Eamon McGee column: Mayo's need is greater than Donegal and that worries me

Irish Daily Mirror

14-06-2025

'Burn the boats,' that famous saying from the 16th century Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés. Cortés, who led the colonisation of the Aztec Empire, effectively asked his soldiers how committed they were to the mission by burning the boats and thus ensuring they wouldn't be going back to Spain unless they were successful.
For me that is how Championship football should be played, totally committed to the result. Mayo lose on Sunday and they're out - unless Cavan defy the weight of history and ability) to beat Tyrone.
Mayo win and they top the group. Mayo should be travelling the short journey to Hyde Park with a 'burn the boats' frame of mind. Everything is at stake for them.
Armagh are already in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. They'll do their best to get rid of a proper All-Ireland contender in Galway, but with all the good intent in the world that safety net might take the edge off them. Galway could sneak through.
Having no safety net under the trap door changes the whole dynamic of a fixture.
The minute the draw for the group stages was made the first thing I said was I don't want to be travelling anywhere to face a Mayo side looking for points.
Since the 2012 All-Ireland final we had a poor enough run against them. It's one of those records that just sneaks up on you, year on year and suddenly it's a thing.
I thought we'd have enough for Cavan, and I was sure that home advantage against Tyrone would have been enough to get Donegal over the line.
Losing to Mayo is only terminal should Tyrone lose to Cavan - and there aren't too many people out there who think Cavan can beat Tyrone.
Whatever about Donegal's record in recent times against Mayo, Cavan have failed to beat Tyrone in Championship football since 1983.
Thankfully our good friends in Tyrone will take care of business, that should we lose against Mayo we can go through in third spot.
The minute we lost against Tyrone, Donegal folk had resigned themselves to doing it the hard way anyway and playing consecutive weeks.
The more I think about it though, the more optimistic I am about getting a result at Hyde Park.
I've said it, and it's easy to throw it out about Mayo doing the most Mayo thing by losing to Cavan.
They were terrible with talk from Mayo lads that it was the worst they've ever seen. How exactly did they go about beating Tyrone then?
I was at Healy Park for their game against Tyrone. First things first, Mayo were good and brought loads of energy but it has to be said Tyrone were nowhere near the pitch of things at all.
I was along with Sean Cavanagh and he was genuinely deflated at how they played. I seriously thought Tyrone had announced their arrival by ending Jim McGuinness's winning record in Ballybofey.
And they followed it up with an under-20 All-Ireland win (another one).
Looking back through the years there's been a correlation of Tyrone under-21/20 success and senior success so going into Ballybofey and beating Donegal in should have been a statement win.
But they looked so far off it at Healy Park. Mayo's win has to be looked at through that lens, as well as all the good stuff they brought to the game.
Once the ball was thrown in, Tyrone wanted to play at a high tempo and that suited Mayo down to the ground. A few turnovers, the ball is up and down the field and it turns into a chaotic game.
In my opinion, it should have been an over and back possession style game - at least for the first quarter.
Tyrone can grind it out with the best of them, so why not turn it into a boring, dead affair and suck whatever life is left in Mayo out of them.
Mayo are having doubts after the Cavan result. The knives are out for them. Why turn the game into the type of thing that Mayo love?
Even the renowned Mayo fans just didn't know if they should truly get behind the team. Do they leave themselves open to be hurt again? But they eventually did.
Mayo brought massive energy and an excellent high press in open play. Tyrone were getting cleaned out on kickouts but were still in the game - even though they weren't playing the best.
Then Niall Morgan makes a most uncharacteristic mistake by dropping the ball and Darren McHale pokes the loose ball into the net and it's on.
So what do Donegal need to do? Mayo will bring a high press but given our speed and athleticism we can do damage breaking out with the ball.
We should have spells of that playing it round the arc too when Mayo look to be getting momentum.
Shaun Patton should be fit so we will see what difference he makes to things. He is vital to the cause.
We have seen that the kickout is central to these big swings in momentum in games throughout the year.
Teams will get you penned in so keepers need to work out the solution to that problem? For some lads, it's just not in the locker to work it out. Patton can. In those momentum shifts, you just need hands on the ball.
I'd say Brendan McCole will pick up Ryan O'Donoghue and Stephen McMenamin might pick up Aidan O'Shea.
Even though Paddy Durcan is fit and got man of the match against Tyrone, I still think these two are crucial to Mayo.
O'Donoghue for his scores and Aidan O'Shea for being a leader and the man who so much ball goes through.
It says a lot about how valued he is that he stayed on the field despite getting an early yellow card in Omagh.
They risked it because they needed and wanted him on the field. Donegal should go after him and try to expose him defensively. There's plenty football wise where we can get at them.
It's so hard to get a grasp on the form of any of the teams. Going into the knockout stages, Armagh are the one team who have shown consistency.
The rest have been zig zagging. Galway, Dublin, Tyrone, Mayo, Donegal and even Kerry's form has gone up and down since the end of the provincials.
The schedule is crazy compared to what we've been used to, and it could be that with the field so even, teams are struggling to get to the same levels every day.
And once you're off it against a team around your level, you're going to get caught.
Both teams here have had their off day. Mayo's need is greater than Donegal's though and that worries me so I'm predicting a Mayo win in Hyde Park with both teams still going through.