Hard to know where to start with Mayo.
I found myself starting off hoping theyâd win to just giving up on them, being totally disillusioned with them for a finish. They just never, ever learn. The same mistakes year in and year out, knowing theyâll always come up short when it matters.
Iâm very sorry for a truly great player like Lee Keegan. But you get what you deserve in this game. You can be unlucky in one or two matches but losing seven (7) finals in the last while tells its own story. Mentally weak and brittle, afraid of winning and not having that bit of magic needed to break a hoodoo - Loughnane, Currid, Jim McGuinness etc.
As a neutral it was soul destroying watching them blow it. Hennelly and the early missed â45, the goal chance off the line, Conroyâs miss, the penalty, stupid fouls, appalling shot selection, general air of panic and complete absence of assurance and belief, not taking off OâShea, Hennelly again for the first goal. On and on it went.
The same old story, the same old Mayo. Stick with them and theyâll buckle.
The alarm bells were ringing for weeks. Aidan OâShea - held scoreless in his previous 6 finals and hauled off in the semi final after a stinker - doing a photo shoot two weeks before the biggest match of his career and his shot at redemption. Like, what the actually fuck? Has the guy zero self awareness. Has Horan any control of him? âKeep your fucking head down for the next four weeks, show me you deserve to start and do what you fucking like after we win it.â
Even David Brady, another ape. He probably set the alarm deliberately for 5.30am to throw up that dumb tweet. Will he and Mayo ever learn. The level of pre match confidence was incredible considering they were facing a battle hardened Tyrone team and the weight of history. It wasnât just bullishness, it was almost a feeling of certainty. Oh we deserve it. No, you deserve fuck all when you donât put in the work and hope for things to happen.
Well done Tyrone. They got the bit of luck against Donegal up in Ulster with the missed Michael Murphy penalty and didnât look back. Really good management, improved as the year went on and made their own luck. Won by 5 and McShane and Canavan grabbed, what 1-01, between them. No coincidence.
Organised, disciplined, focused, no distractions, no ego, a set plan. The polar opposite of their opponents.
Iâd love Malachy OâRourke to get the Mayo job and help them home. But the only certainty is that theyâll implode yet again when the next opportunity arises.
Christ, Iâm seething at how they wilted. Anyways, well done Tyrone. Deserved winners. Ulster says No.