Mayo in Croke Park.
Mayo teams in All-Ireland finals.
Everyone knows the story, and the players may be different, but the denouement appears to be always the same.
Castlebar Mitchels’ Paddy Durcan is sick of it. And he visibly bristles when asked why Mayo sides, club and county, fail on the biggest stage of all when silverware glistens in the Hogan Stand.
“I think it’s more of a media thing. Mayo and Castlebar are different teams. We lost the final two years ago. We were beaten by a better team on the day.
“But it wasn’t a Mayo thing. We didn’t falter too much.
Castlebar have gone in chase of the fairytale ending again, after suffering the horror of an All-Ireland club final loss in 2014.
Facing a St Vincent’s side packed with talent, the Mayo side endured one of their most frustrating 60 minutes as they simply did not perform to the level they wanted or knew they could.
Diarmuid Connolly enjoyed one of ‘those’ days when he was gulping pure oxygen while the Mayo champions only puffed out carbon dioxide.
An early black card for Richie Feeney robbed the Mayo side of one of their key leaders, but Durcan feels the harsh lessons of 2014 have been absorbed.
“When you don’t fulfil your potential and feel like you haven’t done yourself justice, it can be hard to take. To get a chance two years down the line and it seems like a long time when you’re eager to get there again, I think we are in a better place going into it.
“Even this campaign, we started in May, so you’re a number of months on the go and we’ve played nine games to get here. You don’t want to fall short on the tenth and the aim is to get over the line this time. It’s more so about putting in a performance.”
Strangely for a team that has defeated 2015 champions Corofin and modern day kingpins Crossmaglen on their way to Croke Park, the Mayo side are firm underdogs this week.
Durcan, who is a second-year business student in DCU, feels the win over the Armagh champions was a day when the team finally put the ghosts of 2014 to bed. A new page was being turned.
Narrow defeats had become a trademark of teams who have faced Cross’ over the years. Durcan reveals the enormous sense of pride that came after the 0-13 to 0-12 win last month.
“A lot of people would question Mayo teams. They get a bit of a hard time for not grinding it out. But I wouldn’t be too focused on that. We had confidence that we could dig out a result. And that was really pleasing.
“They (Crossmaglen) had won, I think, 15 games by a point in the last few years. So to beat them by one point I thought was very, very pleasing.
“We certainly didn’t fear them. So it was pleasing when the stakes were up in the last 20 minutes.”
This is a new chapter to life in Ballyboden too, having never been to this stage before outside of the confines of Leinster.
And with Michael Darragh Macauley, Conal Keaney and the Basquels, the Dublin side have caught the public and bookies’ imagination.
Durcan understands the hype that surrounds the Dublin champions, but feels that in Castlebar, where fans once travelled in hope, there is now an expectation.
“I think it’s probably bigger to what it was two years ago. You’ll probably think because it was the first time in 20 years that it would be massive but I think this time it’s even bigger.
“It’s more so about putting in a performance – we’re not thinking too far ahead about lifting cups and stuff like that. If you perform, that will look after itself – we know that.”
Brought to you by AIB GAA, proudly backing Club & County. Follow AIB GAA on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
