Is the Connacht final even worth winning this Sunday? I was once told that if there’s a question in your column’s headline, the answer is usually no. But I’m not so sure that particular relic of the printing press applies to this weekend.
The question arises purely because of the All-Ireland championship draw made on Tuesday, which has the Connacht final winners in a group with the Ulster runners-up (Donegal or Armagh), Derry and Westmeath.
The Connacht final losers, meanwhile, will be in a group with Dublin (presuming they beat Louth, of course), a very familiar foe in Roscommon, and a now Paddy Lynch-less Cavan. The two best teams in the west have an opportunity to pick their poison.
Both counties have existed in a kind of fugue state all year. Their competitive year began with a game against each other, a game that Mayo won handily in Salthill. I was there, and the feeling of apathy, of toothlessness, was something I hadn’t ever really experienced at a Galway/Mayo game.
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Galway were already down numbers through injury, and then it was announced about 20 minutes before the game that Damien Comer, who had been named on the starting 15, was also ruled out. That seemed to remove the last vestige of bite from the entire affair.
In the end, Galway’s entire league boiled down to a second half in Omagh where they lost Paul Conroy and Matthew Tierney to injury, on top of already being without Comer, Shane Walsh, Liam Silke and Cillian McDaid, and somehow managed to emerge with a win.
It was a really gritty performance, but it wasn’t exactly high on quality. Those were the only points Galway got against non-relegated teams, and it was enough to see them home. After that opening-day win in Salthill, Mayo beat Dublin in Castlebar in a hilarious smash-and-grab, and they were never in relegation danger after that. They’ve already accounted for Roscommon in the championship, and they probably seem a steadier bet all-round for this Sunday too.
But neither team can really feel like they’ve a body of work behind them this year. What they need is a statement win. What they need, quite frankly, is something to make them feel alive. And that’s where the Connacht final comes in.
The occasion still has some legacy cachet, and if it’s Mayo in the summertime, then Galway will be fired up for it. It’s also Mayo without all the chips on the table, and that’s been a good scenario for Galway in recent times — in the last eight championship games between the teams, four have been straight knock-out, and four have been with the proviso that no one’s season will be over with a loss. Mayo have won the four straight knock-out games, Galway have won the other four.
But it’s not just vibes, obviously. You have to visualise the entire season, beyond just the simple fact of a Connacht title (one which will break the tie they are in, at 48 provincial wins apiece).
Galway and Mayo’s All-Ireland championship campaign will begin either with a game at home to Derry, or at home to Cavan. Win a Connacht final with a degree of style and conviction, and you’d be delighted to welcome Derry to your home patch. Beat them, and then you’re really on a roll. Lose, and you still have two games with which to regain some momentum.
But lose a Connacht final limply and suddenly Cavan arrive on a hiding to nothing. This is a game an established Division One side have no business even thinking of losing … and then you’re 2-6 to 0-11 down with 10 minutes to go, the home crowd is on the verge of open revolt, and you’re picturing a life rebuilt far, far away from anyone who cares about Gaelic football.
Derry are on a completely different planet to Cavan, and there’s very little between Galway and Mayo, but going into that first game in the group stages as a first seed and provincial winner, as opposed to a loser, is a very different psychological space.
The plain fact of the matter is that finishing first in those groups is incredibly important, and you’re much likelier to finish first in the group as top seed in Group 1, rather than playing second fiddle to Dublin in Group 2.
The benefit of finishing second is you’ve home advantage in that preliminary round. But I’d rather have a good shot at finishing first, and accept there’s a good chance you might finish third, than have no more than a puncher’s chance at finishing first but be reasonably assured of progression.
Eight teams will have to play their final group game, the preliminary quarter-finals, and then the quarter-finals, all inside 14 days. It’s a crushingly tough schedule, and Mayo had nothing left in the tank for Dublin after beating Galway in the preliminaries last season. Monaghan were the only team last year to come through that schedule and reach an All-Ireland semi-final.
Winning a Connacht final makes avoiding that log jam a likelier proposition. For that alone, even leaving aside the bit of tin, the bragging rights, the simple joy of beating that other shower, Sunday is a game Galway and Mayo would dearly love to win.
