Unbeaten Mayo on final course after Wee demolition

Allianz Hurling League Division 3A – Round 4 

Mayo 0-28 

Louth 0-13 

At Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence, Bekan 

The general assumption that Mayo, providing they got their act together, would dominate this year’s Division 3A has so far rung true. With a scoring difference of plus 56 points after their four games, the 14 points average winning margin that equates tp was actually bettered by one point last Sunday, as the Green and Red swept aside Louth at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence.

Their toughest test is still to come however, with whoever wins next weekend’s fifth and final round match between themselves and Sligo (a draw would even suffice for Mayo) booking a direct passage to Croke Park for the Division 3A final while the losers would have to settle for a second bite of the cherry in a second-plays-third semi-final.

Things appear to be coming together nicely for Mayo, under the joint management of Ray Larkin and Brian Finn, as sharpshooter Shane Boland entered off the bench – and scored – on Sunday to gain his first minutes of the campaign, while his Tooreen club-mate Sean Regan is also on the brink of a return, with the opening round of the Nicky Rackard Cup not much more than one month away.

No fewer than 10 Mayo players raised white flags from play in this demolition of the Wee County, with the undoubted stars of the show being Cormac Phillips and Liam Lavin who fired 17 points between them. Lavin, in particular, proved simply impossible for the Louth defence to pin down during a first-half in which he scored five points from play and drew an excellent save from Louth goalkeeper Conor Clancy right on the stroke of half-time.

The Green and Red actually scored more in that opening half against the breeze than they did when playing with it in the second, but that could well have had as much to do with management running their bench and the disjointedness that can sometimes arise as a result.

To be fair, Louth had made for quite game opponents during the opening quarter of Sunday’s tie, with the teams deadlocked at 0-6 apiece after 18-minutes.

Cormac Phillips, with three frees, Liam Lavin, two points, and Eoin Delaney, who from a tight angle had superbly fired over the game’s very first point after just 33 seconds, had each hit the target for Mayo while Louth were so far, and would remain throughout the match, largely reliant on the dead-ball accuracy of Darren Geoghegan.

There was a point apiece from play by Paddy Lynch and George Allen, who cut a powerful presence at full-forward, but it was Geoghegan who scored the other six of his side’s first-half points.

In contrast, there was a much better spread to Mayo’s scoring, with Eoghan Collins, Adrian Phillips and Sean Kenny adding their names to the list of flag-raisers which helped Mayo exchange ends with a 0-15 to 0-8 advantage.

It was a dominance created, in part, by the hunger of Mayo’s half-back line where Eoghan Collins and his wing-men Conal Hession and Oisin Greally were ferocious in their want of the breaking ball, while there was a cohesion to Mayo’s all-round play that saw them always seeking the player best positioned to shoot for the posts.

Conal Hession was first to score in the second-half and by the 39th minute Mayo were a full 10 points ahead, 0-18 to 0-8, with Cormac Phillips rattling over another brace, while full-forward Matthew Connor drew a near post save from Clancy, as the locals sought to ratchet up the pressure.

Then came something of a local lull as during a near 15-minute scoreless period by Mayo, Darren Geoghegan rifled over a trio to frees for Louth that increased his personal tally to nine points by the 49th minute. But all that only preceded Mayo finding their scoring touch again as they went on to outscore the visitors by 10 points to two during the final quarter.

The crossbar had denied Adrian Phillips a goal and the post denied Eoin Delaney and Cormac Phillips from adding to their points tallies, but Collins and Lavin, his sixth point, got Mayo back up and running again in a scoring sense before Thomas McCreesh finally ended a run of 43 minutes without a Louth score from play, when landing one from midfield.

A Cormac Phillips free was negated by a point from wing-back John Casey but after 60-minutes, that was Louth’s last contribution to the scoreboard as for the second time in the match (once in each half), Mayo would reel off seven points without reply, two frees from Phillips, two from substitute Michael Farrell, and one apiece by Shane Boland, centre-back Eoghan Collins (his third from play) and wing-back Oisin Greally.

The result has perfectly set-up next Saturday’s Connacht derby. Sligo will enjoy the home advantage not of Markievicz Park, but of nearby Kent Park – the home of St Mary’s GAA Club – where the game will get underway at 1pm. Referee is Tarlach Conway from Derry.

Scorers – Mayo: Cormac Phillips 0-11 (8f, 2 ‘65s), Liam Lavin 0-6, Eoghan Collins 0-3, Michael Farrell 0-2, Eoin Delaney, Sean Kenny, Adrian Phillips, Conal Hession, Shane Boland and Oisin Greally 0-1 each.

Louth: Darren Geoghegan 0-9f, Paddy Lynch, George Allen, Thomas McCreesh and John Casey 0-1 each.

Mayo: Bobby Douglas; Luke Connor, David Kenny, Danny Hill; Conal Hession, Eoghan Collins, Oisin Greally; Daniel Huane, John Heraty; Sean Kenny, Cormac Phillips, Adrian Phillips; Liam Lavin, Matthew Connor, Eoin Delaney. Subs: Michael Farrell (for M Connor 46), Shane Boland (for S Kenny 62), Evan Heraty (for Hession 65), Diarmuid Phillips (for A Phillips 70), Brendan Sheridan (for Delaney 70+3).

Louth: Conor Clancy; Andrew Smyth, Adam Plunkett, Stephen Kettle; Sean Hodgins, Peter Fortune, John Casey; James Costello, Thomas McCreesh; Conor Quigley, Darren Geoghegan, David Stephenson; Paddy Lynch, George Allen, Conor Murphy. Subs: Seaghan Conneely (for Costello ht), Aaron McGuinness (for Quigley 47), Kyle Rafferty (for Lynch 55), Ronan Mulhollan (for Kettle 60), Conor Higgins (for Smyth 67).

REF: James Connors (Donegal)