Mayo legend Cora Staunton feels that her county were devoid of a game plan in the forward line during their All-Ireland final defeat to Tyrone in Croke Park on Saturday.
James Horan's side had a number of clear-cut goal opportunities during the game, including a penalty, but failed to convert any of them before falling to a 2-14 to 0-15 defeat at the hands of Tyrone.
Speaking to OTBAM on Tuesday, Staunton outlined that she believed there was a clear lack of structure to Mayo in the final third and that their absence of leadership going forward cost them dearly.
"In my opinion and this is just from me watching the game, I sat with Colm Cooper watching it on Saturday evening and just even from speaking to him, looking at the game I felt that at times we were so devoid of any game plan in the forwards.
"I just didn't feel that we have a structure that we know we're playing to in the forward line. At times we had Tommy Conroy chasing back on the Mayo 21, we had Kevin McLoughlin at times in on the full-forward line.
"To me, Kevin McLoughlin is our playmaker, we need him to get on the ball as much as we can. Tommy Conroy has the speed and is probably one of maybe two or three players who can get goals for us, who can score and I just thought there was no structure in our forward line. We lacked a huge amount of leadership up there."
'I just didn't feel that we had a structure in the forward line' | #GAA
Cora Staunton feels that Mayo's lack of a game plan in the forwards was one of their biggest downfalls in the All-Ireland final.@GilletteUK #BestFaceForward
FULL VIDEO ➡️ https://t.co/idKLN5lzMx pic.twitter.com/Mp5gMxPNQ1— Off The Ball (@offtheball) September 14, 2021
Staunton continued, outlining that she believes Mayo missed the influence of the injured Cillian O'Connor from a leadership standpoint, highlighting again how the lack of composure in the final third was worrying.
"People spoke about Cillian (O'Connor) all year and would we miss him. The biggest worry was that we would at some stage and I think we missed him hugely at the weekend. I don't think it would've been the changing or the winning of the All-Ireland, I'm not saying that, but from a leadership point of view and from a system point of view, we missed him massively.
"The lack of composure inside the final third was really really poor. You look back at the goal chances, they're probably the easiest ones to remember."
