A massive tactical battle is expected, but just how will Tyrone try and stop the Mayo machine? Here’s three things to watch out for at Croke Park on Sunday.
The Mayo half-back line
The engine room of this Mayo team, the trio of Lee Keegan, Donal Vaughan and Colm Boyle, have been simply fantastic for James Horan this season. They do their defensive work, break at phenomenal pace and have a happy knack of grabbing scores too.
One of them seems to always be on the shoulder of one of the O’Sheas and once they receive the ball they are gone, especially if they are facing a team that retreats defensively and leaves them space to run into.
Mickey Harte is smart enough to spot that, but whether he has the tools to deal with it is another matter. One of the intriguing questions ahead of Sunday is will James Horan sacrifice one of his flying trio (Vaughan or Boyle are the likely candidates) by asking them to man mark Tyrone’s main man Sean Cavanagh? Would the move be worth it to nullify the Red Hands fulcrum? Whatever happens, it could decide the game.
Stuck in the middle with you
In a rather novel set up, the midfield duos of both of Sunday’s teams are brothers, with Aidan and Seamus O’Shea in the middle for Mayo, while Colm and Sean Cavanagh do the same job for Tyrone. Aidan and Sean have been their team’s outstanding players thus far and while we would like to see them clash, part of us would dread to see them mark each other out of the game, robbing us of seeing them in full flow.
We reckon they will be kept apart, with Cavanagh more likely to roam while O’Shea will more likely stay put and dominate around the middle. That’s the way they are most effective so we should be in for a treat.
But it’s not all about the big two. Colm Cavanagh had a belter against Monaghan the last day, his best game of the year, while Seamus does an awful lot of unselfish work in that middle third too.
We suspect that Tyrone will try and avoid booting ball into that area, as Aidan O’Shea will gobble it up. If Tyrone end up going long on their kickouts, it will literally play right into O’Shea’s massive hands.
Scores on the doors
Whatever happens in terms of midfield, marauding half backs and kickout strategies, the game ultimately boils down to scores on the board. Mayo have been superb at this task this summer, scoring a ridiculous 13-65 in just four games. Cillian O’Connor is scoring goals for fun and is no longer just a threat from set pieces, Andy Moran is looking more and more like his old self each game, the rest of the Mayo forwards are all chipping in and as we said, their half-backs are racking up the scores too.
That spread, and depth, of scoring is something Tyrone have to address. They will have to be touch tight to virtually every Mayo forward and, crucially, not cough up frees that will be tapped over by O’Connor. It will require huge defensive discipline and Joe McMahon will have to have a stormer to sweep up any half chances before Mayo pounce.
At the other end, Stephen O’Neill’s paltry return this summer, just 0-2, means that the burden of scoring has fallen to Sean Cavanagh. If he is stymied by Horan’s tactics, then O’Neill needs a vintage display to keep Tyrone in it.
Mattie Donnelly has been effective, and Darren McCurry is the long-sought-out reliable free-taker Tyrone needed, but they have had neither the number, or range, of scoring that Mayo have produced thus far.
Tyrone have won their last four games by a two-point margin. They are grinding out wins but have been nowhere near putting teams away. To have a shot on Sunday they need to keep Mayo in striking distance at all costs and hope they can manufacture a goal, of which they have only scored two in six games.
It’s a huge task for Tyrone, and while I believe they will be primed perfectly by Harte – in his 200th game as Tyrone manager -, they will fall short as Mayo simply are better in virtually every aspect of the game.
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