1. Have they blown their chance?
WHILE BOTH SIDES would have woken up on Monday morning with a distinct sense of relief, Mayo will be the team far more pleased with their level of performance. They outplayed Dublin for long spells, and were forced to dig deep as their lives flashed before their eyes in those frantic seven minutes of added time.
The problem is, it’s unlikely Dublin will look quite as ordinary or sluggish in the replay. But these things are never as straightforward as they appear. It’s too simplistic to suggest that Dublin will be better the next day out, and therefore they’ll win.
Mayo have plenty of reasons to feel they’ll have another level to hit the next day out too. It’s four weeks since they last played, and that was a routine five-point semi-final win over Tipperary, hardly the ideal preparation for facing the All-Ireland champions.
So its fair to assume Mayo will be brought on from going toe-to-toe with Dublin.
2. How does Rochford get more out of Aidan O’Shea?
One of the biggest challenges facing Stephen Rochford. One of these days, Aidan O’Shea is going to take an All-Ireland final by the scruff of its neck, and until he does they’ll struggle to get over that last hurdle.
He flitted in and out of the game, drifting between 11 and 14, but never really imposing himself on it. His work-rate can’t be faulted and he led from the front in terms of tackling, but Mayo are still not finding their talisman with the right ball.
O’Shea made a desperately poor decision to shoot from outside the 45 with two minutes of injury-time left, and his blushes were spared by Cillian O’Connor’s pinpoint leveler.
3. How do Mayo stop Brian Fenton?
One of the biggest holes in Mayo’s performance was their inability to deal with Brian Fenton’s mobility around the middle third. Fenton broke forward for two shots on goal in the opening 35 minutes, the first of which resulted in Kevin McLoughlin’s own goal.
Fenton was Mayo’s chief tormentor and he ran Seamus O’Shea ragged. The Breaffy midfielder ran out of steam badly in the second period, gifting Dublin back possession on three separate occasions. Those misplaced passes came from a tired mind, a direct result of tracking Fenton’s runs all afternoon.
Might Rochford consider deploying Donal Vaughan on Fenton for the rematch? That could be a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul, but something needs to be done to counteract Fenton’s dominance.
4. How much confidence will they take from snatching a draw?
Maybe God is a Galway man with a wicked sense of humour. Whatever it is, misfortune seems to seek out Mayo on these big September days. There was a consensus during the week that preventing Dublin from scoring goals was vital to Sam making the trip out west.
How can you legislate for shipping two own goals in the first-half of an All-Ireland final? The problem for Mayo is that both goals came from genuine Dublin goal chances. On a dry day you’d certainly be expecting Dean Rock to be finish his chance.
While there may have been plenty of people writing their obituaries, this group of players just got on with it. They simply refused to quit, and the manner of their late, late show should give them a serious boost heading another two weeks of build-up.
5. Can they boss the physical exchanges once again?
Whatever about the number of unforced errors Dublin made in possession, Mayo set the bar in the physicality stakes.
They hit a far higher pitch in terms of hits and turnovers, and Dublin didn’t look ready for that sort of intensity, especially early on. Lee Keegan’s tussle with Diarmuid Connolly threatened to take centre-stage on occasions, but it was symptomatic of the sort of lengths Mayo were prepared to go to in order to keep Dublin’s forwards at bay.
There were some brilliant displays of man-marking from Keegan, Brendan Harrison, Colm Boyle, Keith Higgins and Patrick Durcan, while in attack their forwards showed an appetite for defensive work and tackling.
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