DURING last summer, an Armagh player from their 2002 All-Ireland wining team did some personal writing. His musings and observations covered a wide range of topics, but some of the most insightful and emotive writing focussed on Mayo.
Part of that was down to just pure empathy, having been part of a similar struggle for so long. “Mayo are searching,” the Armagh player wrote. “Certainly their work this season can only be book-marked by self-doubt and fear that they will ultimately come up short again.
“But if they don’t allow this to consume them – as it has their many supporters – then this fear and searching can deliver them to great places. They have to replace the natural fear and self-doubt with anger. They have to rage against the perception of them as a group. I honestly believe Mayo are now where Armagh were in 2002.”
Apart from the internal pressure, not having an All-Ireland intensifies the focus from outside the county when a team is desperately trying to win one. Armagh and Tyrone had to deal with those same unfair jibes before 2003, but an All-Ireland grants that dispensation.
When Mayo came up short again last year, their desperate pursuit for that elusive All-Ireland was deemed over again for the foreseeable future. When Peter Canavan was recently asked if Mayo had missed their chance to make the All-Ireland breakthrough, he was emphatic in his response.
“Yes,” said Canavan. “I think Mayo will find it even more difficult to get back on the All-Ireland stage with two up-and-coming teams, Galway and Roscommon, making life even harder for them in Connacht.”
This Mayo team have been immense, but they also fit the classic GAA stereotype of a team desperately trying to end an All-Ireland famine. A game like football, which carries so much tradition and history, makes it easier again to arrive at a preordained conclusion and stereotyping Mayo is always louder than most other counties.
Take your pick; Mayo have a psychological hang-up when it comes to winning All-Irelands; they don’t have enough marquee forwards; it’s just their misfortune that they’re around the same time as these Dublin and Kerry teams, which means that this group will never win one.
That general viewpoint is the standard one, but Mayo’s failure to win an All-Ireland for 64 years facilitates the perception even more because their identity continues to be framed through their history. Back in 2007, former player Kevin McStay made an observation that still holds true to today.
“In all grades of football, Mayo are in the top three counties in Ireland,” he said. “But everything is coloured by the lack of an All-Ireland and you just can’t get over not having an All-Ireland for that credibility. It’s awful unfair, but this big elephant in the room always gets in the way of giving Mayo credit.”
All-Irelands define everything in the context of perception. Mayo beat Galway by seven points in last year’s Connacht final. They wiped Galway out in the 2013 championship by 17 points. Mayo have been the dominant county in Connacht for the last decade, but historical comparisons with Galway still largely define the perception of the rivalry.
Those historical comparisons are also what hurt Mayo people the most. In terms of Connacht senior titles, there is nothing between them: 47 to Mayo, 44 to Galway. On the All-Ireland roll of honour though, Galway tower above Mayo on a count of 9:3. Although Galway sides have reached 10 less All-Ireland finals than Mayo at all levels over the last 25 years – at senior, club, U-21 and minor - Galway teams have still won 10 titles, five more than Mayo.
It’s just how it seems to roll. Last year, St Vincent’s beat Castlebar Mitchels in the All-Ireland club final by seven points. This year, Corofin took down St Vincent’s in the All-Ireland semi-final before going on to walk the final against Slaughtneil. Galway teams just seem to get it done more regularly on the All-Ireland stage.
And yet, the Galway seniors haven’t won a game in Croke Park – in league or championship - since the 2001 All-Ireland final. That statistic would be deemed far more damning if Galway hadn’t won two All-Irelands in 1998 and 2001.
“If you win an All-Ireland, no-one can damage you,” said Conor Mortimer in 2006. “You see some Galway players and if they have a bad game, people will hold back on putting them down because they have that All-Ireland medal. But they can hang you once they know you don’t have an All-Ireland.”
This Mayo side are such a process orientated team that they focus solely on performance. They don’t get hung up on perceptions or outside opinions, but similar to those Armagh players before they won their title in 2002, they know all about longing and hurt and anger and how powerful a force that can be.
In the meantime, Mayo will keep raging on because they always have. Despite all the harrowing disappointments, recriminations and soul-searching, there has always been an essential optimism deep in the core of Mayo’s collective football self. No matter what has happened to them in the past, they’ve always kept coming back.
The bottom line of a winning a senior All-Ireland has become merciless and that’s the brutal world Mayo inhabit. Galway are first up on Sunday. They are quietly confident of winning. They have no fear of Mayo, but Mayo will just keep going, keep searching, keep trying to win that All-Ireland. And if they don’t win one, this group still won’t stop trying until they can’t try anymore.
