Mayo footballer Chris Barrett pictured in Croke Park ahead of Sunday's Allianz Football League Division One Final against Kerry.
By John Harrington
A lack of impact from the bench is arguably the main reason that Mayo have failed to win an All-Ireland title in this decade.
They lost three Finals to Dublin in 2013, 2016 (replay), and 2017 by a single point. In those contests of fine margins, it was Dublin’s superior bench that proved to be a decisive factor.
No Mayo substitute scored in any of those Finals, whereas Dublin’s replacements contributed significantly.
In 2013 Eoghan O’Gara scored two points and forced Mayo to switch Keith Higgins from attack to defence in order to contain him.
In the 2016 All-Ireland Final replay, Cormac Costello and Bernard Brogan scored a combined tally of 0-4, while in 2017 Diarmuid Connolly and Kevin McManamon scored a point each.
Mayo’s Championship team has had a very familiar look to it throughout the decade and is still back-boned by the same stalwarts with 11 survivors from the 2011 All-Ireland Final featuring during this year’s League campaign.
But what encourages veteran defender Chris Barrett is that a new generation have now come through to supplement the ranks and make the Mayo panel a more competitive environment than its ever been for as long as he’s been involved.
“There are five or six guys that have really put their hands up,” said Barrett.
“It shows in training and trying to get into 26. Getting into a squad now is nearly as big as getting into a team.
“Back in the day maybe you were looking for the first 15 whereas now I think it’s the most competitive squad that I’ve ever been involved in.
“There’s a real ‘am I in the 26 or not?’ now rather than in the first 15. That’s probably down a load of the younger lads putting their hands up this springtime.
“Cillian (O’Connor) has been out, Seamie (O’Shea) has been out, there’s chances there for everyone to get involved and they’ve really been pushing us.
Rising stars like Fionn McDonagh have impressed for Mayo so far in this year's League campaign.
“I definitely do think in terms of the quantity of quality maybe...I think we've always had extremely talented players in the squad.
“Getting that extra, even if it's one or two guys that you know might not start but will come on and impact a game, that's really what we're trying to develop.
“I think it was 34 players we used during the league. It's great to see and it's about building the squad.
“It might not necessarily be someone who's in the starting 15 and kicking the lights out but it could be the guy who comes on with ten minutes to go who has a bit of experience under his belt and a bit of confidence under his belt.
“He can come on and deliver the messages, what the coaches expect from him when he comes in.
“It's probably where Dublin have been so successful in the last few years. They do have that ability to finish a game stronger than they started it.”
There’s a long list of players in this Mayo panel who could comfortably qualify as veterans, 31-year-old Barrett included.
But the Belmullet man thinks the influx of new players means they now have a good balance in their squad in terms of experience, players coming into their prime, and youthful exuberance.
“I think, sometimes, there’s a perception out there that we’re an older team but when you look at the likes of Diarmuid (O’Connor) and Paddy (Durcan) and Stephen Coen, people might think they’ve been around for years but those guys are only 22, 23.
“They’ve been coming the last few years and there’s the newer batch this year.
“Michael Plunkett, Fionn McDonagh, Fergal Boland has been doing really well. Conor Diskin, Conor Loftus, my own clubmate Eoin O’Donoghue.
“There is really a good crop of young fellas coming up. It’s great to see and they really are pushing us.”
The Mayo players pictured in a huddle before their All-Ireland SFC Qualifier defeat to Kildare in Newbridge last year.
Those who dismissed this Mayo team as one past its prime in the wake of last year’s Championship exit at the hands of Kildare in the All-Ireland Qualifiers would be given pause for thought were they to defeat Kerry in Sunday’s Allianz Football League Division One Final.
As much as Barrett admits winning some silverware in Croke Park “would be great”, he’s quick to say too that “the most important thing for us is just our own progression as a team and trying to get experience for the younger guys out here in Croke Park.”
The Championship has always been where it’s at for this group of Mayo players and Barrett is already casting his eye ahead to it.
The fact that they’ve been beaten in Connacht for three years in a row grates, and that’s why winning a provincial title for the first time since 2015 is very much an itch they want scratch.
“100 per cent, yeah,” said Barrett. “I just think for ourselves to win Connacht it's definitely something we're concentrating on.
“We'd probably have to beat Roscommon and Galway and they're two Division 1 teams this year so it's going to be tough.
“But I just think to progress, and I keep talking about progression, if we want to be a team that does what we want to do at the end of the year then I do think that winning is a habit that you get into and the backdoor is definitely not a route we want to go down this year.
“Yeah, definitely, the Connacht Championship is number one on the agenda this year.”
Mayo's Chris Barrett in action against Danny Cummins of Galway in this year's Allianz Football League.
If Mayo beat Kerry on Sunday then the ‘Mayo for Sam’ talk will be up and running even before a ball is kicked in the Connacht Championship.
Barrett has been trying to win a Celtic Cross since 2010 and it would mean the world to him to be part of the Mayo team that ends the county’s long All-Ireland famine, but he no longer defines his inter-county career by that quest in a way he once did.
“Once you can see the end of your career coming it's always a focus in the back of your mind that you would like to win one before you finish.
“But I think as you get older as well you actually start to appreciate as well the actual experiences.
“Maybe when I was 25 and 26 and someone asked you what the be all and end all of it was you'd say it would be winning an All-Ireland and retiring without doing that would be a disaster.
“But, looking back on it now as you grow a bit older and wiser, the experiences we've had as a team are phenomenal. Just to have the ability to run out here on Sunday in front of however many thousand people.
“We've been lucky as a Mayo team to get to Finals and play on the huge days in Croke Park.
“When I do hang up my boots, whether there's an All-Ireland or not, obviously I'd prefer if we did, but I wouldn't be looking back with a huge sense of regret. I'd be remembering all the experiences I've had with my team-mates.”
