Painful Mayo memory should serve as motivation – Tyrone boss O’Rourke

By Barry O’Donnell

MEMORIES of last year’s bitter Championship reversal at home to Mayo should act as an effective motivational tool for Tyrone heading into this Sunday’s latest clash between the two counties, manager Malachy O’Rourke hopes.

Rewind the clock back twelve months and an apparently buoyant Tyrone were heading into the meeting with the Connacht men in Omagh on the back of an encouraging victory on the road against Jim McGuinness’ newly crowned Ulster champions Donegal at Ballybofey.

However a 70-minute Healy Park horror show by the hosts saw Mayo deservedly take the spoils in the All-Ireland series group game 2-17 to 1-13.

Renowned for their lack of consistency, Mayo themselves failed to build on that shock success as they were sent crashing out of the Sam Maguire race by Donegal next time out. However O’Rourke appreciates that on their day Andy Moran’s charges are a match for anyone.

“Unlike some other teams I suppose they have an unpredictability about them.

“You even see that at times within a game. Against Monaghan the last day they were really good in the first half and then in the second half Monaghan came back strongly at them.

“We know from the experience of playing them twice last year how dangerous they can be. They beat us in a crucial league game down there in Castlebar and then when we played them in the Championship at Healy Park they beat us well.

“There was plenty in the Roscommon game we didn’t get right, for example allowing the opposition to get their kickouts away and being more clinical when attacking, ensuring we take our chances. So we have a lot of room for improvement. Last year at home to Mayo we didn’t do it so the challenge is to redress that this year.

“Looking back at the game last year we saw how dominant they were, so we know we have an awful lot of ground to make up. There is a lot of areas we need to improve on despite the decent performance against Roscommon. That’s the challenge for us.”

While Mayo just snook past Monaghan in the end up by a solitary point last time out, O’Rourke stated that there was sufficient evidence in that performance to make him aware of the various threats they can pose to Tyrone this weekend.

“Mayo play a different type of football to Roscommon. Roscommon are very much a counter-attacking team, whereas Mayo are very direct and try and get the ball to their inside three as quick as they can.

“They use the kickpass a lot with Ryan O’Donoghue, Darragh Beirne and Kobe McDonald inside. So they are very potent up front and as well they also have that two point threat. We seen against Monaghan they got six two pointers in the first half which is high compared to most other teams standards. So they pose a different sort of threat than Roscommon did but that adds to the challenge.”

The emergence of young wonderkid McDonald has breathed new life into the Mayo set-up over the last twelve months and the Tyrone manager certainly appreciates why the ‘Kobe craze’ has taken off out west.

“In fairness to him, for a young lad he is playing with a lot of freedom and doesn’t seem fazed or let the occasion get to him. He plays with a smile on his face and looks to express himself every time he goes out onto the field.

“He’s very quick and also tall, around six foot.

“He has all the skills and is very creative. He isn’t selfish either and is well aware what is going on around him. So he is a great talent and Mayo will want to make the most of him as next year he goes away to Aussie Rules. He’s definitely a player we will have to mark very carefully.”

Reflecting back on Tyrone’s narrow victory over Roscommon at Hyde Park three weeks ago, O’Rourke feels the level of performance should give them grounds for optimism, but only if they can build on it.

“Composure was the big thing in that we did suffer a couple of setbacks, conceding a goal early on we responded well to that. The boys kept their heads and kept playing. We got the lead and were in a good position at half-time. We were still playing okay in the second half albeit we were missing a lot of chances which allowed them the opportunity to start pegging back the lead.

“They then got their second goal at a crucial time and we might have gone into our shells a bit but the lads showed that confidence and composure to keep playing. They didn’t panic or go off script.

“Again the main thing was the work rate of everybody and the way we played as a team. There was plenty of quality there but also good resilience. There was a lot of positive things that we were looking for but every day is a new day.

“You only have to look back to last year when we went down to Ballybofey and had a great victory against Donegal but the next day as I said we hosted Mayo and they beat us well. You just have to try and learn lessons from that and be ready for this challenge.”

While the losers of Sunday’s match still have their ‘get out of jail card’ to play, as they are already guaranteed a spot in Round 3, but the winners will progress straight through to the All-Ireland quarter-finals a fortnight later.

O’Rourke’s clear preference is naturally for option B.

“The preferred option would be to win and have the momentum with two weeks off to get ready for an All-Ireland quarter-final. But if it happens to be the other way you just have to refocus and get ready for whatever challenge is ahead of you. But all our focus is on trying to get a really good home performance and to get all the key elements right.”

LAST MEETING

2025 All-Ireland SFC Tyrone 1-13 Mayo 2-17

A bad day at the office for Tyrone at Omagh in last year’s All-Ireland group stages. Mayo were full value for their seven points win over a Red Hand side that showed only glimpses of the battling qualities that had seen them take full points from their visit to Donegal’s fortress Ballybofey a week earlier.

Darren McHale’s goal on the stroke of half-time, and a second from the penalty spot, netted by Ryan O’Donoghue, kept this game balanced in Mayo’s favour.

Tyrone: N Morgan (0-4, 2tpf); C Quinn, P Teague, N Devlin; M McKernan (0-1), R Brennan, K McGeary (0-1); B McDonnell (0-1), C Kilpatrick; S O’Donnell, M Donnelly (0-1), C Daly; D McCurry (0-2, 1f), M Bradley, D Canavan (1-3, 0-2f). Subs: S O’Hare for O’Donnell, L Gray for Brennan, P Harte for Bradley, R Canavan for Daly, A Donaghy for McDonnell.

Mayo: C Reape (001, ’45); J Coyne, R Brickenden (0-2), S Morahan; S Coen, D McBrien, E Hession; P Durcan (0-03), M Ruane (0-1); J Carney (0-1), D McHale (1-0), B Tuohy (0-1); A O’Shea (0-1), C Dawson (0-1), R O’Donoghue (1-6, 1-0 pen, 0-5f). Subs: J Flynn for Tuohy, D Neary for McHale, F Kelly for Dawson, F Boland for Ruane, S Callanan for Durcan

LAST FIVE MEETINGS

2025 All-Ireland SFC Tyrone 1-13 Mayo 2-17

2025 NFL Mayo 0-12 Tyrone 0-10

2024 NFL Tyrone 1-15 Mayo 1-11

2023 NFL Mayo 4-10 Tyrone 0-12

2022 NFL Tyrone 0-11 Mayo 0-9

SEASON SO FAR

TYRONE

NFL

Tyrone 2-16 Kildare 1-19

Derry 1-15 Tyrone 1-12

Tyrone 2-23 Cavan 1-14

Louth 1-15 Tyrone 0-13

Tyrone 0-28 Offaly 2-13

Meath 3-24 Tyrone 2-22

Tyrone 0-19 Cork 0-22

ULSTER C’SHIP

Armagh 1-17 Tyrone 1-16

ALL-IRELAND SFC

Tyrone 3-16 Roscommon 2-18

MAYO

NFL

Galway 2-18 Mayo 3-18

Mayo 1-18 Dublin 2-9

Donegal 1-19 Mayo 0-14

Monaghan 2-11 Mayo 2-30

Mayo 2-17 Armagh 0-22

Kerry 2-29 Mayo 0-19

Mayo 4-26 Roscommon 2-11

CONNACHT SFC

Mayo 1-18 Roscommon 2-25

ALL-IRELAND SFC

Mayo 1-24 Monaghan 2-20

TOP SCORERS

TYRONE

Ethan Jordan 2-36 (42)

Darragh Canavan 0-22

Mattie Donnelly 2-16 (0-22)

MAYO

Ryan O’Donoghue 2-56 (62)

Jordan Flynn 1-21 (24)

Kobe McDonald 2-17 (23)