This weekend, the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Semi-Finals take centre stage, along with the Tailteann Cup final, and there is absolutely no doubt that there is a major anticlimax here without Mayo's involvement in those semi-finals.
Of the four losing quarter-finalists, Armagh is the only team that can feel somewhat aggrieved after losing on penalties to Monaghan. That agonising defeat meant Ciaran McGeeney's team has now lost penalty shootouts in three huge games in the last 12 months. You could make that four if you count the McKenna Cup, but the championship losses on spot kicks would have hurt the most, obviously. Losing last year's quarter-final to Galway, this year's Ulster final to Derry, combined with that loss to Monaghan, is a bitter pill to swallow for the Orchard County. The other three quarter-finals represented fairly routine wins for Kerry, Derry, and, of course, Dublin.
This week, there was a lot of soul-searching, a lot of talk wondering where it all went wrong for Mayo in that second half against Dublin. No question, with Kevin McStay's meticulous approach, no stone was left unturned in pursuit of the holy grail.
We had a management team in situ that we felt were more than armed with the credentials to get us over the line, but for me, the problem lay elsewhere. First and foremost, I want to get it out there that I respect and admire every single player that dons a Mayo jersey. The effort, the commitment, the dedication, is relentless. You literally have to give your soul to it.
The biggest problem for me is that Mayo doesn't possess the same quality in personnel as Kerry and Dublin do. It's that simple. We have some outstanding talent, and yes, we have a team that can put it up to anyone on any given Sunday, as Mayo showed against Kerry in Killarney. But we don't seem to have enough players that will give you an 8 or 9 out of 10 in the majority of the games they play. That is what is needed. This was obvious this year in our championship matches against Roscommon, Cork, Dublin, and even Louth, an encounter we struggled to win.
I traipsed through the archives, looking at the Mayo teams that took on and put Dublin to the pin of their collars over the last decade (apart from the 2019 game ) and wondered just how many of the team that played the quarter-final two weeks ago would have made the starting 15 of yesteryear. Bearing in mind, there is a crossover of a few players from this year who were in their pomp in 2016 and 2017 when Mayo had some hair-raising battles with arguably the best team in history. The probable answer to the question is not many of the current crop would get a look in on those teams of 2016 and 2017.
A group that had Clarke, defenders Higgins, Harrison, Barrett, Boyle, Keegan, and Paddy Durcan in his prime always matched up to any offensive unit they were pitted against. Throw in Vaughan as well for extra cover, and defensively, it makes up a serious group of players. So the question is, would any of the current crop get into a team with those warhorses on board? This is not meant to be derogatory to the current team, just a case in point. It could be a while before we ever get a crew like that together again. No doubt, the management will spend the rest of the summer watching closely at club level just to see if there is another Boyler or Keith Higgins hiding somewhere. I'm not sure there is.
Monaghan has been the success story of this year's new championship format, getting to this year's semi, their second semi-final in five years. Things looked gloomy for the Farney men after shipping a hiding from Derry in the Ulster championship, but they regrouped remarkably to forage their way to Saturday's semi-final. Unfortunately for them, they are going up against a Dublin team that was ravenous against Mayo and desperately wants the Sam Maguire cup back. Monaghan has quality all over the field, but they don't possess anywhere near what's good enough to take on Dublin. If Dublin don't cut loose in the first half, they will in the second half. They have too many good players in reserve to do complacency. Although I hope for a competitive encounter, I fear the worst for Vinnie Corey's team. I hope I'm wrong.
The other semi-final between Kerry and Derry is a far more complicated match. Despite Diarmuid O'Connor scoring 1-02 and getting the man of the match gong in their quarter-final rout over Tyrone, there are big questions about the Kerry midfield. Derry's middle men, Conor Glass and Brendan Rogers, are as good a pairing as there is in the country and will severely test the Kerry duo. Defensively, Derry has as good a unit as is left in the championship, with a huge attacking threat coming from their entire backline with the exception of Chrissy McKaigue, who will no doubt be given the envious task of shackling David Clifford. Don't rule out an upset here.
