opportunity knocks

We’re back in championship action again today, once again away to Ulster opposition. Healy Park in Omagh is where the car is pointed to this time, with our All-Ireland SFC Round 2A clash with Tyrone throwing in there at 3.30pm this afternoon. Kildare’s Brendan Cawley is the ref, the match is live on RTÉ and Midwest will have live radio commentary too.

It’s impossible to draw any kind of sensible form lines from games played to date in this year’s championship. There were the Rossies, riding high after the thumping they gave us, which they followed up with a wonderful late charge to beat Galway in the Connacht final. Now, after an abject showing against Monaghan in Clones yesterday, they’re already out.

We lost to Roscommon, Tyrone beat them. We beat Monaghan, Roscommon lost to them. You get my point – form is all over the shop this summer.

Last year’s win over Tyrone is of even less relevance for today’s meeting. We were both in a different place then and both teams have seen changes in personnel over the last twelve months, in our case on the sideline as well as on the pitch.

Both ourselves and Tyrone head to Healy Park today off the back of Round 1 wins in the All-Ireland championship. Tyrone brought newly-crowned Connacht champions Roscommon down to earth with a bump when they beat them by a point at Dr Hyde Park the weekend before we played Monaghan, whom we edged past by the same margin.

At the time, their win looked the more impressive, given the Rossies’ coruscating championship form up to that point. In light of their limp exit from the championship up in Clones yesterday evening, however, that conclusion may need to be revisited, along with all the criticisms aimed at Andy Moran’s team for their performance in a game against the Farney lads that they ended up winning.

Happily, though, no such triangulation is required. The only thing that matters in terms of which of us has the better form is how well this can be displayed once the ball is thrown in today and, ultimately, which team prevails.

The new structure has brought back a welcome do-or-die element to the championship, which was often missing from many of those unlamented group stage games. There’s no draw on offer today and instead it’s win or lose, even if that means extra-time and, if necessary, a penalty shootout.

The one element that’s missing is, of course, the knockout football bit. But, for us and for the Red Hand County, this game is our final championship outing this year that isn’t a knockout one. Regardless of how today’s match finishes, it’s all knockout from here.

How today finishes sends the two teams down very different roads.

While a loss isn’t fatal, it means another outing next weekend, facing one of the four rejuvenated Round 2B winners. If this is our fate then whoever we face it’ll be an elemental battle for survival and, if we do survive that test, we’d then have what’s likely to be an even tougher All-Ireland quarter-final, against one of the Round 2A winners, the weekend after.

A win this afternoon, by contrast, sees us advance directly to the All-Ireland quarter-final stage, with next weekend off before we head for Croke Park the weekend after.

It’s not difficult to see which scenario would suit us better.

Making it to an All-Ireland quarter-final – for the first time since 2023 – and getting to play once again in Croke Park, for many years a home from home for us but a venue we haven’t graced in summer for three seasons, would be an important proof-point to show that the county’s fortunes are once more on the up.

That makes today’s game a real opportunity for us. Rob nailed this point emphatically in his MFT column this week, when he looked at those recent games in which we came up short – like Dublin at Dr Hyde Park two years ago and Donegal at the same venue last year – and contrasted these with the breakthrough wins James Horan’s Mayo team achieved 15 years ago at the start of what proved such a memorable era for the county.

If we are to win today then, like everyone else, I can’t see us doing so unless we tighten things at the back. We’re far from the only team in the country that is letting leads slip this year but we definitely look far too open and inviting in defence. Roscommon tore our backline to shreds and, but for Jack Livingstone’s heroics in Clones, Monaghan would have wreaked similar havoc on us.

This year, as Anthony Hennigan observed in the Western People the other day, in all the games we’ve won this year we’ve done so by building up a lead and then hanging on for dear life when the tide starts to go out. Monaghan almost caught us out a fortnight ago and it’s difficult to see such an approach yielding the required dividends today.

Our improved middle third showing in Clones was a major positive and so too was our scintillating first half display in attack. How we lost our way in the forwards and, Paddy Durcan’s introduction aside, the lack of any positive impetus from the subs we introduced, are both of concern. If we wobble in the same manner this afternoon and the bench fails to provide any lift then we’ll find ourselves in all kind of bother.

It’s not hard, then, to see why Tyrone are favoured, by the bookies and the pundits, to do the business today. Which they could well do but, if we improve on the Monaghan display – and you’d have to think we’re well capable of that – then there’s no reason to believe that it’s not within our grasp to take advantage of the significant opportunity on offer today.

At Healy Park Rob and I will be doing our in-match audio on Discord for club members, who’ll also have access to our Final Whistle pod that we’ll record straight after the game. Watch out for the POTM poll and the match report here on MFT as well.

Right, time to get ready to hit the road. Knock, knock – who’s there? Opportunity, that’s who. Let’s get to it. Up Mayo.

Click here to read article