It is the lot of the Mayo supporter to
walk with ghosts. Ghosts of past players he or she has seen, memories of past
achievements and disappointments, echoes of what-ifs and maybes. Mayo went into
Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Donegal with a lot of questions to
answer. Some were obvious, like the goal-leakage identified by Malachy Clerkin
in the Irish Times on Saturday. Some were a little more taboo; not spoken of,
but certainly on people’s minds, shoulder-to-shoulder with all those ghosts.
It is to their eternal credit that the
Mayo team and management answered all questions asked of them on Saturday, and
more. Had the last of the four All-Ireland quarter-finals been an exam, Mayo
would have graduated summa cum laude.
Top of the class were the new management
team of Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly. The challenges they had to overcome were
many. Firstly, they had very big boots to fill. Secondly, the strange
circumstances of their appointment meant that a lot of goodwill was lost at the
start. Thirdly, the League campaign did nothing to ease the constantly frayed
nerves of the Mayo support.
And fourthly, perhaps most importantly,
the last time the Mayo County Board appointed a manager to give a team that one
final push to bring Sam home, the appointee dismantled the team instead, put
together a ragbag army similar to General Humbert’s, and suffered the same fate
– cut down in Longford, beyond mourning or pity. The thought of the same fate
happening the current group of players was distressing in the extreme.
Neither Pat nor Noel is a media creature.
James Horan’s frequent media appearances have added to his reputation as a
sharp analyst of contemporary football, while Jim McGuinness’s guru status is
inviolable at this stage.
There isn’t quite the same bang off Pat
and Noel, and the helplessless of the Mayo display against Dublin did nothing
to dispel that impression. Post-Connacht final talk of a “secret plan” to shut
down the greatest player in Ireland currently, Michael Murphy, sounded like
people whistling past the graveyard to try to control their terror.
And then, on a dark Saturday evening in
Croke Park, Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly rolled a gigantic wooden horse called Barry Moran out
between Mayo’s full- and half-back lines and seventy minutes later, Mayo were not only back at
the big table, but they were consuming all around them, roaring
for more, more, more at the tops of their voices.
For Mayo, Saturday was a story of
redemption. Barry Moran, so often cursed by injury, has now played on every
line bar the goals. The man has a heart the size of a farm in Meath and to see him work
was a joy.
As was the return of Ger Cafferkey.
Cafferkey was a permanent selection in the Horan era, and seemed to be taking
more of the blame than he deserved for events against Kerry last year. On
Saturday he reminded everyone that there is no real substitute for class.
And when we speak of class, what can we
tell of Tom Parsons? Missing from Championship football for four years, who
knows what sort of grafting that man had to do to tame his natural talent and
focus it to the purpose of the group?
Whatever he’s done, it’s paid off in
silver dollars. The Mayo heart can only fill with joy at the thought of these
proud men and the leadership and character they’re showing, summer after
summer, setback after setback.
Was it a perfect display? Of course not.
Some of the substitutions were puzzling. Cillian O’Connor was unusually
inaccurate with the dead balls. There is always something unnatural about a
Gaelic football team sitting a lead rather than racking up scores. But these
are small cavils in what was a great display against a very, very fine team.
Donegal were leggy and by no means at full-throttle but they still had it in
them to bury Mayo. Victory over this Donegal team is no mean feat.
And now, the Dubs. All Mayo is suffused
with delicious anticipation of another pop at the metropolitans, not least as
previous clashes between the counties have had such edges. The matchups are as
stars in the sky, as each management team tries to anticipate and out-general
the other. There has never been a bad time to be a Mayo man or woman but right
now, for those with an interest in football the summer wine is very sweet
indeed.
