GAA :IT HAD to be. Four possible teams for Mayo, the Connacht champions, to draw from the qualifier lottery but there was a groan of inevitability across the county when Cork appeared. Just as it is Limerick's fate to be linked with Kerry, so Mayo have an affiliation they don't particularly want with Cork.
The obvious reference points are the 1989 All-Ireland final between the teams, which Cork won narrowly and an ill-fated semi-final some four years later when Cork amassed a staggering 5-15 against a Mayo team which was nothing like that bad.
They last met in the championship in 2002, when a late Ciarán McDonald penalty pre-empted a frantic scramble for a late goal: Cork hung on, 0-16 to 1-10.
Among the Mayo forwards that day was James Horan, the current manager. The Ballinrobe man is naturally understated in his reaction to Mayo performances, a quality that has served him well in a county where football enthusiasms are prone to over-excitement.
He kept his counsel during Mayo’s league run, kept calm after the near slip-up against London in Ruislip and was equally businesslike after Mayo dispatched their perpetual foes: Galway in the Connacht semi-final and then Roscommon on a dismal afternoon in Hyde Park.
After last Sunday night’s draw, he approached the prospect of facing the All-Ireland champions as if pulling them from the hat was a bonus. “This is a great opportunity for us,” he said during the week.
“It’s a great chance for us to see where we are at, to see if there is a gap between us and the likes of Cork. It’s a huge chance, a huge game and we are really looking forward to it. It’s not often that you get a chance like this to get a crack at the big guns at this stage of the season. We intend to meet them head on and to go toe-to-toe.”
Playing Cork has several advantages for Mayo. It guarantees there will be none of the attendant hype and expectation that too often followed Mayo on visits to Croke Park. And even though Horan was duty-bound to strike a note of optimism about this match, there is truth in what he says. Mayo can come into this match with absolutely no expectation.
Horan has wasted little time in refashioning the Mayo team. Most of the personnel are the same but the duties are radically different, from the deployment of the O’Shea brothers at midfield to the use of Trevor Mortimer in the half- back line.
Mayo’s championship has been strange because both of their wins in Connacht have been gained on wintry afternoons reminiscent of league Sundays. They have yet to discover just what it is in them on a dry, summer afternoon. In the league, their promise seemed to revolve around their ability to scores goals. Jason Doherty, who scored goals for fun in the league, has not been able to carry that form into the championship and has been replaced by Enda Varley.
And although nobody is saying it, it may not be the worst time to be playing Cork; their comfortable win over Down may have left them back in the comfort zone and the injury to Daniel Goulding in that game adds to the terrible run of luck that Conor Counihan’s team has had with its marquee players.
Cork still have formidable depth but the absence of Goulding along with Colm O’Neill and Ciarán Sheehan means they are not quite as fearsome as they looked this time last year.
But those absences will not diminish Cork’s best quality: their remorselessness. Cork just keep on coming and do not panic. Mayo only have to think to their most recent Croke Park meeting, the league final of 2010, to remind themselves of just how punishing the current Cork model can be. Goulding scored 1-5 of the 1-17 that Cork posted that day, to Mayo’s 0-12.
They managed to beat Cork in the league to save their skins in Division One this year and have grown as a team since then. But can they possibly beat Cork? Nobody believes it outside the Mayo dressingroom. As Horan said, it’s a great opportunity.
