ALLIANZ NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION ONE: KEITH DUGGANrecalls the memorable All-Ireland semi-final of 2006 which, in retrospect, marked the beginning of the end for both winners Mayo and vanquished Dublin

IT WAS hailed as an instant classic, evoking immediate comparisons to the 1977 All-Ireland semi-final between Dublin and Kerry. The 2006 meeting of Dublin and Mayo was the surprise treat of that year’s championship and it turned the anticipated narrative of the season on its head.

Over three years on, the drama of that match remains one of the high points of that particular decade of championship football. But as the counties prepare to meet again as the standard-setters in Division One, that wonderful game holds the sense of opportunity lost for both teams.

And it may have been the point when both squads began the transition towards the respective young teams who will face one another tomorrow.

“I often think that if Dublin had gone on to meet Kerry in that year’s final there might have been a very different outcome to the championship,” says David Brady.

The Ballina man was in the twilight of his career then, but he came into the match to make a memorable second-half contribution that day.

“In a sense, Mayo got in the way of Dublin’s ultimate goal, which was to play Kerry in that year’s final. The entire season had been building up to that and, with the way Dublin had been playing, they were expected to win. And they came close – seven points up on us with 20-odd minutes to go.

“And had they pushed on that day, they would have gone into the All-Ireland final in a terrific frame of mind. And I really do think that we could have seen a Dublin team win the All-Ireland for the first time since 1995.”

To peruse the Dublin team-sheet for that afternoon is to be reminded of how quickly and radically Pat Gilroy is placing his stamp on the current Dublin squad. This was a seasoned Dublin team with Bryan Cullen, the captain, at centre back, the old firm of Shane Ryan and Ciarán Whelan at midfield, the 1995 survivor Jason Sherlock wearing number 11 and Conal Keaney, who helped himself to a personal haul of 1-3 that afternoon, playing on the edge of the square.

The Dubs won four consecutive Leinster titles under Paul Caffrey. The Na Fianna man combined a fierce loyalty to his players with an equally fierce suspicion of the spotlight under which Dublin teams are seen to operate and, throughout a summer of rampant expectations, he shielded his squad from the public – and media – fascination as much as he could.

Whether that created additional internal pressure in the build-up to the game is a moot point now. But the failure of Dublin teams to make it to All-Ireland finals despite dominating in Leinster was becoming an increasing burden.

They were favourites going into that match and Mayo presaged the sense that the day would not go according to plan with their maverick raid on the Hill 16 end, which they decided to occupy and thereby breach a long-standing etiquette which decreed that Dublin teams should warm up there. The bedlam that preceded the game, with both teams punting shots towards the Hill end, created a thrilling atmosphere.

It was also chaotic and, in retrospect, potentially dangerous.

For Mayo, the risk was that after making such a show, they might implode and end up with egg on their faces. But much as Mayo have the reputation for underperforming in finals, they have often defied expectations in semi-finals. So it went on this day: they underlined their intent by firing four quick and well-worked points and it was game on.

Past games are inevitably edited down to those unforgettable fragments. And so Mayo’s stand before the Hill has become an indelible aspect of this match and Ciarán McDonald’s match-winning point, a left-footed chip on the run which curled over the Hill crossbar late in the second half, may well become the point which defines the Crossmolina man’s freewheeling football life. Mayo were the victors; they owned the day. Dublin’s “what ifs” were almost instantly forgotten.

But just three days after the match, Mickey Ned O’Sullivan noted the metropolitans had done an awful lot right that afternoon.

“Dublin were unlucky. They could have won by six or seven points. Five or six times they cut the Mayo defence open but they only scored two goals.”

Still, big questions had to be asked. How could a team that outscored the opposition by 1-6 to 0-1 in just 11 minutes after half-time go on to lose the match?

How had Dublin lost control of a midfield sector where they had reigned for most of the match?

How could they blow a seven-point lead? Had the team sufficient leaders?

Had they the temperament for championship-defining games?

Did Dublin get their tactics right?

As John O’Keeffe noted afterwards: “Some days the substitutions work, some days they don’t.”

It was true. Nothing Dublin tried seemed to have the desired effect while the Mayo substitutions worked literally like a dream, emphasised by Andy Moran, going in at wing-back for Mayo promising John Morrison that he would get a goal and delivering shortly afterwards.

As manager Mickey Moran declared afterwards, Mayo’s “faith” in themselves was central to their late and daring recovery. And out of the blue, it returned them to their second All-Ireland final in three years, with Kerry once more in their path. In the heady aftermath, David Heaney said they had sat down and spoke about not making the mistake of previous Mayo teams in the weeks leading into All-Irelands.

“And that is true. We did sit down,” David Brady remembers. “We had some mature players and we talked about what it was going to be like building up to it. But maybe what we should have said was that what happened in the following three weeks didn’t matter a damn as long as we came out to play for those 70 minutes. And we didn’t get it right.”

Once again, Mayo’s big day was a wash-out and despite the shaman qualities that Moran and Morrison brought to the western county, their ticket was not renewed the following season.

After the Ulster men left, the calls for the return of John O’Mahony were irresistible. Dublin continued for two more seasons under Caffrey.

They returned to the semi-final stage the following year, where they played out an absorbing semi-final against Kerry but the era ended when they were rolled over by Tyrone in the quarter-final of 2008. There is no doubt the Mayo match was their golden opportunity to return to the big September stage.

Fast forward to tomorrow’s game and both teams have changed dramatically. Virtually all of the established names from that Dublin side have disappeared – although Keaney and Cullen are unavailable for selection just now.

Last summer’s chastening quarter-final experience at the hands of Kerry was enough to convince Pat Gilroy to start from scratch and a group of young players have rewarded him with outstanding league performances.

Paul Griffin, the Brogan brothers, Ross McConnell, David Henry; the rising generation of Dublin players have suddenly become senior men. Mayo’s transition has been gentler but just as striking. The generation of players who starred for Mayo for some 15 years – Brady, James Nallen, David Heaney, Kevin O’Neill – have bowed out at various stages since that enthralling encounter.

Ciarán McDonald had no great swansong; instead, his Mayo career just stopped after a disagreement with O’Mahony and although he has never officially retired, the chances of seeing him in green and red again become slimmer with each passing season.

Even so, Mayo secured the Connacht title last year, missed out on an All-Ireland semi-final place after a ding-dong match with Meath and have shown terrific form in this year’s league.

“I don’t think I have seen a Mayo team play so with such togetherness for years,” said Brady.

“All the veteran players leaving can have a liberating effect on young players. There is no one to pass responsibility on to anymore so you take it on yourself. You can see that they are enjoying themselves out there and the funny thing is, there is no particular style.

“They are just going for it and mixing the long ball with the running game. I am surprised they haven’t made more use of Aidan O’Shea inside but they are going well.

“The big trick will be to see how the squad responds when the likes of Alan Dillon and Conor Mortimer return. These are the senior players now and will their return inhibit the boys who have been playing so well over the past few weeks? We will see.”

That 2006 win marked Mayo’s first win over Dublin in the history of the All-Ireland championship. The league has been different: Dublin have not won a league game in Mayo since 1992.

There is always something attractive about this fixture.

“Half of Mayo is in Dublin anyhow. So its east against west, town against country,” Brady says.

This particular chapter will not have the same significance as their stormy, unforgettable meeting in August 2006.

But there will be plenty of people in the crowd whose minds will return to that day.