Despite distractions and defeats, Mayo do what Mayo do
All-Ireland SFC: Mayo: 2-0-17 (23) Tyrone: 1-2-9 (16)
How did this happen? To explain this shock result, you first need to consider the current landscape of Gaelic football contenders. Then remember: this is Mayo.
Over the past few weeks, we've been served periodic reminders that the margin between the Sam Maguire chasing pack is minimal.
There are a whole host of quality sides and they all have obvious flaws.
Mayo have bared them all in recent weeks. On the pitch, they suffered devastating losses against rivals Galway in the Connacht final and Cavan in their opening group stages game.
Off it, their manager stepped back to deal with personal health issues, their county board hosted an explosive meeting and their support was dwindling.
They were against an outfit that downed Ulster champions Donegal at home and buoyed by another U20 title midweek.
So Mayo came to Omagh and mauled them.
1-9 to 0-4 up at half-time, the home side closed the gap to one midway through the second half yet Mayo surged again.
'You saw Tyrone last week, they went to Ballybofey,' said Stephen Rochford post-match.
'Who wins in Ballybofey in championship games? Not too many I can remember anyway. They responded. We knew it was going to be tight going down the final quarter. The energy that came off the bench, the support play they gave each other was really commendable. But there is always a but. There is always a but. We must do it again in two weeks.'
Mayo's first green flag was fortunate. They worked the clock just before half-time and eventually freed up Bob Tuohy for a shot. He dropped it short, Niall Morgan failed to deal with it and Darren McHale took advantage. Even still, they were full value for the lead.
Paddy Durcan was immense, finishing with three points and the Man of the Match award. Jack Carney moved to the inside line and found some form. Conall Dawson came into the half-forward line and brought unsurpassed energy. David McBrien was a rock in the middle.
What happened to Tyrone? They scored just 1-6 from play. Their kick-out was destroyed, winning three of 11 long. The final shot tally was 29 to 17.
'It is hard to know,' said a frustrated Malachy O'Rourke.
'Sometimes when you get a bad performance, the next one there is a lot of soul searching in between and boys come back with a point to prove. Having said that, we were just looking for consistency. We got a good performance last week.
'We knew you had to go out and earn the next day. We just didn't do that. Overall we were disappointed with our play. Many aspects, we were flat and hadn't the energy we had last week. We thought we fought our way back into it. We thought we may be able to forge ahead. It wasn't to be.'
Consistency. That preciously-sought commodity. As Stephen Coen said afterwards, if every team wants to be consistent, everyone has to be inconsistent.
To their credit, Tyrone did respond after the turnaround. They hit 1-2 without reply, including a sweet Darragh Canavan goal. A Morgan two-point free cut Mayo's lead to a point.
Davitt Neary came off the bench and hit back.
He stole short kickouts, he won frees, he took off and was felled by Liam Gray for a Ryan O'Donoghue penalty. He missed a huge kick against the same opposition in the 2021 All-Ireland final. This time, he slotted it.
They still need a result in the final round, but the benefit is profound. A host of young prospects showed what they are about. After a momentous low, they lifted it.
'Why was it different? We just did not perform against Cavan,' said Rochford.
'Our opening 12 minutes was just lacklustre. We tried to do a lot of things well, when you are just a bit off and a team come against you, you look really mediocre.
'I think we are better than a mediocre team. But you just can't be at that. There is no way of getting into the psychology of it. We just backed each other up today. We supported each other.
'We got scores and also left scores behind. That was not anywhere near a complete performance. We will go after that because we know we need to be better when we got to play Donegal.'
Scorers for Tyrone: D. Canavan 1-3 (2 frees); N. Morgan 0-4 (2 tpf); D. McCurry 0-2 (1 free); M. Donnelly, B. McDonnell, M. McKernan, K. McGeary 0-1 each.
Scorers for Mayo: R. O'Donoghue 1-6 (1-0 pen, 0-5 frees); D. McHale 1-0; P. Durcan 0-3; R. Brickenden, C. Dawson 0-2 each; A. O'Shea, C. Reape (45) J. Carney, J. Coyne 0-1 each.
Tyrone: N. Morgan; C. Quinn, P. Teague, N. Devlin; M. McKernan, R. Brennan, K. McGeary; B. McDonnell, C. Kilpatrick; S. O'Donnell, M. Donnelly, C. Daly; D. McCurry, M. Bradley, D. Canavan.
Subs: S. O'Hare for O'Donnell, L. Gray for Brennan (both half-time); P. Harte for Bradley, R. Canavan for Daly (both 47); A. Donaghy for McDonnell (61).
Mayo: C. Reape; J. Coyne, S. Morahan, E. Hession; R. Brickenden, S. Coen, P. Durcan; D. McBrien, M. Ruane; C. Dawson, D. McHale, B. Tuohy; J. Carney, A. O'Shea, R. O'Donoghue.
Subs: D. Neary for McHale, J. Flynn for Tuohy (both 52); F. Kelly for Dawson (55); F. Boland for Ruane (64), S. Callinan for Durcan (67).
Referee: D. Coldrick (Meath).
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