Former Mayo ace Colm Boyle scores on his RTÉ debut

by John Melvin

Former Mayo ace Colm Boyle brought with him the pace and panache which marked him out as an outstanding footballer when he tackled the challenging job as a member of the RTÉ analysis team for the clash between Kerry and Mayo.

The Davitts man made his debut last weekend in the company of Kerry legend Pat Spillane and former Dublin four-time All-Star Noelle Healy, admitting to being a little nervous but unfazed and leaving the impression that the Boyler will have no problem in making a career move to television as a GAA pundit should he chose to do so – and I expect to see a lot more of him on the box over the summer months.

In the meantime he has to return to his job as a member of An Garda Síochána, but I imagine his superiors will be looking at the possibility of moving this man up the ranks fairly rapidly given the authoritative display he gave before the cameras on Saturday night.

He was just inches away from getting his prediction for the game correct. He had plumped for a draw and would have been proven right had Lee Keegan’s last-gasp effort for a point not gone inches wide.

Despite the result, Mayo are still in the hunt for a place in the league final with the Tyrone and Kildare fences still to be jumped – and what a match we have in store this Saturday night in Omagh as the All-Ireland champions of last year, Tyrone, face the runners-up, Mayo.

With the sold out sign up since last week at Austin Stack Park in Tralee, which holds around 14,000, I have a feeling a lot of people were possibly happier that they could not get a ticket given the atrocious conditions which came in off the Atlantic coast and swept across the pitch, almost taking Marty Morrissey with them on what was desperate night for football.

All three analysts factored in the impact the weather was going to have on the game and sure enough it didn’t help in terms of the quality of football, but there was no shortage of drama and both teams deserve credit for producing an exciting second half, with Mayo chasing and chasing but just not quite able to catch up with a Kerry a team who were without their talismanic Sean O’Shea.

With the female of the panel having the casting vote after Pat went for Kerry to just ‘fall over the line’ and Boyler calling a draw, Noelle, whose dad hails from Aghamore, came down on the side of Mayo in a game that could have gone either way.

When match commentator Darragh Maloney and analyst Kevin McStay brought proceedings to an end, Kerry had survived with a point to spare, Spillane pointing out it was the first time Kerry had beaten Mayo on home soil in three years.

The general view was that this was a big win for Kerry, who found it hard to grind it out wins in tight games, while Mayo won’t be too disappointed.

Boyler did question the withdrawal of Fergal Boland, who had contributed three points on a night when not may forwards, with the exception of Ryan O’Donoghue, were able to hit the target, although nine wides for Mayo wasn’t a damning statistic given the conditions.

Boyler said Mayo left two goals behind them but overall, his mood was positive and his admiration for O’Donoghue was very clear, describing him as ‘unbelievable’ – so much so that the Mayo player was named man of the match, beating David Clifford in a photo-finish for the award.

He also felt James Horan had turned to the more ‘traditional' team, with 11 of the side who had lost last year’s All-Ireland final to Tyrone on duty.

Said Boyle: "Overall I think Mayo will take a lot of positives from this performance. The result is disappointing but I think James Horan has also seen enough that he can be happy with, but plenty to work on ahead of the championship – but he already knows what that stuff is. It was hard to get scores from play and I’d say Fergal Boland was unlucky to be taken off. Overall I’d be happy with the ways things are progressing," was the overall view of the former Mayo star.

STORM COMING

Perhaps Mayo manager James Horan saw the storm coming when he picked his team as Aidan O’Shea’s physical presence was a huge factor in keeping Mayo in the game, but those of us who were getting a bit carried away by Mayo’s blistering league campaign will need to sober up a little as there is a lot of repair work to be done before the big showdown with Galway in the Connaught championship at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.

Anchorman Marty got the ball rolling, so to speak by telling us that Pat Spillane and his umbrella nearly took flight due to the weather, and I have a feeling there were a lot of people thinking it might be no harm if the Kerry legend had taken flight.

In fairness to Spillane, spillage, he has eased in his criticism of Mayo football and predicted a close and tough game between two teams are amongst the top four in the country, and that’s how it panned out.

He also gave Michael Plunkett credit for his man-marking job on Paudie Clifford but he nailed it on the head when he said that Kerry defence had improved quite a bit and they prevented players like Paddy Durcan, Lee Keegan, Oisin Mullin and Padraic O’Hora from pushing forward.

Omagh beckons this Saturday night and unlike the All-Ireland final last year, I think Mayo will turn up this time.