Sport

Tyrone's bogey team Mayo surely still wary of bad history repeating

Kenny Archer

Kenny Archer

Kenny is the deputy sports editor and a Liverpool FC fan.

Tyrone's Peter Harte up against Stephen Coen of Mayo. 
Tyrone's Peter Harte up against Stephen Coen of Mayo.  Tyrone's Peter Harte up against Stephen Coen of Mayo. 

AS we look forward to an intriguing All-Ireland Senior Football Final it's impossible not to look back to the past for pointers.

Although the two teams appear well-matched, it's also apparent why Mayo are favourites to see off Tyrone.

Mayo added to their stature as the heroes of all neutrals by slaying the bogeymen (aka six-in-a-row champions Dublin).

Mayo could be forgiven for feeling the stars have aligned for them. Supporters back in the stadium to see them end their 70-year wait against the county they almost always beat in senior championship.

There's no doubt that Mayo would have been more wary of taking on Kerry, who were favourites even before Dublin's exit.

Tyrone have echoes of the Crystal Palace soccer side in the 1989-90 season. Thrashed 9-0 early in that league campaign by a Liverpool team that were to go on to become champions, they met again an FA Cup semi-final. The Reds went ahead again and seemed Wembley-bound, but Palace - inspired by Alan Pardew - ended up shock winners, 4-3 after extra time.

Tyrone's transformation this year was even more remarkable than that of Palace, the Red Hands' turnaround happening in less than three months.

Back in mid June Tyrone were humiliated by Kerry down in Killarney, losing by 16 points, 6-15 to 1-14, with five of the goals coming by half-time. The Kingdom had the opportunities to double their goal tally, as Tyrone suffered what joint-manager Brian Dooher recently labelled "a total meltdown".

Yet just 11 weeks later, 77 days, the Red Hands wreaked their revenge on Kerry, beating them after extra time in the All-Ireland semi-final. What's more, the Kingdom didn't find the net once, while Tyrone, somewhat unusually for them, scored three goals.

Crucially, though, Palace didn't go on to win the Cup, losing out in a Final replay to Manchester United.

And Tyrone will probably have to play better than they did against Kerry last time out to defeat Mayo.

Still, Mayo will worry. Of course they will. They're Mayo. Why wouldn't they?

You don't lose 10 finals, five of those over the past decade, and simply stroll blithely into number 11 without a care in the world.

Sure, they've done the hard part in defeating Dublin, ending an unprecedented 45-match unbeaten streak in Championship football.

Yet their players, management, and supporters will know all too well that the previous team to beat Dublin in Championship didn't go on to win the All-Ireland. Donegal stunned the Dubs in that 2014 semi-final but then fell short against Kerry in the final.

Mayo might also remember what followed their previous Championship victory over Dublin, in 2012, something that also seemed a great omen in those days.

Indeed the team that had knocked the Dubs out of the Championship had gone on to lift the Sam Maguire Cup in 2007 (Kerry), 2008 (Tyrone), 2009 (Kerry), and 2010 (Cork).

No one managed to do that in 2011, Dublin finally entering the promised land after all their years of waiting and winning their first final since 1995.

Dethroning the Dubs in 2012 was still not enough for Mayo, though, Donegal disposing of them in the first of their latest series of final losses.

Mayo lost back-to-back finals in 2012 and '13, 2016 and '17, so after last year's defeat to the Dubs will they complete another unwanted double?

Or will they finally do it without many of the men who brought them so close over the years? Sport can be strange and cruel like that.

It seems improbable, almost impossible, that Mayo are even in the final after a swathe of retirements earlier this year, Chris Barrett, David Clarke, Keith Higgins, Seamus O'Shea, Tom Parsons, and Donal Vaughan all stepping off the inter-county stage. Followed by a season-ending injury in the spring for captain and all-time Championship top scorer Cillian O'Connor.

Even without all of them, a new-look team were fully deserving winners over Dublin - as Tyrone were against Kerry.

Both were important breakthroughs - Mayo at last overcoming the Dubs after pushing them so hard in the finals of 2013, 2016, and 2017, Tyrone beating a big team in Championship for the first time since 2008.

Still, you truly don't know what you're going to get with these two.

Their matches have tended to be close affairs - yet the last time these teams met, in the 2019 League Division One, Mayo thrashed Tyrone in their own backyard, easing to a 2-13 to 0-10 success in Healy Park.

Even that wasn't as big a beating as that handed out by the visitors in Castlebar the previous year, Tyrone winning by 12, 2-14 to 0-8.

Saturday should be a closer contest than those, but 'expect the unexpected' applies to All-Ireland Finals even before you factor in the great unpredictables of Mayo and Tyrone.

The long-awaited pairing of Dublin and Kerry in a final, in 2015, turned out to be a damp squib, won fairly comfortable by the boys in blue.

Then, four years later, when they met again with the Dubs as unheard-of 1/5 favourites, a young Kerry side almost snatched a sensational victory before succumbing in a replay.

At least this isn't the 'lose to Dublin' tournament finale. All we do know is that a long(ish) wait will end this weekend, either nine years for an All-Ireland champion from Ulster, or 20 for a Connacht side to be crowned.

Probably.

Let's hope for another similarity with that 1990 FA Cup, a thrilling final after two hugely memorable semi-finals, both of which went to extra time.

Who knows, if this also ends in a draw we'll even get another flashback, an All-Ireland Senior Football Final on the traditional third Sunday in September…