Mayo must stop conceding goals or hopes are doomed

When an earthquake has flattened a whole city block, your first thought isn't to comb it for detail. So it wasn't until a second viewing of the Connacht final that a small but potentially significant shift in Mayo policy caught our eye. Though the game was long over and Mayo bench had been cleared, the closing 10 minutes were played out with midfielder Tom Parsons sited in the full-back line.

Parsons is an interesting case. He has been a signature addition under Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly. Or if you prefer, a signature readdition. This is his second life in a Mayo jersey, the first ending with the disastrous defeat to Longford in 2010 that brought the curtain down on John O’Mahony’s time in charge. After that, Parsons didn’t play another championship game for four years and has only become a fixture again this summer.

Tall, athletic, robust and intelligent, his dependability alongside Seamie O’Shea has freed Mayo up to plonk Aidan O’Shea in front of the posts and change the dynamic of the Mayo attack. For so long the loose stitch that would inevitably cause the Mayo challenge to unravel, now their offensive threat is multi-pronged. And though Parsons has yet to make it onto the scoresheet himself, his role in the whole enterprise has been crucial.

Which is what made it notable that he would spend the closing stages of the Sligo game in and around his full-back line. Mayo were 20 points up at this stage so it was initially hard to see what the point of the move was. Ever since, though, the jungle drums around the county have been beating with the suggestion that Parsons has been earmarked for a sweeping job of some description in Croke Park. This, goes the theory, was a small bit of work experience.

If this is true, we will surely see it repeated this evening when Michael Murphy goes to spend time on the edge of the Mayo square. Though clearly carrying some sort of impediment, Murphy showed in his brief but devastating spell at full-forward against Galway that he is still a monumental weapon close to goal.

Perhaps Parsons will go in to mark him directly, perhaps he will double up on him. Maybe he will play as a classic sweeper or maybe someone else altogether will do the job. One way or another, Mayo are dicing with death if they don’t have a plan to combat what has become their most debilitating weakness – the concession of goals.

Pundits squawk, supporters wring their hands, managers grimace and talk earnestly of having something to work on for the next day. And still Mayo concede too many goals at too many of the wrong times. They've just strolled to a fifth Connacht title in a row conceding four goals in two games. By contrast, Donegal have conceded four goals in total over the past five Ulster championships.

Five summers

It nearly goes without saying that of the four teams that have contested All-Irelands in the past five seasons, Mayo have consistently conceded more goals than Dublin, Donegal and Kerry. For four out of those five summers (including this one) they’ve had the highest goals-conceded-per-game ratio of the big four. In 2013, they actually had the lowest but Bernard Brogan’s two goals in the final killed them.

It can’t go on but it does go on and it still goes on. In the final game of Mayo’s summer for the past three years, they’ve conceded at least two goals. That’s two All-Ireland finals and an All-Ireland semi-final replay. They may very well be the best team ever to come out of the county but if they can’t keep a clean sheet when it matters, they are doomed.

Liam McHale has watched it all, sometimes through his fingers. The Michael Murphy goal at the start of the 2012 final, the Brogan brace in 2013 when the Dublin forward didn't have to put boot to ball either time, the destruction wrought by Kieran Donaghy both in the drawn game and replay last year. It all made for an obvious starting point for the new Mayo management but McHale can't say that he's seen any great improvement.

“It has been a problem for a while and we seem to concede goal at crucial times in games. The two we gave away against Galway were very, very poor. There wasn’t much cover there at all. It’s kind of strange because with Aidan O’Shea in at full forward, the half-back line and midfield are kicking the ball a lot more. And that should in theory allow them to keep their shape a little bit more and not give away goals. But that hasn’t been happening.

"One of our best defenders is Ger Cafferkey and he just seems to have lost his confidence since the Kerry drawn game and replay last year. He's a club-mate of mine and he's a really good defender who can stop a really good player. He's fast and he intercepts a lot of stuff, gets the hand in when it's needed, all of that. But he's just not going as well as he was.

“The key to defending, if you’re not going to play a sweeper and you want to keep a high line, is to get your wing-backs in particular to tuck in in front of the full-back line when the ball is on the opposite side. I don’t know if they’re coaching that. I’ve talked to Ger a few times about it and David Clarke as well and that cover that should be there doesn’t seem to be there when you play that high line like Mayo like to do.”

Blood pumps a little faster

Take the pulse of the county and there’s no doubt the blood pumps a little faster when thought turn to their full-back line. With Cafferkey a reduced figure in many minds, it isn’t clear who will line out at full-back today.

Donal Vaughan has been named at three but is surely the least likely candidate. Tom Cunniffe has been adding a bit of steel there for the past two games but still the goals have flowed in. Kevin Keane hasn't been named but would be a popular late change. Parsons could be the wild card, although it's fair to say McHale is less than enthusiastic.

“I played midfield all my life and I wouldn’t like to be back there having to be responsible for a defensive job. The whole thing has to be very, very specific and very clear in what he’s there to do. We saw for the first goal against Galway that Tom isn’t a great defender. He doesn’t get low, he’s not a very aggressive tackler. So I don’t know if that would be the answer.”

To a certain extent, it isn’t the personnel that matters. Mayo’s real weakness has been more about structure than individuals. Too often the pay-off for their high-pressing game has been a lack of bodies at the back at crucial times. Gary Sice’s goal for Galway back in June was a classic of the genre – once he picked up the ball on the Mayo 45, all it took was one sidestep and he was through on goal. The finish was magnificent but the chance should never have presented itself.

Intercept passes

“For me,” says McHale, “if we play a high line, then our wing backs and our midfielders have to drop into the D and give as much protection to the full-back line as they possibly can. If you are there, there’s a multitude of things you can do. You can read the game, you can intercept passes, you can double up on the inside forward, you can make the man coming in with the ball decide to go for a point and maybe pressure him into a wide. As long as you are there, you are doing something to prevent a goal.

“It’s a mindset thing. The full-back line is definitely not getting enough help from [Lee] Keegan and [Colm] Boyle and the two big boys in the middle of the field. They’re defending okay with the high line but when that ball is on the opposite side, the midfielder and wing-back who are furthest away from the ball have to be dropping in to the number six position.

“It’s a simple match-up zone. Put pressure on the ball, try to push them out to the sidelines and when you are three or four passes away from the ball, you get back in the hole defending. If they switch the play, you step up and get your man. But above all, take everything away that goes into the D. You’re taking diagonal balls away and also those bounce balls into the full-forward line. That’s the job of the two wing backs and the two midfielders.”

Whatever they do, they must do something. If another year drains away because Mayo didn’t protect their goal, they can blame nobody but themselves.