Mayo 5-20
Leitrim 0-11
MAYO ROMPED TO a heavy 24-point Connacht semi-final victory over Leitrim, sparking more debate over championship structures.
It followed up the 20 points they had to spare over Sligo in the quarter-final.
The merit of Leitrim, who lost all their games in Division 4, having their entire championship comprise of one day out against the All-Ireland finalists certainly seems unfair.
While Covid obviously gave the GAA a tight time-frame to run off inter-county competitions, it’s hard to see how a side like Terry Hyland’s team can be expected to improve with such short championship campaigns.
Two proposals for the revamped All-Ireland football championship will go before Special Congress later this year, with Option 2 proposing to move the leagues to the summer months while the provincials would take place in the spring.
Final league standings would decide which sides enter the knock-out Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cup competitions.
If that proposal were to be voted in by delegates then it may go some way to reducing the chances of the sort of mismatch witnessed at Elverys McHale Park today.
They’ll face Galway in the final after this comfortable win, which lived up to its pre-match billing.
Two goals from Darren McHale and one piece by Darren Coen, Ryan O’Donoghue and Tommy Conroy guided Mayo to the decider. It was a strong attacking performance by Horan’s side, but it’s hard to read too much into this one-sided affair.
In a team without regulars Rob Hennelly, Lee Keegan, Kevin McLoughlin and Eoghan McLaughlin, Conroy and O’Donoghue led the charge in a dangerous full-forward combination. They bagged 2-9 between them and looked extremely sharp and accurate.
James Horan had made four switches from the Sligo game in the side announced on Friday, following a week where the squad dealt with “Covid-19 related queries.” Shortly before throw-in, he made two further changes to the starting team as Bryan Walsh was the final player to depart the line-up that was announced on Friday.
Keegan was out ruled out with a shoulder injury and watched the game in the stand alongside McLoughlin. It’s unclear how many of the rest were affected by the Covid issues that arose this week.
Rory Byrne, Padraig O’Hora and Stephen Coen all came into the team. Flynn also returned to the side alongside Darren Coen, who helped himself to 1-3 from play.
In poor conditions, Mayo were quickest out of the blocks and raced into an 0-8 to no score lead inside 16 minutes. They were led by man-of-the-match O’Donoghue, who has stepped up to take over free-taking duties from Cillian O’Connor.
They led by 3-11 to 0-4 at the interval and found themselves 5-14 to 0-4 clear by the 47th minute. Leitrim did produce a 10-minute good spell that saw them register five points, with Riordan O’Rourke looking dangerous. Keith Beirne led Leitrim’s charge with a five point haul from frees.
Aidan O’Shea played a floating full-forward role and kicked a late point in his 150th appearance for Mayo. Only Keith Higgins, Andy Moran and Kevin McLoughlin are ahead of him in the appearances list.
Scorers for Mayo: Ryan O’Donoghue 1-6 (3f), Darren McHale 2-1, Tommy Conroy 1-3, Darren Coen 1-3, Mattie Ruane 0-2, Conor Loftus 0-2, Aidan O’Shea, Stephen Coen and James Carr 0-1 each.
Scorers for Leitrim: Keith Beirne 0-5 (0-5f), Conor Dolan 0-3, Riordan O’Rourke 0-2, Paddy Maguire and Evan Sweeney 0-1 each.
Mayo
1. Rory Byrne (Castlebar Mitchels)
2. Enda Hession (Garrymore), 3. Padraig O’Hora (Ballina Stephenites), 4. Michael Plunkett (Ballintubber),
5. Paddy Durcan (Castlebar Mitchels), 6. Oisín Mullin (Kilmaine), 9. Stephen Coen (Hollymount/Carramore)
8. Matthew Ruane (Breaffy), 23. Jordan Flynn (Crossmolina)
10. Conor Loftus (Crossmolina Deel Rovers), 26. Darren Coen (Hollymount Carramore) 14. Darren McHale (Knockmore)
13. Tommy Conroy (The Neale), 11. Aidan O’Shea (Breaffy), 15. Ryan O’Donoghue (Belmullet)
Leitrim
1. Brendan Flynn
2. Conor Reynolds, 3. Donal Wrynn, 4. Oisín Madden
5. Cillian McGloin, 6. Paddy Maguire, 7. David Bruen,
8. Jack Gilheany, 9. Mark Plunkett
10. Conor Dolan, 11. Shane Moran, 12. Tom Prior
13. Darragh Rooney, 14. Keith Beirne, 15. Shane Quinn
