Feature – Morrison and Mayo: Twenty years on

Patrick Morrison recalls his father’s time in charge of Mayo ahead of the All-Ireland final showdown. Shaun Casey writes…

TWENTY years is a long time in sport, but as the saying goes, the more things change, the more things stay the same.

For one thing, Mayo are still chasing their long-awaited dream of becoming All-Ireland champions. 20 years on, it’s the aristocrats of Gaelic Football, Kerry, who once again stand in their way.

Let’s take a look at other similarities. Two decades ago, Jack O’Connor was the man leading the charge for the Kingdom and he’s back in the bainisteoir bib again.

Kieran Donaghy, who scored a goal in that ’06 final and collected the Footballer of the Year award at the end of the season, is part of O’Connor’s management team.

Andy Moran, now in his first season in charge of his native county Mayo, rattled the net against Dublin in that year’s frantic semi-final and came off the bench in the decider as well.

Patrick Morrison: Critical non-essentials

The star man in that Mayo attack was Ciaran McDonald, an All-Star in 2004 when they also lost the All-Ireland final to Kerry. His 18-year-old son, Kobe, is now the big name in the Mayo forward line.

Tyrone’s Paddy Tally is a member of Moran’s backroom team, while in 2006, two Ulster natives, Mickey Moran and John Morrison, were the men in charge of the Westerners.

“Stevie Poacher does a coaching day every year at the school (St Joseph’s High School, Newry) and the very first year that he done it, the two coaches were Mickey Moran and Daddy,” recalls Morrison’s son Paddy.

“After that, Mickey asked him if he’d fancy teaming up and from there, they got the Donegal job in 2002. They got to the Ulster final where they got beat by Armagh.

“They went on to Derry (2004) and got to the All-Ireland semi-final and were beaten by
Kerry.

“Then they went to Mayo and got them to the All-Ireland final in ’06 and then they headed to Leitrim.

“So that’s where it all started and Daddy would have actually said that Mickey Moran was like a brother to him. They were never off the phone to each other, and you wouldn’t see one without the other.

“They were the opposite sides of the same coin. One was quiet and reserved and Daddy was loud and boisterous, so they bounced off each other really well in a good cop, bad cop sort of way.”

As with ’06, Mayo are still aiming to win the All-Ireland for the first time since 1951. The famous curse has often been pointed to as the reason the men in green and red have yet to climb the steps of the Hogan Stand.

The story goes that the 1951 team, on their way home from winning the All-Ireland, failed to show proper respect to a funeral as they passed.

That prompted a priest to declare that Mayo would not win another All-Ireland title until every member of the 1951 team had died.

A master of mental preparation, Morrison set about researching the curse in preparation for the 2006 showdown.

“He left no stone unturned,” Paddy described. “He exhausted his black book trying to find where exactly the grave was. Historians, priests, clerical records, everything.

“He was a professor of geography, and he called his old school friends to track down historical records of the old land way back in the ‘50s and the more he looked, the more he couldn’t find it.

“He was always an advocate of the thought process that curses only have power over you if you give them the power. He wanted to find the grave and pay some mark of respect to try and put it to bed.

“It was so that the Mayo lads would have it in their heads that it was put to bed and paid their respects, so they would have no fear going into the final.”

While the story of the curse has surrounded most of Mayo’s dates with destiny, this year, a lot of the chat has been centred around Kobe McDonald.

Kobe time

Having just finished his final year of school, Kobe is set to move to Australia at the end of the season after signing with AFL club St Kilda as a Category B rookie.

His father Ciaran played in five All-Ireland finals, including the ’96 replay, and never got his hands on a Celtic Cross. He was a magician, however, and John Morrison enjoyed squeezing every bit of talent out of him that he could.

“There was nothing that Ciaran McDonald couldn’t do,” Morrison continued. “Daddy and Ciaran were the only two people that knew about this – every night Daddy would have a slip of paper with a set of targets on it for training, specifically for Ciaran McDonald.

“He had found that Ciaran, within training and within games, not that he found it too easy, but he needed to be challenged. He was on a different level, and I think everybody knew that.

“During an in-house match, he’d have to score 1-3, get three turnovers, two blocks and four assists for example. One of the stats men would be keeping notes and it was a wee challenge between him and Daddy every night.

“It was just to push him on because when players are on that level and are a step above everyone else, you have to find different ways to challenge them more than the others.

“It was a great way of pulling the greatness out of Ciaran individually rather than just getting him to hit the same targets as everyone else.”

In 2006, Kerry trounced their All-Ireland final opponents 4-15 to 3-5. The game was essentially over before it had even begun.

20 years on, neutral viewers will hope for a more compelling contest. Mayo won’t care how they win it if they get over the line.

Compelling

Kerry are aiming for their 40th title. Morrison expects the forwards at either end to have a big say.

“The way the game is now, the same leads that you had 20 years ago aren’t as safe now. Ten, 13, even 15 points, they are nothing nowadays with the way the game is.

“It is just a complete attacking game to the point where defence has nearly gone out of it. Defences have nearly been put into positions where they can’t defend. The 1v1s, the pace that some attacks are coming at, it’s very hard to stop them.

“For Kerry, you have the Cliffords, Paudie and David and then Seanie O’Shea. They are going to be the players that Mayo are going to have to stop.

“On Mayo’s side, they have a really deadly full forward line in Kobe, Ryan O’Donoughe and (Darragh) Beirne, who do most of their scoring and to stop all three of them will be very, very difficult and it’s the same with Kerry.

“Kerry have scorers all over the field, they have the half-forwards and the half-backs that like to chip in with points. If you sit in a low block, they’ll shoot out over you for two points, or they’ll force you to come back out and then they’ll find the gaps.

“But Mayo have very dangerous forwards and have the ability to put up big scores very quickly so that’s going to be their main threats.

“Both defences are going to be under pressure because both teams can transition very fast. Mayo tend to struggle stopping the opposition’s best forwards, they like the game to be a straight shootout.”