Sunday should answer some unresolved questions about new-look Mayo

It is one of the peculiarities of modern Gaelic football that we spend the first quarter of the year focused on a competition that offers few, if any, clues about the championship season to come.

The results from the Leinster Football Championship over the weekend perfectly illustrate the point. Westmeath finished in third place in the National Football League Division 3, having lost to Wexford, Laois and Down, whereas Meath topped Division 2 with just one loss in seven games. Yet it was Westmeath who emerged triumphant when the neighbours met on Sunday afternoon, while Wexford and Laois also exited the Leinster championship, leaving Westmeath in a semi-final against Kildare. Anyone who would have suggested that on the last day of the league would have been laughed at.

Similarly, in Connacht, we saw Leitrim shrug off a dismal league campaign in Division 4 to record an unexpected victory over Division 3 side Sligo, although that result was not on the same scale as Westmeath’s shock defeat of one of the favourites for the Leinster senior title. It was, however, another reminder that league form is a poor guide for championship.

So, what of Mayo and Roscommon who meet next Sunday in an eagerly anticipated Connacht semi-final in MacHale Park in Castlebar? Both teams enjoyed satisfactory league campaigns under new management, having commenced the competition with many of their own supporters fearing relegation. In Mayo’s case, the league produced a lot of positives – the retention of Division 1 status, the emergence of some new young talent and the adoption of a free-flowing style of play that is more rooted in the county’s traditions.

Roscommon had a similarly encouraging league campaign and, like Mayo, were in the hunt for a place in the final right up to the last round of fixtures. Indeed, manager Mark Dowd’s decision to field a second-string team for the final round tie against Mayo raised some eyebrows as it effectively scuppered any hopes Roscommon might have had of reaching their first Division 1 final in over 40 years.

The Roscommon faithful will hope there was a grand strategy at work here and that Dowd intends to gain revenge for that heavy defeat to Mayo a few weeks ago when the two sides clash on Sunday afternoon. Roscommon are certainly coming to Castlebar with more confidence than at any time since the 1980s when the great Clan na nGael club was in its pomp. The defeat of Mayo in 1986 was followed by a long lean period up to 2019 when Roscommon finally defeated the home side in Castlebar en route to their last senior championship. Four years later, they repeated the dose when Mayo were perhaps caught cold a week after a league final victory over Galway.

Notwithstanding the earlier caveat about league form, Mayo go into this championship tie on the back of a league campaign that would have been largely encouraging were it not for two dismal displays away to Kerry and Donegal. Intriguingly, Roscommon performed well against last year’s All-Ireland finalists – they were robbed by the hooter in Killarney before recording a fantastic win against Donegal in wintry conditions in Dr Hyde Park in March. Indeed, if we were to measure both sides on their displays against Kerry and Donegal then Roscommon would be strong favourites for this fixture, but straight form lines like that just don’t exist between league and championship.

The question for Mayo is whether they can beat Roscommon in a free-flowing encounter where both sides will be afforded plenty of scoring opportunities. The previous management of Kevin McStay and Stephen Rochford adopted a rigid, conservative style of football – even after the new rules were introduced last year – and ultimately it became a turn-off for supporters who wanted to see a more traditional Mayo style.

Andy Moran has made no secret of his desire to get back to the attacking style he would have known as a player but whether Mayo have the players to carry through with this is a big unknown. Mayo scored 12 goals in seven games in the National League but conceded 11, compared to a year ago when they scored five and conceded five in seven league games. So, the scoring rate has gone up, but so too has the concession of goals and that is a concern ahead of a Connacht semi-final against a Roscommon team with a potent forward line. A philosophy of ‘we’ll score more than you’ tends to come a cropper in big championship games – as Mayo have found to their cost on many occasions in the past.

Another big unknown for Mayo is at midfield where there appears to be a lack of strong ball winners. Bob Tuohy had a fine league campaign, and hopefully the Castlebar Mitchels man can continue that excellent form into the championship, but he cannot carry the midfield on his own, and Mayo don’t appear to have a huge amount of strength in depth in that sector. Some of Mayo’s options at midfield would seem to have been better suited to the old rules when winning primary possession from long kickouts was almost a relic of a bygone era – it is now back in vogue as we saw in the league final when Donegal gave a masterclass in midfield dominance.

The emergence of young forwards like Cian McHale, Darragh Beirne and Kobe McDonald is a hugely positive development for Mayo and one expects they will have a big part to play throughout the championship, although anyone who thinks a Leaving Cert student can inspire a team to a first All-Ireland senior title in 75 years is living in the same parallel universe as the US President.

McHale played well in his championship debut against London and is likely to retain his place for the Roscommon game. Not only is he capable of scoring vital goals, the Moy Davitts man is adept at kicking two-pointers and is very accomplished from placed balls, so he offers a lot of options in front of goal. The same cannot be said of Aidan O’Shea who is rarely a scoring threat – whatever about his ball-winning capabilities and general leadership. O’Shea’s longevity is exceptional and he certainly has a role to play for Mayo, but whether he would be better coming off the bench and offering himself as an option for kickouts is something the manager may have to consider as the championship progresses. Even after all these years – and hundreds of games – we still don’t know Aidan O’Shea’s best position and we probably never will, but he is not a natural forward and that was starkly illustrated against London when he had a great goal-scoring opportunity in the first-half but was unable to convert. It was a cameo that was in sharp contrast to some of the clinical finishing we have seen this year from McHale, Beirne and McDonald at senior, Sigerson and U20 levels.

The league campaign may have left supporters with many unresolved questions about Andy Moran’s new-look Mayo, but we are certainly going to get some answers next Sunday. Retaining the county’s status in Division 1 was obviously a key priority for Moran at the start of the year, but so much of his focus will have been on this fixture, not least because he knows only too well the importance of the rivalry with Roscommon. No Ballaghaderreen man with Mayo roots wants to lose to the noisy neighbour so Moran won’t have to work too hard to motivate his team next Sunday – they will know what this means to him and hopefully they will deliver a performance that befits the sort of enthusiasm and bravery that always characterised Moran’s on-field performances. If the team mirrors the manager’s personality, then the Mayo faithful should have nothing to worry about in the first big championship test of Andy Moran’s reign.