Fawning over Mayo

[An Fhairche Abu]

It's gone way over the top, they are not dead FFS. The Sunday Game montage bit last Sunday was like something you'd see for an "in memoriam" piece.

[Syferus]

It's gone way over the top, they are not dead FFS. The Sunday Game montage bit last Sunday was like something you'd see for an "in memoriam" piece.

This is the end of the chase for the core of the team that's been there since 2011, whether they know it or not. What you're railing against is something that's only acknowledging that fact. Their window lasted longer than it probably should have in the first place.

[manfromdelmonte]

Will mayo even bother entering next year's championship?

[weareros]

Eamonn Sweeney got in on the act yesterday. A tad OTT I feel.

Eamonn Sweeney

July 2 2018 5:00 PM

God, we'll miss them.

Ha Ha Ha. Sweeney needs to cop on. They are gone nowhere and will probably put five goals past Sligo next year.

[From the Bunker]

Will mayo even bother entering next year's championship?

Westmeath came as close as any to not bothering to enter the Championship this year!

[manfromdelmonte]

Will mayo even bother entering next year's championship?

Westmeath came as close as any to not bothering to enter the Championship this year!

They did, the useless feckers

[Maroon Manc]

Eamonn Sweeney got in on the act yesterday. A tad OTT I feel.

Eamonn Sweeney

July 2 2018 5:00 PM

God, we'll miss them.

Ha Ha Ha. Sweeney needs to cop on. They are gone nowhere and will probably put five goals past Sligo next year.

Gone as All Ireland contenders though.

[Captain Obvious]

Mayo 2011-2018 were a team unlike any other. They were everyone's favourite other side. They were Ireland's team.

God, we'll miss them.

Ya just a tad OTT.

Is that the end of Rochford now?  given 3 years won nothing regularly struggled to stay up in Division one and they were unable to shake off their poor league form in the championship this summer.  In those 3 years how many top team performance have Mayo produced? is their patchy form on route to the 2016,2017 finals now ignored within the narrative? how much was their competitive showings in those finals was more about Dublin on the day as one has to take into account that Dublin haven't won All Ireland final by a bit to spare since the 70s

For All Ireland contender that Mayo was why was their bench so weak this year and why would county like that be giving debuts to players in the summer when they should be tested during the league first.

[From the Bunker]

Eamonn Sweeney got in on the act yesterday. A tad OTT I feel.

Eamonn Sweeney

July 2 2018 5:00 PM

God, we'll miss them.

Ha Ha Ha. Sweeney needs to cop on. They are gone nowhere and will probably put five goals past Sligo next year.

Gone as All Ireland contenders though.

We are not alone there!

[seafoid]

Greatest ever never to win Sam. Not sure about that.  Teams that played pre qfs like Galway early 70s ( also lost 3) Armagh late 70s, Ros late 70s and Monaghan 80s (unlucky to peak along with Kerry) would also be in the mix. . The late 90s Kildare team wasn't bad either.

[Owenmoresider]

Eamonn Sweeney got in on the act yesterday. A tad OTT I feel.

Eamonn Sweeney

July 2 2018 5:00 PM


The two-goal start handed to Donegal in the 2012 All-Ireland final, the defensive mix-up which gave Bernard Brogan his first goal in the 2013 decider, the five-point lead with five minutes left lost in the 2014 semi against Kerry, the two own goals in the drawn 2016 meeting with Dublin, the decision to replace All-Star goalkeeper David Clarke for the replay, the red card for Donal Vaughan just when it looked like they'd have an extra man for the closing 20 minutes of last year's final.

No team ever amassed quite as many might-have-been moments as Mayo. Their story is one of turning points which turned the wrong way. Hope and history never quite rhymed. Lady Luck always left with someone else.

A momentous era ended in Newbridge on Saturday night. It began on July 31, 2011 when an unfancied Mayo side, who'd only defeated London by a single point in their opening Connacht Championship match, beat reigning All-Ireland champions Cork 1-13 to 2-6 in a Croke Park quarter-final. Kerry disposed of them easily enough next time out but Mayo, under manager James Horan, seemed a team on the way up. The following year they once more upset the reigning champs, beating Dublin by three points in a tremendous semi-final. Yet this was Donegal and Jim McGuinness's year. Cynics suggested Mayo had merely made life easier for the new champions by clearing a better side out of the way.

Mayo demanded respect in 2013. For the third year in a row they deposed the title-holders, beating Donegal by 16 points in the quarter-final. The final could have gone either way but it went Dublin's by a point. Yet it looked like Mayo's time would surely come soon.


They were perhaps never better than in the 2014 semi-final against Kerry. Mayo played the second half with 14 men after Lee Keegan was sent off just before the break but looked to have won the game before Kieran Donaghy came on.

The moment when the big man superbly fielded a high ball before slipping it to James O'Donoghue who stuck it into the net felt like a significant turning point. Mayo lost the replay after extra-time, their disappointment exacerbated by a sense of injustice. There were some dubious refereeing decisions and the game had been played in Kingdom-friendly Limerick because Croke Park was hosting an American Football match.

The resignation of Horan afterwards seemed to confirm the feeling that this Mayo side, like their predecessors who'd lost the 1996 and 1997 and 2004 and 2006 finals, would fade away in the face of sustained disappointment.

Yet they were back in the semis the following year, under the joint management of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes, and led Dublin going into the final quarter before being undone by a devastating three-goal burst.

A players' putsch saw Stephen Rochford take over as manager for 2016 but a first Connacht Championship defeat to Galway in eight years and a halting progress through the qualifiers suggested a team in decline. Few predicted anything other than comprehensive defeat for them in the final against Dublin.

Instead Mayo would have won the drawn game but for own goals from Kevin McLoughlin and Colm Boyle which kept the floundering Dubs in the contest. The unfortunate nature of both scores made you wonder if somebody up there didn't like Mayo.

In the replay, the misfortune was self-inflicted. Rochford's decision to replace Clarke with Rob Hennelly may well be the worst miscalculation in All-Ireland football final history. A botched kick-out by the replacement led to Lee Keegan, the best player in football that year, getting a black card. A Hennelly fumble gave Dublin a penalty converted by Diarmuid Connolly which proved vital as Mayo lost a second final in four years by a single point.

By now Mayo's attempts to finally land the All-Ireland had become Irish sport's great epic quest. Their 2017 championship campaign was extraordinary. Another defeat by Galway led to an odyssey which saw them play seven games, two of which went to extra-time, before encountering Dublin once more in the final.

When an inspired Mayo led by two points with six minutes left, the grail seemed within their grasp. Instead Dublin prevailed by one point for a third time. Cillian O'Connor's free to put Mayo ahead in injury-time came back off the post, Dean Rock's similar effort for Dublin sailed over.

The Mayo story had come to seem like the saddest GAA story ever told. Yet the memories are not all of what might have been.

There's also Kevin McLoughlin's rocket against Cork that announced the team's arrival, David Clarke pulling off a point-blank save from Bernard Brogan, Aidan O'Shea soaring high and finishing with aplomb against Donegal, Cillian O'Connor landing a last-ditch equaliser against the Dubs, Lee Keegan galloping through the Dublin defence and lashing a shot past Stephen Cluxton, Keith Higgins hunting down and foiling Paul Geaney with the game in the balance, Chris Barrett's herculean blocks, intercepts and dispossessions in last year's final and the whole of Andy Moran's incredible 2017.

Saturday's game ended with Moran firing a shot narrowly over. Last year he produced probably the greatest veteran season in GAA history. This year he fought to the bitter end. He deserved better and so did his team-mates. A popular cliché tells us that no-one remembers the runners-up. But everyone will remember this Mayo side.

They'll be remembered when some teams which did win the Sam Maguire are forgotten outside their own county.

Mayo's big fault may have been that sometimes they cared a little too much and tried a little too hard. A touch more sang-froid at key moments might have worked wonders. But their flaws only made this big-hearted team all the more engaging. There was something emotionally involving about almost every one of their games.

Mayo 2011-2018 were a team unlike any other. They were everyone's favourite other side. They were Ireland's team.

God, we'll miss them.

Can't believe a Sligoman would be fawning over Mayo to that extent. Everyone's favourite other side my hole.

[Cunny Funt]

Is that the same Eamonn Sweeney that dubbed Mayo a team of lions led by donkeys?

[Maroon Manc]

Greatest ever never to win Sam. Not sure about that.  Teams that played pre qfs like Galway early 70s ( also lost 3) Armagh late 70s, Ros late 70s and Monaghan 80s (unlucky to peak along with Kerry) would also be in the mix. . The late 90s Kildare team wasn't bad either.

They are in my time but looking back through history I'd say there are, could easily have been 6 finals in a row as the 2 semi's they lost in 14 & 15 were replays.

[GetOverTheBar]

Am I the only person thinks that, assuming the Mayo Club Championship will be in full slow / League resolved early. This could be the first break that a lot of these guys get for maybe 3/4 years?

They might not be done just yet....

Obviously logistical issues will mean they meander along in the league as they seem to normally do, but they suffered badly with injury this year, nobody bar Dublin could have coped. There might be more left in the tank after a bit of time off.

[TheGreatest]

The dirtiest and most cynical team this decade and still couldn't win the big one, even being so far ahead in certain games.

I know a guy from Mayo, big into GAA and all sports, but supports the Galway Hurlers and Sligo Rovers,  wont support the Mayo footballers, says overhyped and the fans are akin to the Leinster rugby fans, he says he's know time for them.