Jim Gavin has never lost to Mayo.
In five seasons, they’ve met 11 times. Dublin have prevailed in eight of them. Mayo held them in three.
2013
3 games. 3 wins.
NFL: Dublin 2-14 Mayo 0-16
NFL semi-final: Dublin 2-16 Mayo 0-16
All-Ireland final: Dublin 2-12 Mayo 1-14
2014
1 game. 1 draw.
NFL: Dublin 3-14 Mayo 2-17
2015
3 games. 2 wins. 1 draw.
NFL: Mayo 0-10 Dublin 2-18
All-Ireland semi-final: Dublin 2-12 Mayo 1-15
All-Ireland semi-final: Dublin 3-15 Mayo 1-14
2016
3 games. 2 wins. 1 draw.
NFL: Mayo 0-7 Dublin 0-9
All-Ireland final: Dublin 0-15 Mayo 2-9
All-Ireland final: Dublin 1-15 Mayo 1-14
2017
1 game. 1 win.
NFL: Dublin 1-16 Mayo 0-7
It’s some record and one you’d nearly start to worry about if you hadn’t already long since passed that stage. These are the two best teams in the country except one hasn’t tasted victory since a dozen games ago. It’s a serious rivalry but seriously lopsided too.
Before Saturday night’s league clash at Croke Park, Colm Parkinson declared on The GAA Hour that Mayo simply had to win.
“A lot of the players now on the Dublin team will have never lost to Mayo, they just won’t entertain it,” he said.
“Likewise, a lot of the Mayo players – the newer players – will have never beaten Dublin.
“They’ve lost seven and drawn three of their last 10 games against Dublin in league and championship so, psychologically, this just cannot happen again.”
It did happen again. It’s a scary habit of Jim Gavin’s now and when you look at something like their kickout strategy for Mayo’s kicks, you can see the attention to detail the Dubliner pays to setting his team up for the challenge of the westerners.
The champions pressured David Clarke’s kick, they attacked it with venom and it drew serious results.
When Clarke wasn’t forced to go desperately short and leave Mayo with the whole of Croke Park to scale, his kicks were 50/50 toss-ups and the Dubs went for them with vigour.
Dublin had seven men on or inside the Mayo 45′.
Dublin left Mayo men free in their own half to apply the pressure.
Dublin’s two wing backs pushed forward to block the channels for Mayo.
They didn’t man mark. Mayo players were free, Dublin held their shape.
They pushed up with 11 men in the Mayo half – 10 inside the Mayo 65′ – and let David Clarke find the solutions. Dublin dictated what Mayo could and couldn’t do from the opposition’s kickout and when the Connacht men went short, they were more often than not laboured and slow coming out.
At one point in the second half, Mayo had two kick passes made including Clarke’s initial kick, by the time the second was caught, they had actually retreated.
Jim Gavin asked the questions and, on Saturday night, he got no answers.
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