ON a disappointing day for Ulster teams, Tyrone and Donegal were much too predictable offensively.The commonality was an over-reliance on the running game to get scores. Donegal’s entire forward line managed just one point from play, while Dublin racked up 1-7. But they tried. Michael Murphy went to the square along with Paddy McBrearty but it just didn’t work with neither men influencing the game.
Martin O’Reilly being matched up with Kevin McManamon didn’t work either. He scored 0-3 from play, was fouled for another and won two kick-outs.
A greater intensity on the front foot saw Donegal move the ball with more urgency committing extra bodies forward in the second half. I don’t care that Ciaran Kilkenny touched the ball 51 times, as many of them were under no pressure and on quite a few he got away with overcarrying. He’s lucky Marty Duffy wasn’t officiating as he would have been punished.
Ryan McHugh was easily the best player on the pitch and you are unlikely to see a better team goal than the one he scored. But even with two extra men they still couldn’t keep Paul Mannion and Dublin at bay as some of the old guard just looked like they had nothing more to give. It was too often left to McHugh alone to carry the fight to the Dubs.
Tyrone, led by the outstanding Peter Harte will rue their missed chances, the sending off of Sean Cavanagh and their lack of a reliable free-taker from distance. In Harte, Mattie Donnelly, Cathal McShane, Tiernan McCann they had players who could punch holes in the Mayo defence but they also had too many players soloing with no purpose or real belief to create the opening when they really needed it.
I was really impressed by the playmaking of Niall Sludden, but Tyrone badly missed a more direct ball strategy. It was as if they were playing Donegal all over again.
1) Mayo showed a much better balance in attack than one-dimensional Red Hands
WHILE Tyrone’s full-forward line didn’t manage a score from play, Mayo’s returned 0-5 from with Aidan O’Shea a real focal point that brought the best out of an inform Cillian O’Connor. Mayo came with something fresh and innovative as they went against tradition and played Tyrone at their own game, defending in huge numbers.
Going forward Mayo simply had better balance as they cleverly mixed up their strong running with a very clever and effective kicking game. In the move that lead to Andy Moran’s first half point, Mayo beat Tyrone at their own game and demonstrated a weapon badly lacking in the Red Hand armoury. Niall Sludden tried to find Peter Harte, who had drifted into the full-forward line.
Mayo read the intention, doubled up on him to turn the possession over before counter-attacking at speed through their sweeper Kevin McLoughlin. One kick-pass to Alan Dillon was followed up with a lovely diagonal ball to Aidan O’Shea that cut out the two Tyrone sweepers. With Cathal McCarron caught on the wrong side of the break, Andy Moran had an easy tap over.
The fact that Tyrone outnumbered Mayo by five players to two inside their defensive 45 was made irrelevant by the amount of time Alan Dillon had to pick the pass and the colossus that is Aidan O’Shea.
2) Going down to 14 men was key
A DAMNING statistic was that Tyrone converted just 12 scores from 31 shots, but credit must go to Mayo for executing a defensive plan that saw many of these chances spurned under immense pressure. The Connor McAliskey goal opportunity was certainly a key moment but so were the three chances to equalise, missed by Cathal McCarron, Tiernan McCann and Darren McCurry.
But perhaps even more significant was the loss of their captain and go-to-man Sean Cavanagh. When you think back to how he dragged his team back from the brink in the dying moments of the Ulster final, his absence in the closing stages was critical. He left the field when the game was 0-11 each and in the melting point. Not long after his sending off, his direct opponent Lee Keegan added injury to insult by landing the winner.
When Keegan levelled the game at 0-11 each there was 20 minutes left to play. In that time, Tyrone had seven shots at goal, with Mayo only having two. Mayo’s greater efficiency saw them kick both chances with Tyrone managing just one from seven attempts. Damning.
3) Cavanagh should have been used on the square
I CAN’T understand why Tyrone didn’t use Cavanagh at full-forward, or at least play him closer to goal. I say this for two reasons. Lee Keegan was marking Cavanagh and as the Tyrone captain played deeper this invited the bombing wingback to go forward more. Tyrone lacked a serious ball-winner close to goal to draw the attentions of two or three Mayo defenders.
Tyrone’s game pretty much amounted to running and running the ball and the longer the game went on the more Mayo had figured it out. Tyrone got no scores from play out of their inside line yet Mayo returned 0-5 between Aidan O’Shea, Cillian O’Connor and Andy Moran.
4) Lack of a reliable long-range free taker told
ONCE again Tyrone lacked a reliable free-taker who could kick scores from distance. On the day they had five different players on them. Out of four frees from the left-hand side they kicked none over.
Had Niall Morgan scored his previous two attempts you could make a case for him coming up to have a go at the one to equalise. But previous form would suggest that he was very unlikely to kick such a pressure free. It was from a similar position that Peter Harte kicked the winner in the Ulster final and maybe he should have had a go or at least looked for a give and go.
5) Tyrone must learn lessons to advance
IN the closing stages when Tyrone needed to get the ball back they looked unable to adapt from their defensive shell. At one stage Colm Cavanagh was roaring at his team-mates to push out and start pressurising the ball.
Part of the problem stemmed from being down to 14 men. Just before his second yellow, Sean Cavanagh gave away a foul for a mistimed tackle, so perhaps he deserved a card, but you would have the question who instigated the situation just after half-time that saw him receive his first booking. An experienced team alive and kicking while playing poorly is always a dangerous animal.
People forget the quality and depth of experience in a side that have been in two All-Ireland finals and three semis in the last five years. I fancy Mayo to beat Tipperary the next day and who’s to say this won’t be their year? We rarely see the fairytale ending in sport and this would be a very sad way to see Sean Cavanagh bow out of the game after a glittering career that saw him achieve so much. But that’s sport. There is no doubt the door will open again for this young Tyrone team but valuable lessons will need to be learned if Sam is to come back to Tyrone in the next few years.
