SOMETIMES STATISTICS CAN be used to fit certain narratives.
For instance, it’s been seven and a half years since Mayo last beat Dublin. Therefore, they must have some sort of psychological block against the Dubs, right?
Wrong.
Some familiar problems returned to haunt Mayo against Dublin in Castlebar last night. Chief among them was their issues in front of goal. The hosts shot 10 wides and dropped another four into Evan Comerford’s hands, which gave them a shot efficiency of just 36%.
While Dublin’s shot efficiency was 50% in the opening period, they were far more clinical after the break and that figure rose to 78%.
Of course, Jordan Flynn’s red card after a quarter of an hour made life extremely difficult for his team-mates. They naturally tired as the match went on and Dublin dominated the ball.
Given the strength of the team he put out, Dessie Farrell was clearly determined not to concede a psychological edge to his opponents this early in his reign. Still, he played down the significance of Dublin’s lengthy unbeaten run against their Connacht rivals following the game.
“From our perspective we don’t look at it that way – it’s just the next game, next game, next game,” said the Na Fianna man.
“It’s probably a better question for somebody from Mayo, to be honest.”
James Horan didn’t bite when it was put to him that the run of 16 games without victory must be a source of great frustration.
“It is not a record,” he stated.
“You’d know about them (the run of games), they’d be in the media or whatever.
“You take every game at face value so you are always going to try and win, particularly a home game when the All-Ireland champions, you are definitely going to try and win that.
“Then where there is records on top of it, it is an added incentive but it is not your primary focus.
“That game today, we started well, we were tackling well, we were doing well. We ran out of juice. Who knows, we may have been beaten if we had 15 men.
“But you never know. A lot of the things we would have been looking for tonight, we had there. We will move on quickly.”
It’s unfair to accuse Mayo of having some psychological barrier to beating Dublin.
Granted, their winless run now stretches 16 games (and 13 defeats) in league and championship. It goes all the way back to Horan’s first tenure as boss, when Mayo beat the Dubs twice in 2012.
They handed out a 0-20 to 0-8 league thumping in Castlebar that March before their surprise All-Ireland semi-final win in September led to Pat Gilroy’s resignation and Jim Gavin’s arrival at the helm.
No side came nearly as close to toppling Gavin’s all-conquering side in the championship as Mayo did, up until Kerry brought Dublin to a replay at the tail-end of last season.
Mayo held no fear of Dublin and were undoubtedly their fiercest rivals in the five-in-a-row run. They were the one team who could match them physically all over the field.
Mayo’s style of play, going man-on-man in defence and a strong running game from deep, hurt Gavin’s side in ways no other team could.
There were draws in the All-Ireland semi-final and final, plus one-point Dublin wins in the finals of 2013, 2016 (replay) and 2017.
Much of Mayo’s woes against the Sky Blues have been self-inflicted wounds.
From Lee Keegan’s glorious chance to put Mayo five ahead with a point attempt that dropped short midway through the second-half of the 2015 decider, the two own goals in the 2016 drawn final, Rob Hennelly’s error that led to a goal in 2016 replay to Donal Vaughan’s red card in the 2017 All-Ireland defeat.
But their real issue has always been putting enough scores on the board to beat the Leinster champions.
Mayo were crushed by Dublin in the second-half of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, yet it’s easy to forget they went in at half-time two points in front. They restricted Dublin to 0-3, forced 10 turnovers and should have been way further ahead at the interval.
Dublin were ruthless in front of goal after the break in August and again last night, a claim that can rarely said of Mayo.
Mayo have long needed new dynamic, scoring forwards to emerge on the scene. Andy Moran’s retirement and Cillian O’Connor’s injury struggles have only served to highlight that even more.
Their powerful running game remains highly potent, but they need a reliable scorer from play to emerge if they’re to be considered serious challengers to Dublin’s throne.
Horan will continue to focus on finding that score-getter in the spring.
Darren Coen – an unused sub last night – showed an eye for a score last summer, while rookies Tommy Conroy and Ryan O’Donoghue displayed glimpses of class in their league outings so far this year. Conroy is pacey and a confident shooter, as he showcased with his well-taken score in the second period.
Like Conroy, O’Donoghue is small and quick, yet still raw. He can only improve while working alongside Mayo legend Ciaran McDonald, who joined the coaching set-up this year.
James Durcan, scorer of 1-3 off the bench in round 1 against Donegal, had a forgettable night in front of goals and missed four shots. James Carr has enormous potential but struggled with Eoin Murchan sweeping in front of him after Mayo were reduced to 14 men.
Despite their obvious issues, there’s no need for Horan to panic just yet. They were still without a large cohort of experienced players, most notably forwards Cillian O’Connor, Jason Doherty, midfielder Matthew Ruane and defender Chris Barrett.
O’Connor’s absence particularly hurt Mayo as Durcan sent two frees wide during the second-half.
Mayo have always had to wait until the summer to have their best hand together. They have a large number of players based in Dublin and generally only have a full squad at mid-week training as the summer months approach.
We don’t tend to see the best of the green and red until the championship rolls around.
“We might get another chance at them soon, you never know,” said Horan.
“So we will look forward to that when it comes.”
Record or no record.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
