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Irish Times
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Mayo exit championship in most Mayo way possible after survival instincts let them down
Survival. That's what the weekend was about. At a certain point, style means nothing and staying alive is the only substance. Sixteen teams started out, 12 are left standing. Mayo, Roscommon, Derry and Clare are the counties who couldn't escape the guillotine's blade. Mayo went out in maybe the most Mayo way possible. The clock in Dr Hyde Park read 69:43 when Fergal Boland drew them level with Donegal. The crowd bounced in the stands, as a draw would mean Cavan were gone and Mayo were through. With Tyrone 12 points up at the time, Donegal could do nothing to improve their lot. Draw the game, win the game – it didn't matter. They were finishing second regardless. All that was left was for their goalkeeper Shaun Patton to boot the ball into the stands. He did not boot the ball into the stands. READ MORE Instead, he aimed one last long kick-out at Brendan McCole, overhit it with the wind behind him and saw it bounce into the arms of Ciarán Moore. The hooter went as Moore gathered the ball and the young Donegal wing-back skinned Seán Morahan, cut inside Jack Carney and scored the winner. And so Mayo were beaten, sent out of the championship by a point that didn't even do Donegal any good. They paid the highest tariff possible for losing to Cavan three weeks ago. 'When you play a league format, you get what you deserve,' said Stephen Rochford afterwards. 'Over the course of the three games, the league table doesn't lie.' Mayo's Jordan Flynn tackles Michael Murphy of Donegal during Sunday's All-Ireland SFC round-robin clash at Dr Hyde Park. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho The championship is feral and suffocating. Of the eight games over the weekend, six were decided by four points or less. Tyrone's 13-point hammering of Cavan and the nine (!) points Meath had over Kerry were the only outliers. Everywhere else, it was scratch and claw and scrabble all the way to the end. Even Clare, lowly Clare, forgotten and dismissed by everyone, presumed an easy mark for Louth, even they hauled it back to a two-point game as time ran dead. Ger Brennan's side survived but they were ragged and frayed by the hooter's blast. You want a sense of how tight this all is? None of the provincial champions are guaranteed a spot in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. The fortnight's break that comes with topping your round-robin group will be enjoyed by Monaghan, Meath, Armagh and Tyrone. The latter two are among the favourites for Sam Maguire, despite having been beaten twice in the championship already. Every county has lost at least once. That's how it goes. On a weekend like this, everyone starts out like a school student with a brand new copybook, all neat lines and tidy writing. By the end, everything is covered in ink blots and scribbles and Tipp-Ex, and you're hoping against hope that you've poxed the right answers. Fortunes flip in the time it takes to update the ScoreBeo app. Cavan's Ciarán Brady goes shoulder-to-shoulder with Michael McKernan of Tyrone. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho On 54 minutes, Mayo were bottom of the table and going out. On 55, they were top and heading straight to the quarter-final. On 56, they were in third and going away next weekend for a preliminary quarter-final. On 57, they were bottom again. Ultimately, they danced on the knife-edge one too many times, sunk by their terrible display at home to Cavan the first day out. They end the group stage with a points difference that is 32 points superior to Cavan's but go out on the head-to-head record. Given that they were able to match strides with Donegal and Tyrone, it is a deeply careless way to exit the championship. Survival is all. You have to find a way. Mayo and Derry are better than probably four of the remaining teams and a match for the rest on their day. But their game-management let them down when it mattered most. Derry should have seen out their game against Galway last week. Mayo only needed to play one more pass before their equaliser and there wouldn't have been time for the kick-out. But both made a mess of it and so the season is done. Shane Walsh of Galway is congratulated by teammates after the Tribesmen's come-from-behind victory against Armagh at Kingspan Breffni Park. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho Others got busy livin'. Galway are the most dangerous third-placed team in Monday morning's draw and will be going to one of Ballybofey, Killarney or Newry next weekend. Armagh had them on toast for the first half on Saturday night but Pádraic Joyce's side found their way back and won . He summed up the game – and the whole weekend – perfectly. 'Yeah, look, the objective, obviously, was to get out of it. You try and get out in as high a position as you can. The way the last two weeks went for us, we happily settled for third to win the game tonight. We're happy to just get out of it. 'We were eight down at half-time. Could have been more down actually as well. In saying that, we fought back. We knew at half-time that we were fighting for our lives. The lads showed great character and I'm really proud of them, the way they played. It was great. We're on to next week.' The only thing that matters.
Irish Times
16 hours ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Relentless Donegal refuse to let Mayo escape from their grasp
All-Ireland SFC: Donegal 0-19 Mayo 1-15 For a long time, a sense of inevitability hung over this. Donegal controlled the scoreboard for most of the match. Mayo battled hard to keep in touch but never quite managed to seize the initiative. Then, with a minute left and the margin down to one, they attacked once more and with the sands of time running through the hourglass, replacement Fergal Boland struck for a point. Level at 1-15 to 0-18. A draw would see both teams through. There were so few seconds left it was conjecture whether Shaun Patton get away the kickout. He did and Donegal substitute Jason McGee, back on the field for the first time in the All-Ireland stages, rose for the ball and moved it on to the excellent Ciarán Moore, whose driving run and step inside eluded Mayo's defence and he kicked the winner. Time up, hooter blown and Mayo out. READ MORE A frustrated Stephen Rochford, managing the team in Kevin McStay's absence, acknowledged that both teams would have wanted to win. 'That's just the way these teams look at it. You know, I don't think, even though a draw would have done both teams, I don't think either would have been happy with a draw. And, you know, we certainly came into this with no view other than we wanted to win the game.' The lapse against Cavan had left Mayo in a bind – not being able to survive a head-to-head if they could get no more than two points, a fate they were unable to prevent. Rochford's counterpart Jim McGuinness agreed. 'Ciarán had no context of what was happening I suppose in terms of groups and anything else, but we said that we wanted to try and win this game.' Mayo's Ryan O'Donoghue reacts to a missed chance. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho It was another nail-biter that ended in a Donegal victory. The Ulster champions looked the better team for long stretches. They were nearly caught at the end but could have had a couple of goals: Mogan blazed over early, Eoghán Bán Gallagher was high and wide and Colm Reape saved after a searing run by Shane O'Donnell. Reassured by Patton's return to goal, they moved quickly and survived Peadar Mogan's sin binning in the ninth minute for a foul on Ryan O'Donoghue. This and a rash of wides by the winners enabled Mayo to maintain a lead in the first half but they didn't exactly make hay, and when Michael Murphy restored Donegal's lead in the 24th minute with a two-point free, it was sufficient of a foundation for them to lead by three at half-time, 0-9 to 0-6, with the wind to come. Murphy would have a significant impact, especially after getting caught by the turnover that led to Mayo's 54th-minute goal, a sweeping move that was finished by David McBrien. The sense among the 18,751 crowd at Roscommon's Dr Hyde Park was that this might be a transformative score. They had turned the match around to lead by 1-12 to 0-13. What happened next confirmed the sense that Donegal were playing within themselves. Daire Ó Baoill responded two minutes later with a two-pointer to level and Murphy popped up within a minute to score a point and then assisted Shane O'Donnell for one, which could have been a goal. Those four points left Mayo with no value or momentum from their goal. Still, they persevered. Reape led a frantic charge back to somehow prevent a 66th-minute goal after Ó Baoill and Patrick McBrearty got in behind him for a run on goal. His touch put the ball out for a 45, which Murphy kicked. Donegal's Ciaran Moore celebrates with Ciaran Thompson after the final whistle. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Back came Mayo for their heartbreak finale. It's been a tough season and as early as they have exited the championship since 2018. For Donegal, the road stretches ahead. Prevented from topping Group 1 by losing at home to Tyrone, they will now have a home preliminary quarter-final. McGuinness was fuming about the 'neutral' round being played so close to Mayo and was unhappy at having to play again so quickly after an energetic match scattered with turnovers by both sides. 'Seven days is too short in my opinion to be honest with you for what we're asking players to do. I think there's a conversation to be had at the end of the season in terms of that. I do feel that the demands of the game are actually way, way, way beyond what they were. 'I don't think it's possible to bring that level and that level and that level. That's a conversation for another time but we would definitely be looking for the seven days. We don't believe we should have been here today either. We think it was very unfair to bring us here.' Though he was pleased to be where they are. 'It is huge. Absolutely huge. We are delighted to be there. Delighted to beat Mayo. They are a brilliant team. A physical team. They are so hard to beat, so hard to put away. We managed to do that.' DONEGAL: S Patton; F Roarty (0-0-1), B McCole, P Mogan (0-0-2); R McHugh, EB Gallagher, C Moore (0-0-2); H McFadden, M Langan; C McColgan (0-0-1), C Thompson (0-0-2, 1f), S O'Donnell (0-0-1); C O'Donnell (0-0-2), M Murphy (0-1-3, 1tpf, 1′45), O Gallen (0-0-1). Subs: J McGee for McFadden, D Ó Baoill (0-1-0) for Gallen (both 52 mins); P McBrearty for McHugh (58), E McHugh for O'Donnell (67). MAYO: C Reape; J Coyne, D McHugh (0-0-1), E Hession; S Coen, R Brickenden, P Durcan; D McBrien (1-0-0), M Ruane; C Dawson (0-0-2), J Carney (0-0-1), B Tuohy; A O'Shea, R O'Donoghue (0-0-6, 5f), D McHale (0-0-3). Subs: J Flynn (0-0-1) for Tuohy (23 mins), D Neary for McHugh (42), S Morahan for Hession (52), P Towey for Neary (56), F Boland (0-0-1) for Coen (68). Referee: P Faloon (Down).
