'We sat down and plotted out a few things we would like to achieve - so far so good'

GAELIC GAMES: KEITH DUGGANtalks to Mayo manager James Horan who has quietly assembled an unhyped team that thrives on the collective

IF THERE is something different about Mayo this year, then the starting point of that change has to be their manager.

For the first time in living memory, Mayo have made it to the last four of the All-Ireland with little of the fanfare that signalled their other ill-fated runs. The Ballintubber man is calm and low-key and it is as though the entire county has taken its cue from his bearing.

As one of the most dashing player on the Mayo team of the mid-1990s, Horan has plenty of first hand experience of how the county football team can energise and excite the county.

But on a dark night at the stadium in Castlebar, it was easy to believe Horan when he predicted that the mood would be different as they prepared for Kerry. After they sent the All-Ireland champions Cork out of the championship with ease, Mayo just resumed their routine.

“It hasn’t been difficult. We had club games on the Sunday afterwards and with the knocks and bangs, it was back to normal. Back at it and back training.

“I don’t think that (surge in expectation) will happen this year. Mayo people are very realistic this year. But that is the general public point of view. We will just keep doing what we have been doing: keep our heads down and train hard. And we are looking forward to the game.”

In 1996, Horan played on a Mayo team that raised eyebrows by leaving Kerry cold in the All-Ireland semi-final. They went on to participate in the most controversial All-Ireland final in living memory against Meath, when literally a bounce of the ball denied the county its first title since 1951.

Horan had finished up playing when Kerry made ribbons of Mayo teams in the 2004 and 2006 All-Ireland finals and wasn’t particularly impressed by the idea that Kerry might have some kind of hold on Mayo teams.

“Kerry have a psychological hold on a lot of teams I suppose. But no, not particularly. You can link and trend anything if you want to go that route. But this team are just keeping it fairly simple, we will play the game and won’t be looking or listening to what is happening outside that.”

Horan’s success with Ballintubber made him the smartest choice to succeed John O’Mahony but because Mayo is such a high-profile county, there was always a chance that the county board would be drawn to a flashy resumé from elsewhere.

Horan wasted little time in chiselling out the kind of team and attitude he felt would take Mayo places. If their league form was neurotic – they occasionally became caught up in those crazy unpredictable shootouts that seemed to underline the flamboyant and open house nature of Mayo football – their overall attitude was beginning to change.

They became meaner defensively. Aidan O’Shea was transformed from a mercurial full forward with a stellar minor career into an old-fashioned midfielder. Trevor Mortimer came back to add experience and cunning to the defensive unit.

Horan had the courage to pick a teenage free-taker, Cillian O’Connor, whose poise in the rain-storm of the Connacht final was magnificent. Against Cork, O’Connor was again immaculate. The collective works like a demon and they have fast developed the reputation for being the meanest second-half team in the country.

“We have done very well. It is not something we consciously planned. Maybe the weather conditions had a hand in it. We will certainly need to start well. History shows that if you don’t start well against Kerry it can be over very quickly so we need to start when the ball is thrown in.

“We looked to address fitness and strength and condition – maybe that wouldn’t have been high on the agenda of Mayo teams down the years. If you look at the Cork game we only played well for 50 minutes really.”

Mayo’s second half performance was so full of conviction that it is easy to forget those jittery opening minutes. The thought must have crossed many Mayo minds that another sledging was on the cards. Their recovery from that unpromising opening was methodical and impressive and completely confounded general expectations.

It was refreshing that Horan didn’t go down the-everybody-wrote-us-off road after the match – but then he has always been gloriously indifferent to general and critical opinion. The same is true now; once again, Mayo will face Kerry as outsiders.

“It doesn’t bother me,” he shrugs. “Sometimes that stuff can certainly help focus a team. It didn’t do us any harm leading up to the Cork game. It took a while to know where we were and where we could go but after a few league games we sat down and plotted out a few things we would like to achieve – so far so good.

“Cork was a big milestone. And now we are looking at being as competitive as we can be in Croke Park for as long as we can.”

When Kerry played Mayo in Castlebar this spring, Jack O’Connor unveiled Eoin Brosnan as his new centre-back and the visitors won an even contest with a late surge. “Our league form was mixed. But what you can take is that Darran O’Sullivan played well and got a penalty against us so he is very dangerous and obviously we need to watch him . . . It was a game we should have won. But Kerry showed again that when they get an opportunity . . .”

Those are qualities that will always stand to Kerry. But this year, they face a Mayo team with new tricks of their own.