Knack of losing the right matches is starting to come to Mayo

Have Mayo become role models for the new championship format?

To elaborate, should Dublin or Derry not win the All-Ireland, it will mean that for the first time in 13 years, the new football champions will have lost a match on the way to the title.

This isn’t, of itself, remarkable. During the first 10 years of the qualifier system, the majority of All-Ireland titles, six, were won by teams who had been beaten in their province.

Under that old system, though, a team could lose only once. Two defeats and you were out. So, from a previous imperative to win all of your matches, this century’s All-Ireland titles have been more about losing the right ones and recovering.

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The addition of further fixtures and the incorporation of a round-robin element with low jeopardy guarantees that teams can progress with a couple of losses against them.

Mayo and Galway rolled into the Last Chance Saloon on Sunday, one more surprised than the other to find themselves on the premises. It was the fourth meeting of the counties this year and Mayo are unbeaten, including last April’s league final.

A reasonable conclusion would be that Mayo’s players respond to danger in a way they don’t always when defeat is not an impediment to progress

To date, their front running in the league has given them, as well as early prominence, practice at playing top opposition in a rapidly moving schedule; doing so at relatively high tempo; and a deeper playing pool.

There was a sense that the advantage of the early work necessitated by this approach would level off as other teams worked through preparatory schedules to reach their targets.

It’s fair to acknowledge Galway’s bad luck with injuries this year and their role in the tight margins between victory and defeat. Nonetheless, they had their chances to win on Sunday.

Kevin McStay immediately afterwards referred to the panel strength developed during the league, which gave him the confidence to make significant changes for such a big match.

Tommy Conroy started on Sunday despite value as an impact sub in the latter stages of a match, when his pace and energy can do most damage. He brought those assets to bear when given his chance, and the displaced James Carr came off the bench to kick a crucial point at the end.

[ Mayo march on to All-Ireland quarter-finals as Galway left to mull over regrets ]

Conor Loftus had been well run in as centre back-cum-sweeper but was replaced by Jason Doherty, a bold move in such a key department. But the corollary is that if you believe you have cover and someone’s out of form, you make the move.

Doherty, generally a forward, had been used at centre-back in the league match against Monaghan and was seen as an understudy for Loftus. It doesn’t have to be permanent, and presumably form at training and a proven grasp of which horses suit which courses will guide future selection.

McStay’s management team, after all, includes Stephen Rochford and Donie Buckley, who innovated former Mayo captain and forward Alan Dillon’s re-purposing as a deep lying “quarterback” as a specific measure in the defeat of Tyrone in 2016, and Aidan O’Shea’s guesting at full-back to counter Kerry’s Kieran Donaghy a year later.

One of the more arresting stats to emerge at the weekend was that Galway haven’t put Mayo out of the championship for 25 years, the 1998 Connacht quarter-final that ignited a run to the All-Ireland. Sunday was the fourth time in the last five years that Mayo have ended Galway’s year.

They became expert at relaunching through the qualifiers, a knock-out format, but when Covid hit for two years and forced the reintroduction of sudden-death football, Mayo duly won Connacht in the absence of a safety net.

A reasonable conclusion would be that the players respond to danger in a way they don’t always when defeat is not an impediment to progress.

From a previous imperative to win all of your matches, this century’s All-Ireland titles have been more about losing the right ones and recovering.

Dublin are next and in a way that’s the desired draw for both teams, certainly Mayo because at this stage, an All-Ireland that is going to be won by the team that discovers best form in the three weekends remaining, is up for grabs.

Raising the game to play and beat good teams is the surest route to finding form, as has frequently been shown in the past. The power of previous defeats to re-set direction is obvious.

It’s likely that Mayo underestimated the likely drop-off in performance after winning the league, which, despite best efforts to manage the situation – such as no lap of honour in celebration – was a destination achievement and hard to park in time for a match against Roscommon a week later.

Lapses in concentration cost them dearly against Cork, and it is important that the setbacks of the season aren’t blithely dismissed. Both defeats to date were worryingly managed in the endgame, and a lack of leadership or taking control were in evidence. There are, though, reasons to see the issues as match-based rather than systemic.

Mayo have delivered two big wins against both of last year’s All-Ireland finalists in their respective backyards – including a first championship defeat in Killarney for Kerry since 1995.

Dublin have had their issues during this championship, but look to be recovering and reaching full strength. They have yet to beat a Division One side this year in competition, though. Whoever wins on Sunday will be catapulted by momentum into the semi-finals.

There is a perception that for Mayo to win – and the 2021 defeat of Dublin didn’t entirely dispel it – they need to go a bit feral, their naked torsos stained with woad while waving hatchets to get the best out of themselves. That doesn’t appear to be this year’s gameplan.