There was 17 points between these sides at the end and it could have been 27 if Galway had kept up the pace they showed in the first half in the second period. They went in leading by 11 points at the break and had their place in the Connacht final already secured before the final 30 minutes of the contest.
For Mayo it was a traumatic end to their minor championship campaign at the first hurdle, as Galway gave Mayo a lesson in every sector of the field, with Colm Brennan putting in a man-of-the-match display in the middle of the park and Conor Marsden running riot in attack.
Mayo were dealt two blows before throw in with neither Shairoize Akram or David Hanely able to start the contest despite being named in their 15 in the lead up to the contest. Mayo’s hopes were further dashed early on in the contest with captain Barry Duffy going down injured and requiring treatment for a number of minutes on the sideline, before finally having to call it quits 18 minutes in after trying and failing to run off the knock he picked up.
While the loss of all three were big blows to Mayo in reality even if they didn’t suffer them, it was hard to see the result being any different. Galway were just simply on another level to Mayo on the day and they’ll take some stopping later on in the championship.
Eric Lee opened the scoring for Galway inside the first minute with a well taken point, but Mayo responded well initially with Liam Byrne finding the back of the net after he pulled on a loose ball on the deck close to goal. But that was just a false dawn for the home side as Galway went on to reel off 11 unanswered points over the next 25 minutes, as Mayo were left chasing shadows in front of a very healthy crowd in the county grounds. Cillian McDaid and Lee kicked four points each in the first half seeing their side in leading by 0-12 to 1-0 at the short whistle.
Mayo did have the aid of a strong breeze in the second half and Gerry Cannavan kicked the opening score of the half for Mayo, but it didn’t kick-start the fight back that the Mayo faithful would have hoped for.
Conor Marsden found the back of the Mayo net twice in three minutes just after the 40 minute mark and a Finnian Ó’Laoi goal six minutes later put the final gloss on the win. It was a traumatic day for the young Mayo men and a harsh footballing lesson from a very well drilled side. For manager Enda Gilvarry who was taking charge of the minor team for the third year, it will be the first time his summer has ended so soon after guiding Mayo to All Ireland glory in 2013 and picking up another Connacht title last year. For Galway a summer of possibilities has opened up in front of them.
Scores
Mayo:
Liam Byrne 1-1, Gerry Canavan 0-1, Dylan Cannon 0-1
Galway:
Conor Marsden 2-3 (2f ), Cillian McDaid 0-4 (1F ), Eric Lee 0-5 (2f, 1 45’ ), Finian Ó’Laoi 1-0, C Ryan 0-1, C Ó’Braonain 0-1
Mayo: Patrick O’Malley; Donovan Cosgrove, Tommie Keane, John Maughan; Paul Lambert, Rhyne Collins, Dylan Cannon; Barry Duffy, Jonathan Burke; Darren Quinn James Lyons, Ross Egan; Liam Byrne, James Carr, Gerry Canavan. Subs: Jack Irwin for Barry Duffy, Cormac Reape for Paul Lambert, Colm Moran for Darren Quinn, David Hanley for James Lyons, Paul Walsh for Patrick O’Malley, Kevin Quinn for Ross Egan
Galway: Ronán Ó’ Beoláin; Caelom Mulry, Dylan McHugh, Ian Kent; Sean Kelly, Liam Kelly, John Daly; Colm Brennan, Cillian McDaid; Eric Lee, Conor Marsden, Finian Ó’Laoi; Colin Ryan, Michael Boyle, Ryan Forde. Subs: Ciaran Brady for Colin Ryan, Patrick O’Donnell for Fininan Ó’Laoi, Barry Goldrick for Ryan Forde, Eamon McDonagh for Ian Kent, Henry O’Toole.
