There comes a time for every unsung hero to go out and sing.
It’s not too often that Jason Doherty gets to finish a game, you know.
Back in 2016, Mayo took the scenic route to the third Sunday in September and the first Saturday in October and, of their nine championship games that summer, Jason Doherty started eight of them. He only made the final whistle twice though in those encounters.
Every manager in the land has been guilty at some point or another of what we call the automatic sub. It doesn’t matter what the circumstance, it doesn’t even matter how well the guy involved is playing, this is a pre-planned substitution that’s going to be made at some stage in the second half come what may.
For a while, you could be forgiven for thinking that Jason Doherty is that guy for Mayo because, no matter how much he has left in the tank or whatever about the important scores – usually goals – that he kicks, it seems that it has already been decided that he will be the fall guy to freshen things up.
This season so far has been a much worse story though.
Rather than bemoan the fact that he can almost bank on his number being called, Jason Doherty had his fate reversed as he started every game against Galway, Derry and Clare on the bench. Suddenly, he was the one coming on instead of off but it wasn’t like he was seeing too much action.
- Galway – subbed on 58 mins
- Derry – subbed on 55 mins
- Clare – subbed on 55 mins
In Limerick on Saturday, the Burrishoole man got his chance again and he clung onto it with all the might and immovable force from those sizable biceps.
For 90 minutes in the Gaelic Grounds, Doherty offered his body up as a human sacrifice for Mayo where it was launched forward as the first wave of attack, taking the blows on the front line so his county could gain territory and advance. Just when you thought that a man couldn’t possibly take any more of a battering, he was burrowing out from a pile-up of fists and knees once more – all the while with a piece of leather nestling safe in his bosom.
The cutting performance of Cillian O’Connor and Andy Moran against Cork has been well documented but there was a reason for the improvement on the Mayo inside forward line.
They had a platform on Saturday, a launch pad. They had the ball higher up the pitch quicker than normal because they had Jason Doherty on the 45′ and 65′ absolutely breaking his back to get on possession. Side to side, he went, deep and in behind. The half forward put on the perfect link-man display as his powerful, purposeful runs were picked out like clockwork and, suddenly, the team had a better look inside with more time and space to pick out O’Connor and Moran.
It all started with Doherty doing the dirty work, laying on a masterclass of selflessness and hard running to give Mayo the out and give the full forward line the best possible chance.
Speaking on The GAA Hour, former county manager James Horan was raving about Doherty too.
“He definitely deserves special mention for Satuday’s game,” Horan said.
“Almost in the old, conventional style, he ran the half forward line. He was the outlet for nearly all ball for Mayo – particularly in the first half.
“He was taking man and ball at the same time. He was going down on those balls bouncing in front of you where you know you’re going to get the hit but you’ve got to go for it – he won ball time after time from that. He really got through a lot of work.
“I thought he had a storming first half in particular, then he had a vital turnover in the second half – he’s a very good tackler. He was very, very good for Mayo [on Saturday].”
With his first start of the championship campaign, Doherty guided Mayo through a tricky extra time encounter and into the quarter-final of the All-Ireland series for a seventh consecutive season.
By going back to something familiar, Mayo revitalised their attacking play and it was their unsung hero who took them to those levels. Having been used as a sub all summer, Jason Doherty produced the sort of shift that will make it impossible to drop him against Roscommon.
He left Limerick battered and bruised but he probably never felt better. Now, he can be the man to lead the charges into the fray at Croker. God knows he’s able to absorb the shock.
