NFL Div1 Final - Cork 1-17 : Mayo 0-12

The final was a very disappointing ending to what was an excellent league campaign otherwise for this Mayo team. Unfortunately, the loss and the standard of the performance gives fodder for another chapter in the Mayo in Croke Park saga. No question, Cork were the better team by far but on the day they weren't really tested or pressurised to know how good they are.

NFL Div 1 Final - Result : Cork 1-17 : Mayo 0-12

One word - Disappointing. Sorry two words - Very Disappointing. Lets hold it at that.
And to be sure John O'Mahony and the players must feel the disappointment just as much as the fans with todays defeat in Croke Park. It wasn't the loss as such but the manner of it as Mayo didn't even manage to rise to the challenge and make a decent match of it. There was some optimisim going into the game (despite Cork being the favourites) that the momentum Mayo showed over the league campaign would continue but instead the script had that frustrating 'capitulation' type ending that we hoped would not happen.
Mayo played in second gear for most of the match with an odd burst into third and even at that it was nearly enough for most of the match as Cork were only motoring around in third gear too. The difference was they were taking their points when the opportunity came while we were guilty of squandering chances and much less clinical. We could claim to be unlucky not to have found the net once or twice in the opening 15-20 minutes as the Cork defence and goalkeeper were exposed but in the end it's "if only" and "maybe's" and it didn't happen. Meanwhile we kept in touch mostly through frees. Four points down at half time.
After a good start in the second half we were still in touch with just a couple of points in it but after that Cork seemed to move into 4th gear while we slipped back into 2nd and that could only mean one thing in the race to the final line. Cork kept picking us off and by end had notched up a creditable scoreline of 1-17 (3p from frees) that was worthy of winning compared to our 12 points, 6 of which came from frees.
Who played well for us? David Clarke, Ger Cafferkey, Donal Vaughan (1st half), Kevin McLoughlin, Alan Dillon (but off his best), Conor Mortimer and though he didn't manage to score Aidan O'Shea worked hard while being heavily marked and had an indirect scoreboard contribution by winning quite a few of our converted frees.

So not really a memorable final (the Div 2 Armagh v Down final was a much better game!) and definitely not a good final for Mayo. It's always tempting after matches like today to go on and on about what went wrong and so on but doing so doesn't change anything or add any great insights that ain't already known. It was a quiet and listless atmosphere in Croke Park today and walking out after the match it somehow didn't really feel like we had attended or watched a major final. Let's say the mood was downbeat and you were more likely to meet green and red supporters quietly contemplating the days events in the "chipper" on the way home after the match instead of engaging in the more usual after match banter in the pubs around Croke Park!!

To John O'Mahony and the team: lads, overall it was a great league campaign, today is over and done, Mayo are better than that, now get ready for championship time!

We will leave it to others this time to give the match report details :

Match Report GAA.ie Mayo Advertiser

Irish Independent and the main man WJ on Green and Red

Mayo and Cork teams named to line out as follows:

		David Clarke

Chris Barrett		Ger Cafferkey		Liam O'Malley
Paul Kerrigan		Ciaran Sheehan		Daniel Goulding

Donal Vaughan		Trevor Howley		Kevin McLoughlin
Paddy Kelly		Donncha O'Connor		Fintan Goold

	Tom Parsons		Seamus O'Shea
	Aidan Walsh		Alan O'Connor

Andy Moran		Alan Dillon		Trevor Mortimer
Jamie O'Sullivan		Paudie Kissane		Noel O'Leary

Conor Mortimer		Aidan O’Shea		Mark Ronaldson
Eoin Cotter		Michael Shields		Ray Carey

		Paddy O'Shea