Mayo were not ruthless enough when they needed to be to win an All-Ireland when they needed to be, and the current crop of players will end their careers unfulfilled.
That’s according to Anthony Moyles, who said praise for their “story” is scant consolation from a player’s perspective after Mayo’s Round 3 qualifier loss to Kildare last weekend.
“If I was a Mayo player who’s been involved with that team for the last five, six, seven, eight years, that doesn’t give me any kind of comfort,” said Moyles.
“They’ve missed out on the big one. They were good enough to win one, or maybe more than one.
“People are saying about Dublin’s dominance but there’s been a few moments where they had the foot on the throat and they just weren’t ruthless enough.
“Yes, they’ve given great days. Yes, they’ve given their supporters massive days. Yes, they’ve always played with an unbelievable amount of heart and amount of energy, and they have been really unlucky.
“There’s probably a little bit of “anyone but Dublin” going on as well, where people want to see Dublin beat and they want to see that that’s good for the game and all this kind of stuff.
“They’ve been there or thereabouts, and they have got a fantastic story, and they do play a lovely brand of football.
“If I’m one of the guys off that team, Keith Higgins or one of them, and in 10, 15, 20 years I sit back and some people are saying ‘listen, you were a great story’, you’re still saying ‘yes I was a great story, but I don’t have my All-Ireland medals sitting in my back pocket’, and that’s the real thing that matters.”
Mayo have consistently provided Dublin’s greatest challenge to their big-ball dominance over the last three years, despite having to come through the qualifiers to reach the last two All-Ireland finals.
The resilience and heart of the Mayo side cannot be questioned, Moyles believes, but a lack of forward planning has led to their current plight.
“I don’t know if it’s Rochford’s situation where he’s like ‘no, these are the guys I trust, the guys who’ve done it for me before, and if we can just get a little bit in the background or in the preparation, maybe on the psyche, we’ll get over the line’.
“I don’t think you can question anything about their grit, their determination or anything about that, but I think they honestly have to look at the ruthlessness of it and when they get into that situation.
“If we take Kerry for example, and the work that they’ve been doing in the schools and underage to come up with four minor All-Irelands in a row, they’re obviously building because they want to have dominance for maybe the next 5-10 years.
“I think Mayo, there’s so much focus on this group of players cause you just don’t see that influx. They’ve no Sean O’Shea, they’ve no Clifford, they’ve nobody from the minor teams who are really stepping up.
“The focus has really been on getting these guys over the line, and it’s not been on ‘well let’s get the next generation and drag these fellas, improve these fellas and get them over the line’. Dublin have done that, Kerry have done it, and for me that’s what I think Mayo have to go back to.
The likes of Dublin, Kerry, and Donegal have evolved their squads at a great rate over the last two years than Mayo, and Moyles believes they wouldn’t have had the ruthless streak to get through the Super 8s if they had made it to that stage against those kinds of teams.
He also believes revolution is now necessary for the Maritime County, to avoid being left permanently in the rear view by Dublin and Kerry in the future.
“I think most people were sharpening their pens for this,” he said.
“Because it was so quick, I think people were just waiting for the inevitable time that they were gone.
“I don’t think they would have really lasted through the Super 8s, I think it would have been a really, really big ask for them.
“If you look at the Dublin team, Dublin have brought in Scully, Howard, guys that even some Dublin people would say ‘who are these people?’ Gavin has managed to bring in an influx of youth in there, and new talent, and these guys are bubbling under the surface but they could well be the names of this summer.
“We’ve mentioned Kerry already. You look at Donegal. I just didn’t see that in Mayo in the last couple of years. We’ve mentioned (Paddy) Durcan, but outside of him there hasn’t been anyone who I’ve gone ‘well there’s a forward, there’s someone else’.
“I think they honestly have to look at the ruthlessness of it and when they get into that situation. It takes a bit of nastiness to win stuff, you do have to have it. You have to be able to mix it.
“When it happens like last year, after Dublin got the equaliser, at that moment they showed that this is the ruthlessness it takes to win this All-Ireland. In the annals of history it’s there, they’ve won it. No one will care that on the kickout they jumped on all the Mayo players, no one will care about that.
“Kerry will do exactly the same thing to you. People have this image of Kerry being nice players - Kerry, if they need to mix it, will do it.
“That I think is probably the only area that has hurt them the most, and can they come back from that? They need to unearth a good few people to have another real good spin at it.”
Written by Alex Dunne
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