“That is not All-Ireland winning form.”
Last year Pat Spillane claimed from very early on in the season that Mayo would not win the All-Ireland, and that the reason for it was the absence of Cillian O’Connor.
Although they did prove a lot of people wrong by defeating Dublin in the semi-final and reaching the All-Ireland final, they ultimately came up short again, as Tyrone lifted the Sam Maguire
This year Cillian O’Connor has made his return from the injury, and has been central to everything that is good about Mayo’s recent performances.
The issue is, these performances have had a lot of bad elements in them as well, as they just about scrapped past Kildare, and looked shaky at times against Monaghan.
"That's not All-Ireland winning form"
Pat Spillane talks Mayo after they made their way past Kildare and into the All-Ireland quarter-final draw #rtegaa #sundaygame
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“Mayo are there, and you don’t write them off,” he began. “But that first-half performance would worry me.
“If that was against Dublin or Kerry they would be out the gate. They are there, and they could pull another big shock against a big gun. But “I’m not going to say it..”
“They’re still not going to win an All-Ireland. They saw forwards, forwards, forwards. Against Kildare their starting six forwards got a combined total of six points from play.
“That is not All-Ireland winning form, and I will keep repeating the mantra.”
