Colm Boyle: Dublin get taste of own medicine as Mayo play through nonsense

Irish Daily Mirror

3 days ago

After an incredible weekend of action, the All-Ireland champions Armagh are the big winners.
The fact they have topped the 'group of death' with a game to spare is a huge advantage ahead of an All-Ireland quarter-final.
Their win over Dublin was a strange game. At times it looked like it could burst into a belter but for that to happen Dublin needed to be efficient in front of goal.
In the end, it turned a bit farcical with Dublin chasing the game and constantly going for two-points shots, which is an anomaly of the scoring arc.
I have never seen a Dublin team so wasteful in front of goal; 18 wides completely sucked the life out of them.
Incredibly, they also had three breaches of the three-up rule in quick succession that completely killed any momentum they were trying to build. It was probably desperation as much as anything but, at this stage, three breaches is criminal and Dessie Farrell will be furious.
Farrell will point to the fact that they had no Con O'Callaghan and losing Colm Basquel early had a big influence on the game along with the wides, and he would be right. But they did get a taste of their own medicine from years gone by with the strength of the opposition bench just being far superior to theirs.
What a return Rian O'Neill has made to this Armagh team. He is the x factor that could be the difference between Armagh going back-to-back or not. I can only imagine the lift his return has given his teammates.
His striking is one of the greatest sights in football. His two-pointer from play in the first half was a thing of beauty. If he was togged against Donegal in the Ulster final, they would have won that game too.
With the likes of Joe McElroy also returning, Armagh's strength in depth is reaching ridiculous levels.
Darragh McMullen has also been a superb addition this year. He looks like a player made for Croke Park - he glides across the ground almost effortlessly.
Kieran McGeeney will be delighted to have had a run out in Croker too and no doubt they will look at how Dublin caused them problems in the first half in particular with the quick ball inside to their full-forward line. But, overall, the weekend couldn't have gone any better for McGeeney or Armagh.
In the other tie in the group, what a game it was between Derry and Galway. It was Gaelic football at its best and with Derry eight points up coming into the closing stages it looked for all the world they were about to win their first competitive game in nearly a year.
Pádraic Joyce made some huge calls taking off Paul Conroy, Shane Walsh, Dylan McHugh and Cillan McDaid in the second half and it looked like it was going to pay off when Matthew Tierney goaled to put them one up with the hooter looming, but the draw keeps both teams in the Championship for now.
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For the past few weeks, Mayo football has been at an incredibly low ebb.
The Connacht final defeat to Galway followed by a torrid display against Cavan two weeks later left Mayo followers disillusioned with the team.
But that is only half the story, with manager Kevin McStay having to step aside due to health reasons and a quite extraordinary emergency county board meeting making national headlines through the week. It felt like Mayo was under siege.
It was a time for leaders to step up. The captain Paddy Durcan's return to the starting team almost a year to the day since he tore his ACL couldn't have been more perfectly timed.
Paddy's performance was nothing less than sensational in Omagh. As a player who has suffered that same injury, I know the doubts that flood your mind when you're returning.
But it looked like Paddy had never been away. The impact his performance had on his teammates was infectious; when he kicked his first of three scores it seemed as if every Mayo player grew a foot taller.
Stephen Rochford, to an extent, ripped up the script. Five changes in total to the team beaten by Cavan with Sean Morahan, Bob Touhy, Conall Dawson, Rory Brickenden and Durcan all coming in and having huge impacts.
Five of Mayo's 10 first half scores came from Brickenden, Dawson and Durcan.
The most pleasing aspect for Rochford has to be the response to Tyrone closing the gap to a point with 15 minutes to go. Mayo haven't been good in tight games for two years now and they could have easily folded but, on Saturday evening, when the game was in the fire, they outscored Tyrone 1-6 to 0-3.
There are a lot of nonsense narratives out there about Mayo football. I heard on plenty of platforms during the week about how it would be the most Mayo thing ever to go to Tyrone and win. If I was a player in that squad, I'd take that as an insult.
Even after getting the win, the mundane 'Mayo for Sam' comment was thrown at Pádraig O'Hora in the post match discussion on GAA+ for a cheap laugh. Another stupid narrative that is just cringeworthy at this stage.
Whether Mayo can back it up or not is another question. So many teams have struggled to put big performances back to back in this championship and if Mayo are to stay alive, they will have to buck that trend.
Like Mayo, Tyrone are unpredictable to say the least but it was a shockingly poor display from them.
I honestly thought that the win over Donegal would propel them into this game with massive energy. It was the complete opposite. A crazy Championship continues to leave us perplexed.
I can't remember being as frustrated watching a game of football as I was on Saturday for Cork-Kerry.
The evidence was there right from the interprovincial games last October that the 50m penalty on any interference on a clean catch from the kickout was shambolic.
On Saturday it hit farcical levels. A game with great potential was totally ruined by the constant procession of 50m penalties by referee Derek O'Mahoney.
Referees' interpretation of the rule was always going to be a problem. On so many occasions the player penalised could do nothing to get out of the way of his opponent as they charged into him.
On the field, Kerry, as expected, had too much firepower for Cork but there were serious issues with Kerry's defence. Their foundations are built on extremely soft ground and if Cork had been more clinical with their goal chances this could have been much tighter.
Just as worryingly for Jack O Connor was the sight of Paudie Clifford and Paul Geaney getting injured, added to having no Diarmuid O'Connor in the 26.
If the three of them aren't back for an All-Ireland quarter final, Kerry will be under serious pressure.