Mayo defy the doubters again

THERE were plenty, including myself, who felt the writing was on the wall following the abject nature of Mayo’s final quarter collapse against Cork.
But the Monday morning draw pitting them against Galway seemed to focus the minds.
All week Mayo would have heard scorn coming their way.
Laughter, ridicule, and people questioning their character.
That can’t have sat well. On Sunday they found a performance and a result.
It wasn’t vintage. In fact, it was hugely flawed. But when the game was there to be won in the third quarter, it was Mayo who went searching for it while Galway vanished into their shell. Coming a week after the Cork collapse, that’s plenty for now for Kevin McStay and Co.
Galway will be sick of the sight of the green and red. It’s the fourth season out of five that Mayo have finished Galway’s summer. It’s 1998 since Galway dumped Mayo out of the championship.
Both teams were someway off their best, perhaps nursing the wounds of finding themselves here after it seemed set that both would top their respective groups and skip the preliminary quarter-finals.
Mayo didn’t score for the final 28 minutes of the first half after an impressive opening to the game were they built up a 0-3 to 0-1 lead into the teeth of the omnipresent Salthill gale.
Galway had an arguably worse barren spell, only scoring one point across 34 minutes, including 15 minutes when they had the wind at their backs.
Shane Walsh kicked a free on 21 minutes to push Galway 0-7 to 0-3 up. Kevin McStay would probably have bitten your hand off for 0-8 to 0-3 at half-time then.
But Walsh funked an easy free and a shot from play while Johnny Heaney was wide from the right wing. Cillian McDaid did point on 30 minutes but it was their last shot of the half.
Galway will feel they should have been further in front at the break. Mayo were getting annihilated on their own kick-out.
They won only four of 13 of Colm Reape’s first half kick-outs. Diarmuid O’Connor won three of those – on a one man mission to keep Mayo in the game. It’s to Mayo’s credit that Galway did not get more of a return off this platform than they would have expected.
Mayo defended very well, given the amount of ball Galway won.
Indeed, when you look at the data overall, it’s hard to see how Mayo won.
Galway walloped them on kick-outs, winning 12 out of Colm Reape’s 19 restarts while Conor Gleeson only lost one of his kick-outs in the whole game.
But it was an expensive one as it set in train the move that led to the game’s only goal.
The key for Mayo, with their struggles on kick-outs, was turnover ball.
In the third quarter they were ravenous. They made five huge defensive turnovers in the period they scored 1-5 and Galway failed to score.
That man Diarmuid O’Connor made two of them alone while a David McBrien block, a Jack Carney and Enda Hession combo and a Jack Coyne/Jordan Flynn combo were the other three.
In total, Mayo scored 0-7 from turnovers. It may not seem a huge figure but in a low scoring game that was more than half of their scoring total and a seismic return.
In terms of shots, Mayo only had 20 in the game, a worryingly low number. Galway had 26 but were not as efficient.
After Mayo’s promising start, they looked out of ideas in attack once the channel Tommy Conroy had attacked twice early on was closed off.
Worse still, they played with impatience rather than keeping the ball and slowing down the clock playing into the gale.
Galway would be much smarter playing into the wind, we figured. Turned out they weren’t.
Damien Comer not emerging after half-time was a huge blow to Galway.
As it happens, it’s unlikely David McBrien would have found himself so far forward had he Comer to contend with. Kevin McStay admitted as much afterwards, having told McBrien to stick to Comer and not sally forward.
But free of that job, he dashed forward, executed a one-two with Aidan O’Shea and gave Conor Gleeson the eyes before slotting the ball past him.
It was a get out of your seat goal and an invigorating one for Mayo. He missed a goal against Louth but, crucially, while Mayo had left goal chances behind in other games, they didn’t on Sunday.
It was the key score in a red-hot spell where Mayo struck 1-5 without reply. Paddy Durcan, Ryan O’Donoghue and Diarmuid O’Connor excelled while Cillian O’Connor pointed with his first touch.
The third quarter period has been a very productive one for Mayo in their last four games but the final quarter remained fraught.
Is it ever any other way?

STAT ATTACK
24 percent
The percentage of all kick-outs Mayo won, 8/34, an incredibly low figure. They won 7/19 of their own restarts and just one of Conor Gleeson’s 15 kick-outs.

0-7
Mayo’s scores from turnover ball, over half of their tally, vital considering their kick-out struggles.

55 percent
Mayo’s shot conversion rate, 11 scores from 20 shots. Galway were 46 percent, 12 from 26 shots.