in the provinces.

The reality was that should have made losing that game very punishing for Mayo.

“It has left an awful hard road ahead,” Moran told this reporter.

But, strangely, despite winning Connacht, Roscommon ended up with a comparatively harder draw than Mayo – home to Tyrone while Mayo were away to Monaghan.

It was not an easy draw but compared to who Mayo could have got, it was a kind draw and not the first.

Mayo won and Roscommon lost so somehow Mayo benefitted from the defeat in that way alone.

The same thing happened then with Tyrone.

Mayo lost a game they should have won and it meant one extra game than Tyrone. Mayo got the benefit of decent draws – Meath and Cork stood between them and the semi-finals.

Tyrone, meanwhile, were rewarded with one less game. The trouble is it was Kerry in Croke Park.

Mayo won their two games while Tyrone, despite herculean efforts, fell just short against Kerry.

Andy Moran deserves enormous credit, but there is little doubt fortune has smiled on Mayo too.

It happened a bit with the under 20s too.

Andy Moran said after the Louth game that he was possibly ‘too kind’ to both the under 20s and Sigerson teams in releasing players for those campaigns.

The Roscommon senior loss arguably impacted the under 20s negatively too.

Kobe McDonald played the full game on the Sunday and was physically spent by the time the under 20 game went to extra-time.

Darragh Beirne was, bizarrely, an unused sub in the senior game and looked like a player shorn of his usual self-confidence in the under 20 final.

Andy Moran admitted after the senior defeat that he ‘probably overthought’ about whether to bring Beirne on or not.

We should never scoff at an underage title, especially when we’ve won few enough of them at that grade. That was a Mayo team with All-Ireland potential (although our defensive troubles in the final and before then would have you somewhat unsure about that).

However, there is no doubt that defeat helped the seniors too.

It gave McDonald and Beirne close to five full weeks with the seniors before the Monaghan game rather than being detained with the under 20s for another two or four weeks, depending on their progress if they got past Roscommon.

It’s not a template to be repeating but it allowed them time to be fully part of the senior squad, developing a relationship in the inside line with Ryan O’Donoghue. Such a dynamic does not happen easily or automatically. Having more time before the Monaghan game together was a big benefit and we are seeing the fruits of that now.

Doesn’t it sum up the mad nature of this season that two defeats to Roscommon in four days actually helped Mayo?

The draw has been kind to Mayo and you would have been laughed at that week in April had you suggested it would be a Mayo v Kerry senior final.

But here we are.

Football has a habit of changing quickly. Recall that after losing to Sligo and Longford in 2010, Mayo were in an All-Ireland semi-final in 2011 and a final the following two years.

But nothing can rival going from being absolutely schooled and outfought and, let’s be honest about the day itself, outclassed by Roscommon to being in an All-Ireland final less than three months later.

If Mayo cross the rubicon, they can rightly say they got there with a little help from their Connacht friends.