Inside Track with John McIntyre

IT’S finally over for the remnants of a great but luckless Mayo football team. Loyal servants Aidan O’Shea, Jason Doherty, Cillian O’Connor and Kevin McLaughlin will never win that coveted All-Ireland medal now judging by the events at Croke Park over the weekend.

Not alone that, but these quartet of Mayo players have probably lined out in the red and green jersey for the last time. Reality has to bite as the manner in which the league champions were ruthlessly dismantled by Dublin in the second half of Sunday’s All-Ireland quarter-final suggests that Mayo have too much of a gap to bridge in the short term.

The signs were there in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final when falling relatively tamely to Kerry, but the subsequent appointment of a new manager in Kevin McStay brought new hope while a Division 1 league final triumph over Galway at Croke Park last April indicated that Mayo could still hack it at the highest level.

Unfortunately, their championship campaign never really took off despite beating Kerry in Killarney and again getting one over Galway at Pearse Stadium last Sunday week. Throw in losses to Roscommon and Cork, together with their late struggles against Louth, it’s clear that Mayo are no longer capable of delivering day in, day out.

Perhaps, having to line out for a third consecutive weekend did them no favours against a clinical Dublin, but the way their challenge was eventually brushed aside by James McCarthy and company was still alarming. Mayo only managed three points over the closing 35-minutes minutes and, often, were left chasing shadows.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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