Mayo 1-19, Cavan 3-7: win still leaves questions unanswered

The qualifiers are an oddity, aren’t they? It’s still the championship – in the pure distilled sense, given that one slip and you’re gone – but it doesn’t really feel as if it is. Maybe it’s to do with playing the matches on a Saturday evening – what’s wrong with 3.30pm on a Sunday, by the way? – and the fact that the attendances are well down on what you’d normally expect. Maybe it’s simply that, having failed so dismally in our sole Connacht championship outing back in May, we don’t truly believe there should be a second chance for us this year. I don’t know what it is but it certainly makes for a different championship experience.

McHale Park was far from jammers this evening. I’d say that the crowd was certainly no bigger than the 15,000 or so that were at the league clash with the Dubs back at the beginning of April. Cavan brought a small enough support, but that wasn’t hugely surprising given their expectations about the game. I thought we’d muster more support but clearly the faithful need a bit more time to come around.

This evening’s performance won’t have convinced too many doubters, it must be said. We won – which, in a knockout tournament is a big plus – and, in doing so, we racked up a very respectable scoreline. The young lads who were pitched in did, by and large, well and they can expect to be named in the starting fifteen next Saturday. But we were so bloody loose all over the field, it simply wasn’t amusing and our full-back line – with the honourable exception of the excellent Trevor Howley – was torn to pieces. Further adjustments to the team have to be made, and fast, or else next Saturday (unless we get another soft draw) our championship season will be over.

First, the positives. Pierce Hanley did very well on his debut and showed why he’s been spoken about in such exalted terms. He’s a strong lad, well able to put it about and capable of bursting forward with intent. He can score too – he got two excellent points from play, one in each half - and he’s able to create chances for those around him. He’s a definite addition to the team.

Barry Moran did okay as well, especially in the second half when more decent ball started to come into him. His handling wasn’t always that assured and he got knocked off the ball more than perhaps he should have but he laid off a few neat balls to create scores and he did get the goal at a crucial time to cancel out Cavan’s second green flag. He also did enough to keep his place.

David Kilcullen was alright at centre-back, where Trevor Mort put in a strong display beside him. He didn’t do a whole load wrong over the seventy minutes and was busy throughout, always ready to receive possession, generally sound defensively.

Trevor Howley played a stormer but he needed to as his colleagues in the full-back line were all over the shop. The repeated interceptions, tackles and clearances that he made (as well as those made by young Cunniffe when he came on for Aidan Higgins in the second half) helped to prevent things from getting too uncomfortable at the back in the second half.

Both Conor Mort and Alan Dillon used the space the lax Cavan backs gave them to wreak predictable havoc. Mort ended up with seven points, four of which were from play, while Dillon chipped in with five, two of them from placed balls. While it’s true that better opposition than Cavan would have more severely rationed the time and space the two lads were given, it’s also true that they made hay while the sun shone and ensured that the winning margin was healthy enough, despite the horrendous leakages at the back.

Which leads us neatly onto the negatives. Liam O’Malley had another nightmare performance to place alongside his Salthill one and was run ragged by the Cavan attack. He was continually beaten to the ball, forever being caught out of position and directly responsible for two of the Cavan goals.

Aidan Higgins in the corner wasn’t a whole load better though, for whatever reason, Johnno chose to replace Higgins and leave O’Malley in place, despite the fact that Cavan, aware that we were all at sea there, kept raining high ball into the area. Cavan’s ineptitude in attack was what saved us – any half-decent team would have punished our shortcomings in that sector far more severely but even still, bad and all as they were, they still got three goals against us.

Peadar Gardiner was very poor too and gave further proof that his place on the starting fifteen is under serious threat. Two late, mistimed tackles led to a booking followed by a ticking, which prompted Johnno to haul him out of the action before the half-time whistle has sounded. Gardiner’s departure did allow Ronan McGarritty to make a welcome return to midfield – with Heaney switching to wing-back – and while Ronan looked rusty enough at times, he did do quite a lot of good work and, once he recovers full fitness, he’ll be back as a real force in midfield for us.

We’ll need him back there too because Brady and Heaney didn’t exactly work their cojones off in that sector. For long periods of the game, we were very loose and lackadaisical around the middle and I though we gave Cavan far, far too much time and space on the ball. We didn’t close them down quick enough, we lacked aggression in the tackle and we didn’t seem to play with the kind of intensity that we know will be required if we’re going to be able to live with the top sides later in the year.

Cavan were limited enough opponents and would have resigned themselves to their fate far sooner had they not smelled blood in our backline. Once they got the taste for it, they were happy to return for more and the three goals they ended up scoring made the contest look a lot closer than it really should have been. We were never really in any danger – despite the yawning fault lines at the back – of losing this evening but this was mainly because of Cavan’s obvious shortcomings.

So we’re back in the hat tomorrow evening, with another championship tie facing us this day week. Regardless of who we draw (please let it be Meath in Navan, please, please, please), we need to find a full-back, and quick. David Brady gets my vote – Pat Harte will return from suspension the next day and so DB could easily shift back – failing which we may need to recall James Kilcullen to the position.

Overall then, this wasn’t the kind of compelling performance I had in mind when I discussed our prospects ahead of the game. However, unlike Cavan (not to mention Roscommon, Longford, Down and Leitrim), we’re still standing and now we must wait to see who’ll we get paired against tomorrow evening.

PS: I got plenty of video clips of Mayo’s scores this evening and will endeavour to post as many of them as possible to the YouTube Channel tomorrow evening, once I get back to base after this short but, on balance, enjoyable trip to the West.

The championship season starts here

This is it. No more second chances, one more loss and that’s it till the FBD League next January. After the ridiculously long layoff following the defeat in Salthill, we now potentially face an equally mad period of intensive activity . . . but only if we manage to win each tie we face.

If we get through tomorrow, then we’re in the hat on Sunday and back in action the next Saturday. If we win again, we’re back into the hat the night after that and then, depending on which of the losing provincial finalists we draw, we’re playing either the following weekend or the one after. Win again and then it’s a fortnight's break before the quarter-finals, the business end of the championship.

We’ve got at least this far in each of the past three seasons but it’s going to be a hell of a battle – what with the likes of Armagh, Donegal, Meath and Cork possibly barring our way – to make it through to the All-Ireland series this time round. But at least we now know what we have to do to get there – win, win and win again.

We should win – perhaps with some ease – against Cavan tomorrow. Paddy Power certainly thinks we will: we’re on offer at 1/7 and the three previews published to date, on RTE.ie, Hogan Stand and Setanta, all tip us to do it. Cavan in McHale Park: of course we should do it but only if we have learned the lessons we needed to after the trimming we got in Salthill back in May.

Much has been made of the sweeping changes to the team for tomorrow night. A little too much, to my mind. Some changes were inevitable and the injuries suffered by Keith and Super Mac, as well as Enda Devenney’s illness and Kenneth O’Malley’s lack of fitness following a recent injury (not to mention Pat Harte’s suspension) meant that there was always going to have to be a number of changes, no matter what team was being selected.

What was eye-catching, of course, was Johnno’s decision to turf the two Ballagh kids into such pivotal positions and, for good measure, his decision to gamble with Barry Moran at full-forward (that’s assuming he plays there, I’ve heard plenty of opinions to the contrary). But even here, what other choice did he have? Stick with Jimmy Nallen, Chucky and Ger Brady? The simple fact was that changes had to be made and all three central positions were effectively unoccupied (it's the same at full-back – Liam O’Malley is no long-term solution there) so Johnno needed some fresh talent to fill them.

Sure, it’s a gamble but it’s the right match in which to take such a risk. And it’s not totally radical – if he really wanted to wield the knife, the likes of Peadar Gardiner, Alan Dillon and one or two others could have found themselves warming their posteriors on the bench tomorrow evening. What we got was a combination of changes that were enforced and changes that plainly had to be made. The outcome does, I agree, look radical but I don't think that was the motivation behind the changes.

As I said the other day, it’s impossible to know how the new formation will perform but at least we don’t have too long to find out. What we’d all like to see, of course, would be a really compelling performance, one that would announce in no uncertain terms that we’re back in business, that the Summer – despite all the shite weather – has only just begun. I'm certainly looking forward to jumping in the car for the drive West tomorrow and to seeing the lads in action at McHale Park later on in the evening. We've been so thoroughly written off by all and sundry at this stage that it would be just great if we were to provide some compelling evidence tomorrow that we still have a part to play in this year's championship.

Johnno's Ballagh gamble

So it was a case, after all, of sweeping changes from Salthill. Some of the omissions from that match were enforced, like Keith Higgins, Pat Harte and, perhaps, Enda Devenney but the others - Kenneth O'Malley, James Nallen, Ger Brady and skipper Kevin O'Neill - weren't. There are seven changes in all, though three of those coming in - Aidan Higgins, Trevor Howley and David Brady - all played a part in Salthill (as did Super Mac whose hamstring injury rules him out for Saturday) and all three are fairly hardened competitors, as is David Clarke who displaces Kenneth O'Malley between the sticks.

However, the main talking points will undoubtedly be the parachuting of Barry Moran, a la Donaghy and Cussen, into full-forward (a position in which he played in the second half of last year's All-Ireland) and the championship debuts handed to the two Ballaghaderreen greenhorns, David Kilcullen and Pierce Hanley, in the pivotal centre-back and centre-forward positions respectively. Johnno is obviously going with his gut instinct here, as he'll know the Ballagh lads well.

Here's the team in full: D Clarke; A Higgins, L O'Malley, T Howley; P Gardiner (Capt), D Kilcullen, Trevor Mortimer; D Heaney, D Brady; BJ Padden, P Hanley, A Dillon; C Mortimer, B Moran, A Moran.

It's a radical remix, make no mistake, but I suppose when you look back at the display against Galway, significant changes had to be made. It's hard to know how this new formation will perform - we'll have to wait till 7pm on Saturday evening to find out, I guess.

That's it - we're still on hols dodging the deluge of rain. Well, at least the forecast for Saturday appears to be okay.

Holiday postcard (2)

I have a few on me at the minute, Your Honour, but Mayofans.com are reporting that this is the team for Saturday evening, which represents a fairly sweeping number of changes from Salthill. For a number of reasons, it's information worth sleeping on.

Holiday postcard (1)

It's only gorgeous here but the only problem is that, seeing as we haven't left the jurisdiction, it's still bucketing down. Nothing for it but to head for the swimming pool - we may as well get properly wet.

Right, to business. Today's Indo carries a brief story which says that Campbell and Austie are fit but that Devenney, David Kilcullen and Super Mac are all doubtful. In the Mayo News, meanwhile, Johnno confirms that Mac won't be fit for Sunday. In the same paper, there's also an interesting report on the Big Wind final of 1948 against Cavan which, as the report says, shows that our All-Ireland final heartbreaks didn't start with Colm Coyle in 1996. In his weekly column, Kevin McStay mentions all the rumours emanating from Cavan about players buggering off to the States and morale being on the floor but he then cautions that pre-match rumours carry as much weight as performances in challenge matches. That's a fairly apposite comparison, methinks.

That's it. Gotta dash, swimming pool is calling. Wish you were here and all that.

A short break

We (that’s me and the wife, not the royal plural) have decided that, what with the chisellers off school and all that, it’s time for the lot of us to have a few days away together, to recharge the batteries and what not. Okay, okay, I recognise that, after weeks of inactivity, these are the final few days leading up to our second championship outing of the Summer and that, no doubt, there will be the odd few morsels of news about the team that will need to be conveyed to the wider world.

In this context, I can reveal that I have a two-pronged strategy for dealing with the critical information need that will exist over the coming few days. One prong comprises my laptop and the availability of the wonderful Bitbuzz Wi-Fi service in the hideaway to which we’ll all be skedalling in a few hours time. The second is my adoption of a more staccato-like writing style, sort of like Ernest Hemingway (of whom it was said that his writing was like an iceberg, in that he only put in a fraction of what he wanted to convey, leaving the reader to do the rest) but without the bulls. Or maybe like Big Tom (no, not THAT Big Tom, THIS one). With his. Two word. Sentences, yeah.

Adios, compadres. There’s a. Car to. Pack, like.

Graham Geraghty's political credentials

You have to hand it to him, you really do. Graham Geraghty first showed his adroit political sensibilities Down Under in 1999 and has always been known as a man who is far from afraid to, ahem, fight his corner. Up till now, these confrontations have tended to be with the opposition - as, for example, Dublin's David Henry could testify from their encounter a few weeks back - but reports today suggest that his penchant for such manly romping extends to the internecine variety as well. A fully-fledged Alpha Male, one that's well capable of putting it about both verbally and physically: you can see now why the Blueshirts wanted him on board. It's such a pity those unenlightened electors in Meath West only saw fit to bestow 1,284 first preference votes on him: can you could just imagine what he'd have done to John O'Donoghue in the Dail had the new Ceann Comhairle had that toddler fit with him instead of with Mayo's own Michael Ring?