Mayo 0-10 Dublin 2-18
Beware the Ides of March. It is hard to believe that if and when these heavyweight teams collide in high summer that this cold night in Castlebar won’t prey on the minds of the Mayo men. Dublin tormented the Westerners in a sparkling Saturday night display which left Mayo’s All-Ireland credentials looking threadbare.
This was a gorgeous night for a match: 13, 548 showed up and as expected, Jim Gavin rolled out the Howitzers in two changes to the programme: in came Paul Flynn and Diarmuid Connolly. And it was also the night when they tapped into their superb attacking game.
Fell apart
It’s only the league and all that but when two of the foremost All-Ireland candidates meet and the away team goes to town in the way that Dublin did here, it has to plant seeds of doubt.
Things fell apart a bit for Mayo on Saturday night. The Dubs constructed 1-5 without reply between the sixth and 14th minute and then outscored Mayo by 1-3 to 0-1 in a further ten-minute spell of merciless front-foot football later in the first half. They blunted the famed Mayo half-back line by either passing the ball over them or having support runners like Denis Bastick and Johnny Cooper steaming through to keep the sky blue train in motion.
And what was happening in Mayo’s full back line was disturbing for the home crowd to watch. It illuminated for all other teams the folly of trying to match the Dublin forwards with a one-one-one defensive set up.
"When you get beaten like that there will be questions about how you set up," Pat Holmes said later.
“Defensively but in the first four national league games our defensive record was very good but today we were offensively and defensively well beaten.”
Kevin McManamon had the run of the park despite the best attentions of Kevin Keane and while Tom Cunniffe put in a typical sleeves-up shift, he lived dangerously here. Dublin's first goal came when Bernard Brogan somehow got his mitts on a ball and then somehow whipped a brilliant shot through Cunniffe and Keane.
Back six
It hit the crossbar but , Denis Bastick fired home from close range. The visitors were in again in the 18th minute, Dean Rock and McManamon linking beautifully but Brogan had his co-ordinates wrong when he elected to palm the ball towards the net with his back to goal. It was an indication of the sense of freedom and adventure that Dublin were playing with.
Stephen Cluxton's got Dublin in motion with his bullet-speed kick out and Cooper was on fire all evening. The Dublin back six completely bossed their sector.
They landed pretty scores from further outfield as well, with Tomás Brady and Ciarán Kilkenny popping points under minimum pressure. Brogan had to wait for just five minutes before he atoned for the earlier miss, finishing another devastating combination from the forward line.
In contrast, Mayo attacks were built under all kinds of pressure. Dublin pressed the Mayo kick-out boldly and didn’t allow any Mayo man to roam free. The early menace of Aidan O’Shea playing deep dissolved as Mayo recalled the big Breaffy man to try and win a bit of possession around the middle.
Mayo’s scores were isolated and without any pattern. They retreated for tea trailing by 0-6 to 2-10. The second half was a non-event. Mayo clogged the defensive lines and the Dublin scoring rate slowed but they couldn’t make any real inroads at the other end. Their only real goal chance was stopped when Denis Bastick gobbled up Mark Ronaldson’s close range shot with a courageous dive.
It was the crowning moment of productive evening for the midfielder. That play caught the essence of the Dublin approach here: all sharpness and urgency and authority.
On this evidence Mayo remain heavily dependent on the missing Cillian O’Connor.
DUBLIN: S Cluxton: E Culligan, R O'Carroll, J Cooper (0-1); P McMahon, C O'Sullivan, J McCaffrey (0-1); D Bastick (1-0), T Brady (0-2), P Flynn (0-1), D Connolly (0-1), C Kilkenny (0-5); B Brogan (1-1), D Rock (0-5 frees), K McManamon.
Subs: M Fitzsimons for R O’Carroll (half-time), J Small, for E Culligan (50 mins), B Fenton for D Bastick (59 mins), E O’Gara for B Brogan (59 mins), J McMcCarthy for T Brady (61 mins), P Ryan (0-1) for K McManamon (64 mins).
MAYO: R Hennelly; T Cunniffe, K Keane, K Higgins; L Keegan, C Boyle, P Durcan; S O'Shea, D Vaughan; K McLoughlin (0-3, one free), A O'Shea, D O'Connor, M Ronaldson (0-1), A Freeman, J Doherty (0-4, three frees).
Subs: D Kirby (0-1) for A Freeman (46 mins), S Coen for P Durcan (46 mins), A Dillon (0-1) for D O’Connor (50 mins), M Sweeney for M Ronaldson (52 mins), B Moran for S O’Shea (54 mins), C Cafferkey for D Vaughan (64 mins).
Referee: P O'Sullivan (Kerry).
