September Road now ends in July as Mayo begin defence of their Connacht crown on home soil

SIDELINE CUT

SEPTEMBER will never be the same – well, not this year at least. The All-Ireland champions will be installed by July and the much-travelled September Road, which saw a lot of Mayo traffic over the last 10 years, will have a lot fewer cars and buses heading east on what had became an annual pilgrimage, an almost spiritual event for Mayo's amazingly loyal supporters.

It was a strange feeling last July when Mayo and Galway met in the Connacht final in Croke Park but there were many strange things about last year’s championship, not least Mayo’s victory over Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final and their ‘no show’ for the final against Tyrone, which has puzzled psychologists and other gurus who study the mind and what strange things can go on in it.

It will probably come up on a quiz programme as to why a Connacht final between two neighbouring counties should be moved to Croke Park, the reason being that Covid-19 restrictions limited the attendance to 3,600 at MacHale Park, while Croke Park was allowed up to 18,000.

It has been said – and proven in the league in particular – that Mayo tend to play better away from home (more work for the psychologists) but they will need to bury this myth on Sunday and tap into the energy that a huge crowd is likey to bring to the newly named Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.

It is worth just briefly looking back on last year’s Connacht final in Croke Park as once again Mayo displayed their Jekyll and Hyde characteristics (something they also returned to on a few occasions during this year's Allianz National League). Galway ran them ragged in the first half but Mayo turned up for the second half of that game, the introduction of both Eoghan McLaughlin and Kevin McLoughlin, along with the moving of Aiden O’Sheas to the edge of the square, helping them to win in the end by 2-14 to 2-8.

The familiar names of Comer, Walsh and Conroy ran the show in the first half and Mayo trailed by five at the break but those three Galway individuals were heard but not seen in the second half, Oisin Mullin blotting out Walsh, Padraig O’Hora putting the shackles on Comer, and man of the match Matthew Ruane taking control of midfield.

I expect there will be a number of battles between these players again on Sunday and many more besides, but it is worth remembering that there is no Tommy Conroy, who scored 0-3 for Mayo in that game, while there is a question mark as to whether Cillian O’Connor is anywhere near the level of match fitness that will be required if he is to play a leading role in this quarterfinal clash.

DIFFERENT LEVEL

It is hard to argue that a team would go out into a league final with the attitude of not really caring if they won it or not.

That suggestion has been doing the rounds but it would be foolhardy in the extreme to suggest Mayo were holding back.

Yes, they were down a few key players, notably Paddy Durcan and Oisin Mullin, but Kerry were playing at a different level, while David Clifford was playing in a different stratosphere.

It still doesn’t excuse or explain the magnitude of Mayo's defeat, let alone their performance, by suggesting they just didn’t perform or they had a bad day.

How many bad days does it take before we get it right?

I don’t see them having a problem in raising their game for Galway but the other side of that coin is that the Tribesmen might be getting a little tired of living in Mayo’s shadow for the last few years, and I do worry that some of their top players seem to be coming into form at the right time whereas too many Mayo players seem to be struggling at the wrong time – and James Horan's team has serious injury issues to key players (and we still are in the dark as to the full extent of them).

With Conroy missing in that forward line, Mayo have come to rely heavily on Ryan O’Donoghue who has been carrying the team in the scoring department at times, and that puts pressure on the shoulders of the young Belmullet – although he has handled it well.

I think both Aidan O’Shea and Jason Doherty could pose problems for that Galway defence with the huge Croke Park experience they have in their respective lockers.

The other area of concern has to be around the middle of the field, where Matthew Ruane and Jordan Flynn were developing a good partnership until the latter picked up an ankle injury in the league final. That poses another dilemma in Horan’s team selection.

BIG QUESTIONS

The big questions do, of course, concern Mayo’s return to a ground where they have had some great triumphs but also some disastrous days, their last two not particularly memorable.

Hopefully they will be able to put that All-Ireland final performance from last year and this year’s league final display where they belong – buried in the past – when they face Galway in a 4 p.m. throw-in on Sunday back on home ground.

We really won’t know what kind of shape Mayo are in until the team lines out before the game but they will certainly need to have got rid of what one pundit described as a team looking leggy if they are to take the more preferred direct route by reaching the Connacht final rather than being forced to take the key to the backdoor, which is where the losers of Sunday’s game will find themselves.

It is well known that Mayo were putting in some serious training before the Allianz National League final – perhaps too much when the performance against Kerry was analysed – but an easing off on the more physical side of the training will hopefully have them well primed for turning in a big game, and it will need to be very big given the display Galway put in against Roscommon in that Division 2 final.

Galway were beaten in the end by a brilliant goal from Diarmuid Murtagh but there is no doubt that the spirit within the camp is good and some of their key players are returning to form right on que for a big shot at the Connacht championship, which seems the easiest road back to Croke Park.

Experience is a vital component to winning in Croke Park, no matter what the opposition, and I expect Mayo to take another step in the right direction to retain their Connacht title and take the July Road, the performance against Kerry a mere aberration – I hope.