Unpredictable Mayo do what they do best
Paddy Durcan is congratulated following his Man-of-the-Match display in Mayo's victory over Tyrone in Saturday evening's All-Ireland SFC Round 2 clash. Pictures: INPHO/James Crombie
Crisis. What crisis?
A week that began with Mayo making headlines for unfortunate off-the-pitch reasons, ended with the senior footballers doing what they do best – upsetting the applecart.
A sobering defeat at home to Cavan in the first round of the All-Ireland SFC saw their odds to win Sam Maguire this season extend to 100/1. In the space of 70 minutes in Omagh last Saturday evening, those odds shrank to 18/1, as the Green and Red served up a seven points beating of Tyrone. They were worth every point of it.
The small but vocal travelling support were treated to a heartening display by a Mayo team who overcame the turmoil of having manager Kevin McStay step aside from his position on health grounds just five days earlier. In his absence, assistant manager Stephen Rochford handed first championship starts to Conal Dawson and Sean Morahan, Bob Tuohy his first championship start other than against New York in 2024, and a first start in fourteen months to Tuohy’s Castlebar Mitchels teammate Paddy Durcan. Their impact couldn’t have been much more emphatic.
If Dawson seemed an unlikely source of two first-half points, his Westport clubmate Rory Brickenden was even more so, but when your luck is in, it’s in. Like how, in a sight as rare as the corncrake, Tyrone’s mercurial goalkeeper Niall Morgan fumbled Bob Tuohy’s delivery for Darren McHale to score into an empty net on the stroke of half-time.
Eight points ahead, you had to remind yourself this was the same Mayo side that on home turf had trailed Cavan by eight points entering stoppage time in Round 1, yet here they were owning supposed All-Ireland contenders – with the advantage of the breeze still to come.
Tyrone, it seemed, had announced themselves by clipping Donegal’s wings in Ballybofey just the week before, and when Darragh Canavan raised green for the hosts inside ten minutes of the restart on Saturday, it did initiate something better from Malachy O’Rourke’s side. Canavan and Darran McCurry also kicked two points apiece and there was a two-pointer free by Morgan, as the Ulster outfit reduced Mayo’s lead to just one point by the end of the third quarter.
But the visitors, who were ravenous all evening in competing for the hard and dirty ball around the middle third, received a huge injection off the bench, in particular from Davitt Neary. The Breaffy attacker had a telling hand in Man-of-the-Match Paddy Durcan’s third point of the game and was twice fouled off which Ryan O’Donoghue struck 1-1, the goal in the 62nd minute from the penalty spot giving Mayo their crucial cushion.
Jack Coyne rounding off the scoring with his first ever championship point to complete a fine evening’s work for Mayo whose only time to trail was when Michael McKernan cut through the middle to kick the game’s opening point. Wing-back McKernan was one of the bright sparks on a Tyrone side that badly lacked the leadership of injured midfielder Brian Kennedy.
In Kennedy’s absence, Mayo bossed the central exchanges, with the aerial combativeness of Bob Tuohy, Matthew Ruane and David McBrien, and the battling qualities around the breaks of Conal Dawson in particular, giving Mayo an excellent platform upon which to take the game to their hosts.
After Rory Brickenden levelled the game with his first ever championship point, Dawson nudged Mayo ahead after which back-to-back frees, earned by Jack Carney and Aidan O’Shea, were converted by Ryan O’Donoghue, to leave Mayo 0-4 to 0-1 ahead after fifteen minutes.
Carney, O’Shea and O’Donoghue were Mayo’s inside three, the latter pair in particular causing havoc for the home defence during the opening 35 minutes.
A point by Ben McDonnell ended a thirteen minute scoreless spell by Tyrone but it would take them another fourteen minutes to score their third, during which time Mayo kicked five on the spin and were unfortunate not to add a couple of goals too. O’Shea, soccer-style, shot wide but then set up Ryan O’Donoghue who was thwarted by a last-ditch Seamie O’Donnell block, however, the points, by Brickenden, who was impressive at centre-back, Paddy Durcan, Colm Reape (scoring one of two ’45 attempts), Dawson and O’Donoghue, a free, had Mayo 0-9 to 0-2 in front by the 31st minute.
Darragh Canavan, who was being diligently marked by Jack Coyne, did pare back two points, including one from a self-won free, but Mayo controlled possession cleverly and patiently – and that goal after the hooter, when Darren McHale pounced on Niall Morgan’s calamitous error, was manna from heaven. The Connacht side now led 1-9 to 0-4.
They would have been out of sight altogether had a Ryan O’Donoghue goal effort not taken a deflection and struck the butt of an upright four minutes into the second-half. As it was, by the time O’Donoghue, with his fourth pointed free, opened Mayo’s second-half account in the 47th minute, Tyrone had shaken themselves into life.
McKernan drew a foul for Canavan to convert, and Mattie Donnelly’s one-two with Ciaran Daly resulted in another point before Niall Morgan advanced forward to combine with Kieran McGeary and set up Darragh Canavan, who danced through to fire past Reape.
Mayo, for a time, struggled to check Tyrone’s momentum, and while Paddy Durcan ran onto O’Shea’s pass and clipped over his second point, a brace by Darren McCurry, including one from a free, and a Morgan two-point free, meant that by the 55th minute Mayo’s advantage was down to the minimum, 1-11 to 1-10.
Tyrone had by now also introduced the quality of Peter Harte and Ruairí Canavan, however, Mayo had enough reserves in the tank to go again. In fact, their final quarter display was arguably the best we’ve seen of them in 2026.
A vital break won by Hession, Sean Morahan’s carry forward and Aidan O’Shea’s layoff, resulted in an excellent Jack Carney point, while the immediate impact of sub Davitt Neary was seen in his intercept of the attempted kick-out to Shea O’Hare, with his pass inside handing the brilliant Durcan yet another point.
Mayo’s next score was also due to Neary’s graft, as he took on O’Hare whose foul resulted in O’Donoghue firing over the free. And Neary even tracked deep into his own half to inspirationally throw himself in front of O’Hare’s kick and shortly after, was down at the other end winning a penalty.
Neary’s pace had torn a hole in the heart of the Tyrone defence and after feeding O’Shea, continued his run to receive the return. His upending by substitute Liam Gray resulted in O’Donoghue wrong-footing Morgan from the spot, to leave the result almost beyond doubt, with Mayo now 2-15 to 1-10 ahead and only seven minutes left on the clock.
Morgan landed another two-point free in what was the home side’s first score in fifteen minutes, and there was a single by Kieran McGeary too, but the final speak was to Aidan O’Shea, who Mayo utilised much better as a fulcrum, and Jack Coyne, whose late points guaranteed Mayo a fifth victory in seven championship meetings with Tyrone, stretching all the way back to 1989.
A sobering thought however, is that should they lose to Donegal in Round 3, and Tyrone beat Cavan, then Mayo will exit the championship. But beat Donegal and the Green and Red will top the group and advance directly to the quarter-finals.
Either outcome feels equally possible. It’s just Mayo’s way.
Scorers – Mayo: Ryan O’Donoghue 1-0-6 (1-0pen, 1f), Darren McHale 1-0-0, Paddy Durcan 0-0-3, Rory Brickenden and Conal Dawson 0-0-2 each, Jack Carney, Colm Reape (’45), Aidan O’Shea and Jack Coyne 0-0-1 each.
Tyrone: Darragh Canavan 1-0-3 (0-2f), Niall Morgan 0-2-0 (2tpf), Darren McCurry 0-0-2 (1f), Michael McKernan, Ben McDonnell, Mattie Donnell and Kieran McGeary 0-0-1 each.
Tyrone: Niall Morgan; Cormac Quinn, Peter Teague, Niall Devlin; Michael McKernan, Rory Brennan, Kieran McGeary; Ben McDonnell, Conn Kilpatrick; Seanie O’Donnell, Mattie Donnelly, Ciaran Daly; Darren McCurry, Mark Bradley, Darragh Canavan. Subs: Shea O’Hare and Liam Gray (for O’Donnell and Brennan ht), Peter Harte and Ruairí Canavan (for Daly and Bradley 47), Aodhan Donaghy (for McDonnell 62).
Mayo: Colm Reape; Jack Coyne, Sean Morahan, Enda Hession; Paddy Durcan, Rory Brickenden, Stephen Coen; David McBrien, Matthew Ruane; Conal Dawson, Darren McHale, Bob Tuohy; Jack Carney, Aidan O’Shea, Ryan O’Donoghue. Subs: Jordan Flynn and Davitt Neary (for Tuohy and McHale 52), Fenton Kelly (for Dawson 55), Fergal Boland (for Ruane 64), Sam Callinan (for Durcan 68).
REF: David Coldrick (Meath)
