Mayo reach the Promised Land

Mayo reach the Promised Land – what Con might have said:

Kobe McDonald and Jordan Molloy celebrate.

I rarely write about sporting events, but yesterday was exceptional. A few years back after an epic All Ireland Hurling final, I imagined what the late, great sports journalist, Con Houlihan, might have said about it and I wrote an article in his style. This will be something similar:

Were Con to have described yesterday’s game, I have no doubt that he would have started the article on a hot night in Seville back in 1982. West Germany and France met in the World Cup semi-final with the Germans winning 4-3. The game was outstanding; to call it an epic would not have done it justice.

Con described how he had the closest thing to a panic attack because he felt he would not be able to come up with the words to describe it adequately. In the event, he did fine and his article on the game remains one of those gems that people return to.

There is no question but that he would have experienced similar emotions after yesterday’s epic. Being a Kerryman by birth and by persuasion would not have prevented him from taking in the bigger picture – the absolute magnificence of Mayo’s triumph.

This was a victory wrought from sheer hunger, years of heartbreak, absolutely ferocious work rate and superb skills.

No one gave Mayo a chance. It was Kerry’s to lose they said and Mayo’s famine would continue. Mayo had a good young side and maybe in the future but yesterday, Kerry’s experienced warriors would prevail.

Unfortunately for Kerry, no one gave Mayo’s young guns the script. They started from the off as if it was destined to be their day.

Kerry did achieve a seven point lead by the end of the first quarter, 1-5 to 0-1, and the prophets of doom once again began to gather in the press boxes. But Mayo were not playing badly. They were probably winning more ball but the final pass and the final shot was just falling short.

There was no panic. When they missed, they tried again. They missed again and tried again and eventually got a little string of points. This was not the Mayo of old fearing the sight of Kerry jerseys. They continued to play brilliant football and gradually clawed their way back to parity as the signal for the tea-break approached. Kerry did register one further point and led by one as the hooter sounded.

They say great teams show their class in the third quarter, just after half time. If it is true, then this is a truly great Mayo team. They came out playing like men possessed and the flow towards the Canal end goal was like a river. They led by five points before the Kingdom registered a second half score.

Their tackling was ferocious and they seemed to win every ball that was contested. Kerry folk complained that their midfield did not play well. They didn’t. But it was the classic case that they were not allowed to play well. I am sure many of their key players will have nightmares about trying to break through the Mayo tackling. Time and again they were turned over.

In a game like this, it is tempting to pick out individual players but we will desist as Mayo played like an integrated collective. Every man seemed to know his job and did it to perfection. We will make one exception for Ryan O’Donoghue, who was unanimously voted man-of-the-match.

To say he bestrode the field like a colossus would be a gross understatement. He was involved in everything Mayo did and was the instigator of their best movement of the day.

About ten minutes after the interval, he won a ball under the Hogan stand in his own half. As there were at least four Kerry players in close proximity, he would have been expected to pass it backwards or sideways to retain possession.

Instead, he looked up and seemed to say, to hell with seventy-five years of hurt, we are going for this. He started a run which beat four Kerry tacklers and eventually laid on the pass for Mayo’s goal.

Were Croke Park not made from steel reinforced concrete, the stadium would surely have collapsed with the roar that greeted it. This was only surpassed by the noise at the finish. The release of pent-up emotion was like a living thing but more of that anon.

During the period from the 45^th to the 55^th minute, Mayo’s failing from the first quarter returned briefly to haunt them. They won ball after ball and shot for two-pointers and sometimes one-pointers and sometimes even three-pointers but to no avail. Mayo people went quiet and thought, are we going to kick it away again?

Never ones to look at a gift horse, Kerry rallied and soon there was only a point between the sides. The tension was almost impossible to bear. I’m sure Mayo folk (and others) all over the world were hiding behind couches. But they rallied again and with ten minutes on the clock, they led by five.

A free that would have seen them go seven ahead was missed. Then they hit the crossbar when it seemed easier to score. It was surely the signal to the Kingdom that it might be their day after all.

They got the next three scores including their first two-pointer of the day from their on-field genius, David Clifford.

Now the tension reached stratospheric levels. We imagined streams of ambulances ferrying Mayo cardiac victims to overcrowded hospitals.

The fat lady was clearing her throat. Kerry had two further chances to score two-pointers that would have levelled the game. Huge Mayo pressure on the shooters caused them to send the efforts wide.

In the final passage, Mayo broke away and put the margin out to three points. Only seconds remained until the final hooter.

Then came the deluge – of emotion that is. The roar that went up must have frightened the seagulls back as far as Clontarf. Grown men, not to mention women and children wept openly.

We have not seen a release like it in my memory. Clare in 1995, Armagh 2002, Tyrone 2003 and Limerick 2018 were other victories where joy was unbridled but this one beat the lot. Apparently even the commentators and the pundits were choked up.

We will mention one other Mayo man. The great former Kilkenny hurling manager, Brian Cody, once said that winning All Irelands is extraordinarily difficult and it’s not just about having the best players. His view was (and presumably still is) that if absolutely everything is not right; from the County Board through the team management and the players and the back-up staff, right down to the person who minds the hurleys and the person who makes the tea at half time – if all are not properly aligned and focused, then you will win nothing.

It appears from the chat and the interviews after the game that Andy Moran has achieved this with Mayo – the team members interviewed described the entire set-up as a band of brothers. Their victory yesterday was no accident.  

This was a remarkable occasion and whatever one’s allegiances, the day belonged to Mayo. There is not a Kerry person who will begrudge them for an instant. There is no doubt that all neutrals also rejoiced and by all accounts the contentment at Mayo’s final release was universal.