This isn't a generational defeat, insists Moran

Considering it was Mayo’s biggest championship defeat to Roscommon since 1980 – and Mayo’s heaviest ever home championship loss to the Rossies – the mood was understandably glum among supporters afterwards.

But when asked if it might represent a generational defeat, Mayo manager Andy Moran bristled at the suggestion.

“Ah no, Jesus Christ I wouldn’t go that far. If you look at our average age profile from number two to number 15, I’d say we’re at about 25. But the boys need to get better, we know they need to get better, there’s some very talented boys playing Wednesday night (under 20s) and we just need to improve but, listen, we are where we are and we are where we are since 2021 and we just need to get better, but it is not going to happen overnight,” he said.

He admitted he saw no warning signs in advance and arrived at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park ‘very confident’.

“No, I was very confident to be honest, very confident coming in. We’d a full deck, outside Darren McHale and maybe Diarmuid (O’Connor), so we were very, very happy with where we were. We’d Kobe (McDonald) there, we’d Tommy (Conroy) coming on and Cillian (O’Connor), Fergal Boland, a really exciting bench. Just whatever we did today didn’t work and, as manager, as coaches, we need to take some responsibility and get better,” he said.

Sunday’s game was ‘the biggest game of the year’, Moran admitted – not because of Connacht silverware, but because it offered a home tie in Round 1 of the All-Ireland series.

“That was the biggest thing. Today was the biggest game of the year, we knew that since the draw was done. We knew it was going to be the biggest game of the year and the way the (All-Ireland) series has worked out, it has left an awful hard road ahead.

“You have to look at the performances from players there and see whether they were good enough and analyse from there. It is as simple as that. This is not rocket science, it is a game of football… we’re very disappointed for our supporters today, the crowd that turned up, that we didn’t put in the performance that we wanted to. Same as in Tralee and the same as in Letterkenny but I think if people look over the whole course of what, eight, nine games we’ve played, I think they can see progress, they can see young fellas coming through but listen, it is disappointing tonight,” he said.

In the game itself, Mayo struggled massively with kickouts at both ends. Roscommon mined 1-11 from Rob Hennelly’s kickouts, with the Breaffy man enduring a day to forget, while Mayo also struggled badly to disrupt Roscommon’s own restarts.

“Hugely disappointing,” said Moran. “We just lost the ground battle, we lost the battle in the air, we lost the battle on the ground for the breaks and in this new game, I think it has been seen over this weekend, it is the hungrier team that seems to be coming out on top.” 

On Hennelly’s performance, he added: “You can’t legislate for the first goal, those things happen, but then after that it was very, very disappointing. I didn't know that was the stat but that is hugely disappointing. I know Robbie (Hennelly) will be hugely disappointed with that tonight.” 

He also admitted surprise at how effective Roscommon were on their own kickout.

“They were excellent on their kickout, way better than probably we expected. That’s a learning for us for coaching going forward. We need to get better at that, we need to get better at our press. It has worked really well for us all league but we got caught out today and we need to learn from it.” He was asked about Mayo’s defensive struggles.

“Yeah, I thought (Enda) Hession really tried to drag us back into it, I thought Donnacha (McHugh) did really well when he came in, Jack (Coyne) had a better second-half but there’s no point denying it, what did they score? 2-25? That’s a huge score and we just need to get better.” 

The warning signs were there before the break and Roscommon ran riot in the second-half, with Moran conceding they never got to grips with the game following the restart.

“We just never took control. Right from the throw-in in the second-half, they win the throw-in, and they’re level after a minute and a half.

“I'm the manager of the team; we have to take responsibility for it. We tried to twist it, turn it everywhere we could but once momentum goes against you here, unless you get a bit of luck and you can get it back in, once momentum goes against you, we just could not wrestle it back.

“I didn't think we did enough, if I’m being honest. Everything was slow. I thought it was too slow, I thought there was no tempo, we didn't mix it enough. We got great joy against Roscommon in the league game where we played it slowly and worked around the numbers and it worked well for us, and today we just did too much of it. But again, from a managing, coaching point of view, we need to learn, we need to get better and if the boys play like that, it's up to me to sort that out.” 

Positives were few and far between. Moran highlighted the return of Matthew Ruane and Donnacha McHugh, and praised the ‘excellent’ Conor Loftus, who scored two excellent points in the first-half. But, once again, it was the display of Kobe McDonald that caught the eye, as the 18-year-old finished with six points.

“Yeah, he's a great kid. They’ve a Connacht (Under 20) final on Wednesday but I just couldn't not play him. He was the best player in the A v B game last week, so he had to play.”