Connacht SFC
So near yet so far for Mayo
Galway 2-12
Mayo 1-14
On a day when the margin between success and failure was so narrow, it was the age old problem that really hurt Mayo at the end of the day. Two simple words and one important position cost Mayo and it cost them two goals FULL BACK. A untried Mayo full back line were opened up early on by Galway and by the time that Mayo were able to reshuffle the pack bringing in Peadar Gardiner and Aidan Higgins it was to late for Mayo despite a whole hearted and spirited display in a game you could say they left behind them.
Keith Higgins was playing as the orthodox full back when the ball was thrown in as Liam Sammon deployed Cormack Bane and Nickey Joyce in the corners rather than the wing positions they were selected in and Mayo were caught cold at the start. Meehan opened the scoring for Galway when Keith Higgins had to upend Nickey Joyce as be bore down on goal, while Mayo responded five minutes in through a Alan Dillon free as the sides got to grips with each other, Seven minutes in Conor Morimter wasn’t able to replay the 2006 final when he steered the ball wide from the stand side of the pitch kicking a free into the bacon factory end.
The warning signs for Mayo about Galway’s goal threat and their inability to stop them in the full back line came as early as eight minutes in when Cormack Bane picked out Meehan who slipped in Nickey Joyce clear on goal which forced David Clarke into a fine save with the goal at Joyce’s’ mercy. Padraig Joyce was running the game this stage as he targeted Kieran Conroy’s and Colm Boyle’s position with incisive if yet simple balls through the middle of the Mayo defense which they weren’t able to cope with.
The Mortimer brother both had chances to hit points for Mayo but dropped the ball into Paul Doherty’s hands either side of another goal chance which fell to PJ as Mayo scrambled to get to grips, yet Mayo took the lead on 15 minutes when Trevor Mortimer found his scoring boots. Bane who was the bane of Mayo last year leveled it up with a nicely finished score and Conor hit a point from play a couple of minutes later after being played in by Pat Harte. With 19 minutes on the clock Padraig Joyce found his groove, first with a point from the 45m line after two Mayo men tried to close down a Galway attacker but left the Killerean man free.
Then the first goal arrived two minutes later, a ball into Matthew Clancy was won by the number 13 and he slipped it into Michael Meehan who with the aid of a shoulder from Tom Cunniffee was able to get through a gap and feed Joyce who made no mistake with his second goal chance.
Bane added on the fourth Galway point, just after Trevor Mortimer was forced to retire injured with a hamstring problem, and then the death knell was sounded we thought 28 minutes in when Fiachra Breathnach was able to finish the ball to an empty net, a ball was played into Meehan by Joyce, who had an opportunity to score but spotted Breathnach who was unmarked six yards out and had the easy task of slotting it home.
Seven points down and five minutes to go to the break and Mayo were rocked, Gardiner and Higgins came in just after Alan Dillon hit a point from a free and both replacements took the game by the scruff of the neck, much like Barry Cullinane did with Aidan Higgns’s ? (open to correction) but despite standing mere meters away the ref failed to act. The injection of fresh blood invigorated Mayo and points from McGarrity (who was beaten by Cullinane all day and looked like the junior midfield partner to the hard working Tom Parsons) and Dillon once again cut the gap to four at the break, which was blown up a minute before the announced allocated injury time was played. The break offered O’Mahony a chance to rally his troops and he did and Mayo were a different side when they came out in the second half and should have won the game with a stirring display, but at the end the two quick goals Mayo gave up cost at the end.
Conor Mortimer opened the scoring with a typical point from the Shrule-Glencorrib man, he was having a frustrating day as the type of ball he likes to get never came with any frequency. Meehan responded with a free he scuffed just about over the bar. A flowing move up the right flank involving Andy Moran (who had retreated to a withdrawn role at this stage), Tom Parsons and Dillion ended up with the Ballintubber man fisting over the bar. Billy Joe Padden came in for an ineffective Austin O’Malley and pointed soon after to respond to a Garath Bradshaw point after he got away from Moran.
The Mayo got themselves back into the game an into the lead, first Dillon pointed from a placed ball, then he went for another score from a free which looked to be trailing wide, but Tom Parsons followed it in and punched it back across the danger area a where Aidan Kilcoyne was waiting, one quick shift of the hips was all he needed to find the space to hit it low to the back of net.
It was 1-10 to 2-6 to Mayo in favor of Mayo and game on. But while Mayo were finding it hard to generate scores Galway were economical and Joyce leveled it up with a fine score from 25 yards. It was hell for leather from here on in Pat Harte hit a point after a quick free by Mortimer, but Joyce was at it again shortly after when he was played in by Paul Conroy who came in as a blood sub. Meehan pushed Galway back into the lead with eight minutes left when he towered over Keith Higgins to win a long ball in and clip over the bar, shortly after Aidan Kilcoyne looked to be in for his second goal but flashed his effort just wide. Billy Joe Padden leveled it up with a good score to cap a solid performance after being introduced in the second half. With five minutes left Alan Dillion pushed Mayo into the lead for the last time in the contest, but three unanswered points from Sean Armstrong, Conroy and Bane pushed Galway ahead into an eventual win. Dillion popped over a free with a minute left in injury time, but despite how hard they tried at the end Galway held on to seal the win, a first Connacht title win in Castlebar in 21 years.
Mayo: D Clarke, K Higgins, K Conroy, C Boyle, T Cunniffee, D Heany, J Nallen; R McGarrity, T Parsons, A Dillon, P Harte, T Mortimer, C Mortimer, A O’Malley, A Moran. Subs: A Kilcoyne, P Gardiner, A Higgins, BJ Padden, M Ronaldson
Galway: P Doherty, G Bradshaw, F Hanley, D Burke; N Coyne, D Blake, G Sice; B Cullinane, N Coleman; C Bane, P Joyce, N Joyce, M Clancy, M Meehan, F Breathnach.
