Expect Mayo to have a right cut in one almighty struggle

The versatile Kevin McLoughlin, one of the key players on the Mayo team chasing long-awaited All-Ireland final glory against Dublin at Croke Park on Sunday.

placeholder image — The versatile Kevin McLoughlin, one of the key players on the Mayo team chasing long-awaited All-Ireland final glory against Dublin at Croke Park on Sunday.

APART from those residing in the ‘Inner Pale’, there’s a yearning across the land for Mayo to at last call time on their 66-year wait for a fourth All-Ireland football title, while within the county itself that longing is close to mass hysteria.

The red-and-green army are on the march again this weekend launching another vigorous assault on the capital in an attempt to wrest the Sam Maguire from the iron grip of a Dublin side now bidding for a three-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles.

By the time Cavan referee, Joe McQuillan, throws in the ball next Sunday at 3.30pm in Croke Park, it will be Mayo’s ninth time to contest an All-Ireland senior final since 1989, surely a tribute to the resilience and spirit of a county that never seems to lose heart.

During the previous eight final appearances, they practically had their fingers on the cup against Meath in 1996 while in their two most recent final defeats at the hands of the Dubs, they only fell short by a single point.

This year’s slow-burning championship run by Mayo has proven, that without any of a shadow of a doubt, they are the second-best team in the country, but to go one better on Sunday, they must topple a Dublin team that’s already been spoken about in the same breath as the great Kerry teams of the late-1970s and mid-1980s.

It is, by any barometer, a huge challenge but Mayo have never been over-awed by the Dubs and drew with them in last year’s final after conceding two killer own-goals.

Their dropping of All-Star goalkeeper David Clarke for the replay turned out to be hat-trick of own goals for Mayo, but all that’s history now, as Stephen Rochford’s charges brace themselves for another monumental battle.

Mayo will not fear the Dubs. They will match them in physicality, pace and positivity and probably will hold a slight edge in terms of hunger and motivation. No effort will be spared in trying to drink the waters of success from what could be one last trip to the well for this side.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.