All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final: Tyrone 2-14 Mayo 0-15
THIS story is about Tyrone’s brilliance, not the latest act of Mayo’s possibly never-ending Croke Park tragedy.
The best team won on Saturday and it was the same team that had dethroned Cavan (the reigning Ulster champions), beaten Donegal (Anglo-Celt favourites), seen off Division One veterans Monaghan, withdrawn from the competition because of a Covid outbreak, re-entered it, shocked Sam Maguire favourites Kerry and finally, and most impressively, routed Mayo, the team that ended Dublin’s hopes for seven in-a-row.
Tyrone fell two points behind in the early stages but after Padraig Hampsey levelled on five minutes never trailed again and although Mayo can point to goal chances that came and went, a penalty that might have been and another than Ryan O’Donoghue kicked wide, they lost because they lacked the quality to break down the Red Hand defence, the mobility to shackle Tyrone’s forward power and the composure to take their chances when they came.
The bottom line is that Mayo weren’t good enough again and credit for that goes to Tyrone who won the game with a fair bit to spare. Who’s to say that this team can’t build on their fourth Sam Maguire and overhaul Cavan and Down, Ulster’s top dogs with five apiece.
Apart from Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher who saw this coming?
The new management duo spotted the potential in a squad that had been there or thereabouts when they replaced living legend Mickey Harte at the start of this campaign. A League weekend in Killarney was the end of their honeymoon period and they used that defeat to kick-start their season and beat a series of heavyweights to claim the title of ‘best team in the land’.
The bigger the game, the more Tyrone seem to like it and they play with tenacity, style and variety with quality all over the pitch. In Niall Morgan they have a goalkeeper at the top of his game; a posse of quick, strong, smart defenders; a midfield pair that wins ball and forwards who can stick it in the net. Add in the experience of the likes of Peter Harte, the tenacity and workrate of Meyler, McGeary, Burns and Sludden and an unbreakable team spirit and you have… All-Ireland champions.
“You might have only one chance so you make the most of it whenever you can,” said Dooher, now a Sam Maguire winner as player and manager.
“Let’s face it, we had the rub of the green at times and we needed it, particularly in the semi-final, we got a right bit of luck. And today too, we used up a right bit of it.
“The way we look at it with the players is: don’t wait until tomorrow, do what you can today and the boys did that. You never know, you might never be back in an All-Ireland final and you have to grasp that opportunity when it comes. It’s very fortunate and very lucky that you get to an All-Ireland final and you have to give everything you can when you get there. Today there were boys who did that.”
His colleague Logan came through the wars in the 1995 All-Ireland final. Saturday’s final never quite reached the pressure-cooker intensity of that battle with the Dubs and Logan said the win was “somewhat of a redemption” for the painful memory of it.
Goals – the pair Tyrone scored and those Mayo missed – were the key, he said: “The goals set us up, goals win matches and we were lucky to get them and they worked, and our midfield was outstanding.
"Our kick-outs the last day, there was a lot of scrutiny of that against Kerry and our kick-outs tonight, Niall Morgan is an exceptional goalkeeper and catches and flick-ons and whatever, of course the further up the field you are, the closer you are to the net and if you don't get up to the goal line, how do you cross it? So you've got to get to it.”
It took a few minutes for Logan’s men to get going on Saturday and Mayo got the start they wanted when Aidan O’Shea grabbed the throw-in and passed to Tommy Conroy who split the posts under the Hill after just 15 seconds.
Rob Hennelly was off target with a 45 before Tyrone had their first chance but Harte sent it wide and Hennelly’s quick restart sent the westerners sprinting forward on the attack.
Ryan O’Donoghue ignored boos from the Hill to slot over a free but Morgan and Hampsey brought unflustered Tyrone back to parity before Darren McCurry sent them ahead. It was man-on-man all the over the field and Tyrone pressed the Mayo kick-out to blunt the attacking pace of Lee Keegan and Paddy Durcan.
O’Shea faded, Diarmuid O’Connor faded, Kevin McLoughlin struggled and Matthew Ruane and Conor Loftus were second best against Brian Kennedy and Conn Kilpatrick so it was left to O’Donoghue and, to a lesser extent, Conroy to carry the fight to Tyrone.
O’Donoghue levelled and then slipped in Brian Walsh in front of goal but he needed too long to shoot and Morgan blocked. Loftus missed a sitter when the ball broke to him but credit goes to Niall Sludden for his block on the line. Minutes later, Ronan McNamee was the hero, diving full-length to block O’Shea’s shot. Again O’Donoghue was the provider.
McCurry lost the much-vaunted Padraig O’Hora and sent Tyrone ahead again and although he missed a gilt-edged goal chance, Sludden, Mattie Donnelly and Morgan’s 45 left clear daylight between the sides before Mayo rallied to leave two in it (0-10 to 0-8) at the break.
It seemed Tyrone’s game to lose at half-time but the westerners had turned it around against Galway and Dublin, hadn’t they? Maybe they could do the same again? If so they were going to need goals because they couldn’t out-box Tyrone.
Conroy burst through early in the second half but blazed wide under pressure and then the turning point arrived when O’Donoghue’s free fell short and O’Connor (given the benefit of ‘square ball’ doubt) got a hand on it at the back post. Burns picked the ball off the ground and referee Joe McQuillan, who got a marginal call right in the first half, signalled a penalty.
O’Donoghue stepped up and side-footed a shot to Morgan’s left. Mayo fans waited for the net to bulge, it had to bulge, but it didn’t. The ball hit the outside of the post and went wide - another clip for the bad luck highlights reel.
Mayo fans instinctively grabbed their coats but their famous loyalty kicked in and they forced themselves to sit tight. From there on, it must have been hard to watch.
Meyler pumped the ball in and Hennelly and Mullen stood looking at each other as substitute Cathal McShane flicked it deftly into the net. That left it 1-10 to 0-9 but even then Mayo could have got back into it.
The drowning men snatched at the lifelines though and there were wides from Hennelly and Walsh before Loftus missed two good opportunities.
Meanwhile, Tyrone moved through the gears and Kilpatrick, coming of age alongside Kennedy in midfield, arched his back to grab Morgan’s kick-out. He turned and played in Conor McKenna who flicked a pass to McCurry and he gleefully walloped the ball into the Mayo net.
Red Hands were on the Sam Maguire then and Harte, Daire Canavan, McCurry and Morgan all hammered extra nails into the Mayo coffin to seal an unforgettable win for their county and an unforgettable loss for the Connacht champions.
“The performance wasn't what we can give, that's the disappointing thing,” said crestfallen Mayo manager James Horan.
"We had a couple of goal chances in the first half but Bryan Walsh, Conor and Aidan didn't stick them in the net and we started to snatch at things a little bit in the second half. We just lost our composure a bit.”
Horan seemed stunned. His team failed to perform and looked second best but there’s always next year in Mayo and he’ll have Cillian O’Connor fit again and the likes of David McBreen and Mark Moran coming through.
“They are an amazing bunch,” he said, not quite convincingly.
“We have the full squad in there and there are a lot of young guys who are really serious dudes.
“It's very, very disappointing but as we have said in every game, we can't get too up or too down from an outcome but we try and learn from every single game and do the same again.
A familiar tale for Mayo and a familiar journey back west after yet another defeat.
Hearts go out but the story isn’t about them, it’s about Tyrone – the team that beat all-comers and brought the Sam Maguire home.
Mayo: R Hennelly (0-1 free); P O’Hora, L Keegan (0-1); S Coen (0-1); P Durcan (0-1), O Mullin, M Plunkett; M Ruane, C Loftus; B Walsh, K McLoughlin (0-1), D O’Connor; T Conroy (0-2), A O’Shea, R O’Donoghue (0-8, 0-7 frees)
Subs: E Hession for Plunkett (HT), J Flynn for O’Hora (52), D Coen for Walsh (58), A Orme for Loftus (65), J Carr for McLoughlin (74)
Yellow cards: Keegan (51)
Red card: M Ruane (68)
Tyrone: N Morgan (0-3, 0-2 frees, 0-1 45’); M McKernan, P Hampsey (0-1), R McNamee; F Burns; N Sludden (0-2), P Harte (0-1 mark), M O’Neill; B Kennedy, C Kilpatrick; C Meyler, C McKenna, K McGeary (0-1); D McCurry (1-4, 0-2 frees), M Donnelly (0-1)
Subs: C McShane (1-0) for Donnelly (43), D Canavan (0-1) for O’Neill (53), B McDonnell for Kennedy (56), P Donaghy for McKenna (65), T McCann for Kilpatrick (72)
Yellow cards: B Kennedy (4), Burns (40), Kilpatrick (71), Hampsey (73), McDonnell (77)
Referee: J McQuillan (Cavan)
Attendance: 41,000
