Mayo supporters deserve answers in aftermath of hurtful defeat

by Aiden Henry

I THINK it is fair to say that this latest Mayo defeat an the All-Ireland final has hurt the most of all.

Over the past 10 years Mayo have suffered many heartbreaking defeats in All-Ireland finals.

However, they have been taken on the chin by Mayo supporters who always accepted them with pure optimism that eventually their day would come.

Management decisions and player performances were never really blamed or questioned as to why they always came out second best.

That was up to now. Losing to Tyrone in last Saturday’s All-Ireland final seems to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back in some quarters.

Reaction from a number of faithful Mayo supporters to this defeat is different in that questions are being asked of team manager James Horan and, to a lesser degree, some of the players.

Indeed, the sense of annoyance, frustration and being let down that many Mayo supporters are expressing and feeling is alarming, to say the least.

Have they valid cause and reasons for their expressions of annoyance at this latest defeat on the big day?

The simple answer is that they have and maybe it is now time, if not past time, for the Mayo County Board to conduct a full post-mortem into how the team is being managed and come up with honest answers as to what may be going wrong and make a firm decision(s) to try and put these wrongs to right.

It is the least the Mayo GAA followers deserve.

They have given unrivalled support to this Mayo senior team down through the years and have backed them through thick and thin. We all know only too well that Mayo supporters are regarded by every other county as among the best in the country.

Last Saturday we weren’t playing Dublin in the final and yet every other county wanted Mayo to win.

If we were to go right through every county in Ireland in the run-up to Saturday’s decider, there were red and green flags flying everywhere.

Out of the question

It was generally felt that this was going to be Mayo’s year. For the weeks leading up to last Saturday there was a different expectancy within the county.

Everyone wanted to get hold of a ticket as they wanted to be in Croke Park to see their team at last win the Sam Maguire. Defeat for Mayo on this occasion was out of the question. But things didn't go to plan.

I am sure many Mayo supporters are pointing the finger at this player and that player as how they performed, or more correctly how they didn’t perform.

While this is fair enough to a certain extent, not one of the Mayo players went out to play a bad game or not play up to their usual high standard.

They went out to play to their best ability and to a team plan the management had marked out for each of them.

It is here that questions have to be asked.

The buck stops with the team manager, James Horan.

He makes the final decisions, be it what plan needs to be put in place to deal with the opposition, what 15 start the game or what changes need to be made during the contest.

One would have to say a lot of these decisions around Saturday’s All-Ireland final leave a bit to be desired.

Will there be any answers to these questions? Will they be even asked by the Mayo GAA authorities and will they take any action to put things right?

I am not so sure this will happen. Indeed, I expect there will be a lot of silence over the coming days and when the dust begins to settle and when the present anger the Mayo supporters are feeling cools down, a lot will be swept under the carpet and everything will move on as before.

However, if the Mayo County Board do hold an post-mortem into this defeat, they should have plenty of questions for Horan to answer.

They need to be fully satisfied that he is still the person to continue to lead Mayo’s quest to win the ultimate prize or else consider if is time for a change of manager.

I feel it would be a good idea for the county board to also get the opinions of all the clubs in the county as to what direction they should take – and they should take seriously the club members' views.

The main questions being raised since Saturday include the following:

Did the best 15 start?

Had the management any plan B or C?

Did they get the match-ups right?

Had they named the best 11 players among the substitutes from a total of 42 players in the senior panel?

One of the big talking points among Mayo followers concerns Colm Boyle.

Anyone watching the Mayo senior team play over the past 10 years would have Boyle high on their list as an inspirational player and one who never let the side down.

But last Saturday, like the semi-final game against Dublin, Boyle was running up and down the sideline limbering up and ready if called into action. But again, he was never called on.

Surely when Mayo needed a gee-up and that inspirational figure, the Davitts man was the ideal person to be brought on.

Fate sealed

Finally, I don’t know if the Mayo supporters, in the ground or watching the game on TV, knew it (but didn’t want to believe it), but their team's fate was sealed with just over five minutes gone in the second half.

At that stage Ryan O’Donoghue had just hit a penalty kick off the right-hand post and wide. Moments earlier Tommy Conroy missed a great goal chance.

Couple this with two other great first-half goal chances that were missed, and one knew there and then it wasn’t going to be Mayo’s day, even if they didn't want to admit it.

We know that, generally, on big match days like this, a team needs to make the most of their scoring chances to come out on top.

For Mayo last Saturday it was a bit different as they would just have needed to take less than half of the good scoring they missed to win.

In total they missed four great goal chances and the point wide count was in the double digits.