“Mayo are so frustrating. They work so hard to get into games, then they just kick it away. It’s the theme with them.”
Mayo were six points down at half-time of their National League clash against Tyrone but, coming out for the second half, you just knew they’d get back into the game.
It’s what they do. Ryan O’Donoghue kicked a beauty as did Jordan Flynn and Jack Carney and suddenly, from a position of great desperation, they had the wind at their backs and the wind in their sails. They were only a point down and they looked the likely lads.
Then, in a slew of misplaced passes, missed chances and broke-down attacks, they kicked two points in the last twenty five minutes of the game. It’s a pattern we saw last week in Tralee and one we’ve seen many times in the last number of years where, after getting themselves into great positions, Mayo don’t score enough when it comes to the crunch.
In fairness, they’ve won their fair share of big games but only when they really deserve to win them. It’s those get-out-of-jail scores on a day when they’re struggling that they don’t see enough of.
Eamon McGee discussed this issue on Monday’s GAA Hour.
“You can talk about personnel changes but that theme remains the same with Mayo,” said the Donegal man.
“This goes back to the big battles they had with Dublin. They’re a team I have so much respect for but it’s just so frustrating how many chances they miss. It’s the same throughout the years. It just reminds me of Kevin McLoughlin against Tyrone, he made so many bad decisions and they lost momentum then when they had Tyrone on the rack. That just seems to be what they do throughout the years.”
“They work so hard to get into these games,” he added, “then they just kick it away.”
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Where Aidan O’Shea fits into it all is always a hot topic out in Mayo and, while a big admirer of the Breaffy player, Darran O’Sullivan feels that Mayo’s running game doesn’t play to his strenghts.
“He played quite well against Kerry, taking away the late free. I’d be a big fan of Aidan O’Shea but I just don’t think the style of football Mayo have suits him. I think, in another county he’d be one of the main men and he still is because he’s a leader, but I don’t think they have a place to fit him,” he added.
O’Sullivan was disappointed with Mayo’s experimental team selection on Saturday night and feels that they should be going all out to win this National League.
“You’d think that would be a big thing for Mayo now, going into the last League game, looking to get their best team out there. Surely to God they’re thinking, ‘let’s get to the final and win it.’ Winning is a habit like and without making a dig, a lot of Mayo’s experienced players don’t have the experience of winning those games and that’s not a dig, it’s just a fact. The more big games you play and the more big games you win, that’s what gives you confidence down the stretch of those big games.”
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