Watching the post-game analysis on RTE yesterday - you almost knew what Joe Brolly would be saying in his column in the Sunday Independent this morning. Naturally Mayo are under the microscope, with the management team taking the brunt of quite a few one-liners.
Continuing on with the 'Masters of Disasters' moniker awarded to Mayo, Brolly was stunned at the shocking collapse that the westerners had yesterday. Leading by four points after Cillian O'Connor's goal, Brolly said that he felt a sense of dread for Mayo:
Meanwhile, I was looking down in horror at the vast open prairie leading to Mayo's square, feeling queasy and thinking, "Oh dear, oh dear."
He argues that Mayo don't know what to do when they have the lead, and they have no game plan for how to stay in front:
Mayo panicked, because they do not have strategy for holding a lead.
This wasn't as bad for Brolly as not learning lessons from the previous week's game. Last week Brolly singled out Mayo's failed sweeper plan that afforded both of Dublin's goals, and the strategy to hit and hope towards Aidan O'Shea to do something. Did it work?
Mayo learned nothing from last week. Nothing. Their strategy for Stephen Cluxton's kickouts remained a mystery. The 'sort of, maybe, not really, should we, oh maybe we shouldn't, ah go on, oh we better not push up' strategy is not one I am familiar with. As one inter-county manager said to me outside the stadium beforehand: "What the f*** are they playing at?"
Brolly concludes with the thought that should Mayo have reached the final that it would have been a very one sided affair. Dublin, he thinks, have a better chance against Eamonn Fizmaurice's charges:
In truth, it is better they're not in the final. Kerry would have ruthlessly picked them apart.
The blame for that lies solely with the Mayo management team according to Brolly:
Like this team's previous defeats in Croke Park, it is not the fault of the players. Without engrained systems of play, victory is impossible.
Ending his thought-provoking article with a recollection to a French commander's words in battle, he leaves us with this:
C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas le football.
See Also: 'Spectacular Inepititude' - Joe Brolly Was Damning Regading Mayo's Collapse
Picture credit: Jerry Kennelly / SPORTSFILE
