NO COMPLAINTS FROM Kevin McStay.
The Mayo manager saw his team bow out of the 2023 championship race today, powerless to suppress the Dublin machine when it got motoring after half-time.
It was game where they were very much in contention at the break, trailing by a single point, but their form collapsed in the second half as Dublin moved out of reach.
“It’s a tough arena to be in when the Dubs are in their pomp. The gap at the end, I don’t think we deserved that gap. My overall sense at half-time was we were well in the game. We were well positioned and the goal chance in the first half that hadn’t gone our way.
“And then the goal chance we gave away at the Hill End, then we missed one at the Canal End, they are big swings and Dublin took real oxygen from it, came alive and found their best championship form I’d say to date. No excuses in terms of the result, they were the better team by far, a very good Dublin team when they were at it.
“I think they selected very well, when we got the changes it was obvious to us they were very afraid of our pace up top and they were hoping to get the game to the third quarter and bring on then their pacey guys, Jack obviously in particular, Paddy Small and so on.
“But we had managed it well until half-time, we had given them a lot of problems up in the full-forward line, Tommy and Ryan and Aidan were busy I felt throughout that period. We’re definitely breathing, we want to get a third quarter and then the goal we give away but you have to credit Dublin, look at the way they finished that goal. In that moment they were clinical, there was no chance that was going to be missed. That hurt us.”
Despite playing for the third successive weekend, the Mayo boss was not keen to point at that as a reason for their defeat.
“I don’t honestly believe it impacted, it’s not somewhere I’d be going anyway in terms of an excuse, but there is a reality that the fortnight is the better rhythm. If you drill down into it we missed three sessions because we lost to Cork. We missed Saturday, Monday, and next Thursday if we were playing fortnight on fortnight.
“So that’s a big thing we’ll have to figure out, I’m sure the format will stay pretty much the same so we’ll learn that bit, that when you are in a good position to top your group, it’s probably the best way.
“But absolutely no excuses, that’s not the space that the group are in and we tip our hat to Dublin, they were really good. Good luck to them, two to go for them, we have to say goodbye.”
McStay reflected on Mayo’s season where they were crowned league champions before a championship campaign yielded three wins and three defeats.
“In mitigation I’m going to say our players gave us a great spin this year, we had four essentially although they were panelists for a year or two, they were rookies up around here and they will take an awful lot from this experience.
“And we had a decent spring, I have to look at this in the round and see where we are going. It’s not what we wanted and championship is championship, I totally understand that.
“But in terms of building out what we wanted, it wasn’t a bad year. It didn’t end the way we wanted because we thought there was another round or two we might get to but the Dubs fairly closed that door today.”
