GAVIN CUMMISKEYtalks to Mayo manager John O'Mahony who must attempt to pick up the pieces following another final defeat at Croke Park

MAYO ALWAYS look a decent proposition flying through the Connacht championship or racking up serious numbers as in the recent league campaign but send them out in Croke Park contesting silverware and they appear to be a sure bet to choke.

The suggestion was made after last Sunday’s non-event of a Division One decider that it proved more damaging for them to beat Cork 0-16 to 0-11 a few weeks back in comparison to, say, Dublin – the team that was denied a final appearance due to that result.

Even Mayo manager John O’Mahony could only agree.

“If we had narrowly missed out or something people would say ‘you are coming on the boil nicely after a good league campaign. Hard luck not getting to the league final but you really are an option for the championship’.

“Whereas some will be painting our whole league campaign on yesterday’s picture which wouldn’t really be a pretty picture and that’s . . . you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”

Maybe Mayo are just damned. Their travails were cleverly examined in Keith Duggan's 2007 book " The House of Pain – through the rooms of Mayo football" but O'Mahony, while still struggling after such an inexplicably limp performance, was striving to keep it all in perspective.

Naturally, he refocused attention on the practicalities of a season still in its infancy.

“What we have to do is look at the overall (league) campaign and try and obviously recover from yesterday’s defeat and be up and at it right from the start of the championship.

“With Sligo’s performance on Saturday night (they won the Division Three league title with a 0-19 to 1-11 defeat of last year’s Ulster finalists Antrim) they can’t be taken for granted. Sligo are better this year than they were last year and they should have beaten Galway last year in Markievicz Park and on Saturday night’s form they would have.”

He is asked for a counter argument to the obvious suggestion that Mayo merely bottle it every time they play a final in Croke Park.

“In the immediate aftermath of a match like that it is difficult. The evidence is there and you add what has happened before. I suppose from an overall perspective it is unfair not to give Cork a lot of credit for the way they executed their victory. There is an assembly-line of talent coming through in Cork. They are an excellent team.

“That’s an aspect that may be lost as well as Mayo’s failure to perform in Croke Park.”

There is every chance Mayo will return to Croke Park later this year as Connacht champions or having cut a swathe through the qualifier jungle. What then?

“It is something we have to continually address. If you take, for instance, there were a number of our players who performed quite well. Collectively we haven’t be able to overcome it.

“That is the difficulty. But other teams have a similar problem. Galway, for instance, haven’t won in Croke Park since 2001. Mayo have won a few games there. They won a famous semi-final against Dublin (in 2005). Other counties have a similar situation.

“It is just that we haven’t won a final in Croke Park, that is the label that has been put on us at the minute and it has been put on this team now as well. How do we approach it? We need to deal head -on with the issue of not performing in Croke Park.”