By the time the new Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh cup was presented to the Kerry captain Gavin White there were just a couple of thousand people left in Croke Park. In the league nobody is looking for a drink after closing time. Everybody has homes to go to.
Kerry won by six points in the end, 1-18 to 1-12, though the margin is immaterial. Their superiority smothered the match. If Kerry had been clinical it might have been a rout. Mayo regressed to the kind of form that had threatened to derail their season in the opening rounds of the league and lost meekly. They didn’t fire a shot. Even in the league, where forgiveness is bountiful, this will be a stain on their conscience.
As a spectacle it was dishevelled. A crowd of just 21,596 turned up and at times a murmur flooded the emptiness, like the sound of air conditioning. For the new rules these were laboratory conditions: a warm, dry, still day and a pitch that offered a bounce for every step. But Kerry weren’t able to cut loose and Mayo weren’t able to keep up and everything felt spancelled.
The outcome was never in question. There was a brief spell, at the end of the third quarter, when Kerry’s lead was suddenly cut from eight points to three, but Mayo allowed the momentum to fall through a hole in their pocket. Eoghan McLaughlin’s stunning goal was followed within a minute by a two-point free from Ryan O’Donoghue, but in the 23 minutes that remained Mayo could only muster two points.
After a league final there is often a scramble to manage the message Jack O’Connor kept it simple.
“I wouldn’t be giving us too much kudos now,” he said. “I thought we were average at times, but we managed to raise our game then when we needed to. That performance was good enough for today, but I don’t think it’ll be good enough down the line.”
Kevin McStay didn’t waste time looking for a sugar coating. “I just thought we were a little bit leggy maybe, or just didn’t get to the pitch of the game. Never asked a big question at all, that’s the disappointing part. We didn’t mind the ball properly at this level of the game. Didn’t mind it at all, actually.
“We were beaten at midfield, no question. We thought we would get a trick out of that and we kind of loaded up our selection that way. But we were cleaned out at midfield. Especially on the break, very disappointed on the break because usually we’re good on the break and we were very good in the league. But just that energy or that sharpness wasn’t there.”
McStay, though, was exercised about the free count and what he saw as the excessive protection afforded to David Clifford. He finished with eight points, which only scratches the surface of his performance. Four of those scores were from frees, each of which was awarded for a foul on him. Clifford made Kerry’s first goal with a lightning interception on a short kick-out and made a goal chance for Micheál Burns with the best pass of the match. But he also kicked five wides, a mixum-gatherum of poor shot selection and clunky execution.
All of the Mayo full-back line took turns in Clifford’s company, but he was Donnacha McHugh’s primary responsibility and when these teams met in Castlebar a few weeks ago McHugh had done a superb job of damage-limitation. Holding Clifford to four points from play might seem like a score draw if it wasn’t for all the other ways that he influenced the scoring.
“At the same time I’m thinking Donnacha give him a good shot,” said McStay. “He’s a fabulous player [Clifford], we’ll all agree on that. But if you see the camera angles I’ll be looking at now Monday and Tuesday from behind [the goal], he is so clever at making sure the picture that the referee sees is an excellent picture for him. He can’t always be out in front, nature doesn’t allow that, he can’t be out in front for every ball.
“I thought today he got well looked after. Donnacha’s jersey must be resistant to pulling all together, I don’t know. David Coldrick is obviously a fabulous referee too, but the tackle count [free count] I think it was 13-1 at one stage. I thought we could tackle, that was the last time I checked, we’re a good tackling team. Maybe we’re not presenting good pictures to the refs of our tackle.”
They go their separate ways now: Kerry to a training camp in Portugal, Mayo to a week of fast corrections before they plunge into the Connacht championship against Sligo at the weekend. Move along. Nothing left to see here.
