Advanced McDonald could sort wide boys

All-Ireland SFC Quarter-final replay, Mayo v Laois:  Tom Humphries on how while both Laois and Mayo lacked conviction in last week's drawn game, the Westerners have more to work on

Laois and Mayo go back at it in Croke Park tomorrow with the odds shifting slightly and favouring Mayo this time. If you were the sort of customer who follows the smart money, however, you would bet on the sides being deadlocked again after 70 minutes. The one thing that was missing last week on both sides was conviction.

Odd thing that last Sunday for the second time this summer Mayo needed the grace of a last-minute free to keep them rolling along. Odd because they had the opportunities to put the game away but their inventiveness and desperation seem to be at their height when they are in danger of losing.

As one watched Ciarán McDonald process just about every ball that came from the Mayo defence, delivering passes like a gentleman with a quill pen sending out handwritten invitations, it was hard not to wonder how far ahead Mayo would have been if McDonald had established his bleach head a little closer to goal.

If he could have taken points instead of making sweet passes to men who couldn't take them Mayo might have been over the hill and far away by the time Laois woke up.

That, though, wouldn't be the Mayo way. The wide, the fecklessly squandered opportunity has been the featherbed upon which so many hopeful western teams have fallen back on having failed to scale the walls in Croke Park. Mayo lose a lot in Dublin but generally they are beautiful losers.

The wide is the currency of the side who give a good account of themselves. Mayo have come to Croke Park often and given good accounts of themselves, accounts which included wide tallies well into double digits. It is scary to imagine what they might do one day if they take their chances.

Mayo and Laois have an abbreviated Gaelic football relationship. Last week saw their first meeting in 70 years. They played each other in the 1936 All-Ireland final on one of those days when Mayo actually brought the theodolite along.

Having worked out the angles they won by 18 points.

Other than that the counties' only meeting was a minor All-Ireland semi-final some nine years ago, a game which will interest archivists and historians as it represented a most hopeful point in history for both counties.

Laois won that game by five points. Mayo had their customary 18 wides. Those details are beside the point, however. Laois were on their way to their second successive minor title. Mayo were beginning to reap the fruits from the county's visionary School of Excellence and though it was their second elimination in succession at minor semi-final stage both teams could be deemed unlucky.

In 1996, Mayo set out in the minor championship with little hope or confidence to burden them. They scraped through a provincial final replay against mighty Sligo (by the width of a point) and headed to Croke Park, there to be shredded and dumped by a Kerry side which had Tomás Ó Sé, Noel Kennelly, Michael McCarthy and Tommy Griffin among its young luminaries. Perhaps it is in the breeding. Mayo lost by two points, never quite recovering from early traumas. Mayo saw a seemingly perfect goal scored by Vincent Cawley disallowed and sampled some of the cuteness or street smarts which come as a birthright to Kerrymen.

Gareth Clifford won a free for Kerry. Mayo stood and pondered what to do about it while Clifford popped the ball into the back of the net. After that Noel Kennelly ran Mayo ragged but the margin at the end was still slender enough to give Mayo pangs of real regret.

In 1997, however, Mayo's hopes were high. The senior team were on the way to a second All-Ireland final in succession having given the traditional good account of themselves the previous year against Meath. The minors had Seán Campbell, Niall Dunne, Paul Navin, Enda Lavelle, Jarlath O'Malley and both Ger Bradys (Ballina and Claremorris versions) back and were supplemented by players like Trevor Mortimer, Marty McNicholas and Alan Costello.

O'Malley looked as if he would be taking up tenure in a Mayo senior jersey quite soon.

In the Connacht final he was outstanding, destroying Roscommon almost single-handedly.

Things weren't quite so smooth in Croke Park. That afternoon of the semi-final with Laois was as perfectly typical of Mayo misfortune as you could find. The first half revolved around two players who are part of the storyline tomorrow. Ger Brady, who has since been recycled into a forward, was Mayo's minor full back, a job which brought him into the orbit of young Beano McDonald, one of just two survivors (Stephen Kelly was the other) from the Laois minor All-Ireland-winning team of the previous summer.

They used to say that breaking even is no use to a full back and Brady learned the lesson the hard way that day. Out front most of the afternoon to win clean ball, Brady couldn't shepherd the young Beano when the ball started pinballing around in front of the Mayo goal. Before half-time Beano had ghosted in for two goals. Mayo trailed by 2-3 to 1-4 at the break and their wides tally was a respectable eight.

Mayo looked the better team throughout, however, and it was no surprise that they got off the canvas in the second half and began punching their weight.

With the forwards failing to produce, the burden fell elsewhere. Brady came from full back to land a big point.

Lavelle in midfield and Paul Navin at centre back also chipped in.

With 12 minutes left Mayo were one point off the pace and the lessons of the year before were about to be applied.

Another unfortunate goal undid them, though. Team captain Navin blocked down a shot only to see the ball spin across the goalmouth. It was a tricky ball for any defender, a gift for the smart attacker. Kieran Kelly rammed it to the Mayo net and the boys from the west never scored again.

It was one of those games which sets up the winners and destroys the losers. Mayo didn't get out of Connacht the next summer.

Laois went on to win their second All-Ireland on the trot, beating a Tyrone team some of whom would go on to claim All-Ireland senior medals while Laois (and Mayo) waited for the harvest.

Mayo have lost three All-Ireland minor finals since then. A couple of under-21 finals have slipped away too. Laois added a minor in 2003 but have failed at under-21 and senior level.

Tomorrow, nine years on from that summer of perfect promise, they meet as senior teams knowing that an All-Ireland quarter-final appearance won't be nearly enough for either team.

Time rolls on and both counties have brought in managerial expertise, men who bring first-hand experience of the art of winning. Can you get it into the bloodlines though? Can you change the mindset? Can you make confidence run any more than skin-deep?

We'll know a little bit more tomorrow.