All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Mayo 3-23 (3-4-15) Louth 0-15 (0-4-7)
Flying in the face of history, Mayo made it easy on themselves. A season in which they dared not to dream for so long has mutated into a familiar fantasy. On Saturday night, before a full house in Croke Park, they overwhelmed Louth with a performance of such authority and class that it raises a possibility nobody would have entertained at the start of the year.
This time?
In a fortnight, Mayo will contest their ninth All-Ireland final since the turn of the century, and their first since 2021, with a team that was fashioned on the run. Since their excruciating loss to Roscommon at the end of April, they have stumbled over questions and answers and somehow kept their feet.
This performance, though, was different from anything they had produced all year. It was nothing like the harum-scarum second half against Monaghan, or the first halves against Meath and Cork when they looked porous and vulnerable and sometimes looked like they were guessing.
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Here, they played with sustained confidence and certainty. They murdered Louth on turnovers, and when they got a grip on the Louth kick-out in the third quarter, they cut through, time and again. Mayo’s third goal, 15 minutes into the second half, killed the game stone dead, and but for Louth’s scramble defence, Mayo could easily have scored three more goals.
Louth had no answers. They had first use of a strong breeze towards the Canal End and couldn’t make it pay. In the opening half, they made six attempts at two pointers and converted just two of them. Sam Mulroy’s kicking was unusually tentative, and he missed three shots from outside the arc.
Louth manager Gavin Devlin said afterwards that some of their attacks had been “rushed,” and there was an element of truth to that. They only created one viable goal chance, but that was butchered by a pass that probably came too late. Instead of having some comfort on the scoreboard at the break, they trailed by four points. It was in Mayo’s hands.
In the second half, Louth looked leaden and ultimately demoralised. Their attacks were infrequent now and pedestrian. Either side of half-time they went 28 minutes without a score; by then they were 13 points behind.
The hooter had sounded and the hugging had started when Ryan O’Donoghue kicked the last two pointer of the game. It was fitting that the game should finish with the ball in his hands because he had dominated the play. O’Donoghue has had many fine games for Mayo since his breakthrough in 2020, but this was his greatest performance by a distance.
He finished game with 1-11, including three two-pointers, and his hands were all over the levers of Mayo’s attack. He dictated the tempo and orchestrated how the ball moved. It was a clinic in leadership and game management and Louth were powerless to curb his influence.
Around him, the teenagers were electric again. O’Donoghue scored Mayo’s first goal after six minutes and Darragh Beirne got the second, two minutes before half time. His initial shot for a point was partially blocked, but he kept going, and when Jordan Flynn got his hand to the dropping ball, Sam Callinan mopped up the break and fed Beirne on the loop. The young corner forward finished with cool detachment.
Kobe McDonald bestrode Croke Park again with another performance of precocious athleticism and vivid imagination. He played a sumptuous first-time flick to set up O’Donoghue’s goal and shortly afterwards set up Beirne for his first score. By the end of the game he had four points and four assists and a showreel of blistering runs and exquisite ball-handling.
As a contest it disintegrated into dust, but it had been an engaging first half. Not for the first time this season, Mayo were blitzed on their own kick-outs and were forced to go short to gain any relief. But whenever they got their hands on the ball, their transitions were lightning. Callinan and Enda Hession flew down both flanks and Louth couldn’t choke the space around Mayo’s inside forwards.
Louth recovered from Donoghue’s early goal to lead by 0-7 to 1-2 after 16 minutes, but their rate of scoring tailed off harmfully in the second quarter. Conor Grimes kicked three lovely scores, including a two pointer, and Dara McDonnell was terrific under Mayo’s kick-outs, but they needed to build a lead.
Mayo went back in front with O’Donoghue’s first two pointer after 21 minutes and they never trailed again. By half-time they were four points clear, 2-9 to 0-11, and after the break they went for the jugular.
Tommy Conroy came on at the beginning of the second half and at every opportunity he ran at the Louth defence. With his first possession he forced a shot that was deflected on to the Louth crossbar and after that the goal chances rained down on Louth.
Conroy forced another save from Niall McDonnell and, minutes later, O’Donoghue did too. The third Mayo goal, though, was bound to come. Callinan made a turnover outside the Mayo D and they broke at pace. Conroy made a scorching incision and played the scoring pass for Conor Loftus apply the finish.
There were still 20 minutes left, but Mayo were nine points clear now and in control all over the field.
Out of the blue, their licence to dream has been renewed.
MAYO: J Livingstone, J Coyne, D McHugh, E McGreal, S Callinan, D McBrien, E Hession, B Tuohy, J Carney, S Coen, P Towey (0-0-1), J Flynn (0-1-0), D Beirne (1-0-2, 1f), R O’Donoghue (1-3-5, 2tpf, 2f, 1m), K McDonald (0-0-4). Subs: T Conroy for Towey (ht), C Loftus (1-0-0) for Coen (42 mins), C McHale (0-0-2) for Beirne (50), F Kelly for McGreal (55), M Ruane (0-0-1) for Flynn (62).
LOUTH: N McDonnell, E Carolan, D McKenny, D Nally, C McKeever, D McDonnell (0-0-1), C Lennon, C Early, C Keenan (0-0-1), J Maguire, S Mulroy (0-1-0, 1tpf), C Grimes (0-1-2), K McArdle, C Downey (0-2-2), R Burns. Subs: T McDonnell for Lennon (inj, 23 mins), C Byrne for Keenan (40), C Loftus for Coen (42), T Durnin (0-0-1) for Maguire (46), C McCaul for Grimes (53), A Williams for McKeever (62).
Referee: D Coldrick (Meath).
