Louth have the attacking game to potentially exploit Mayo’s high-risk defensive approach, according to Ciaran Whelan.<\/p>\n
Two months after shipping a borderline humiliating defeat to Roscommon in the Connacht championship, Mayo have recovered sufficiently to reach a first All-Ireland semi-final in five years.<\/p>\n
Now, they’re 70 minutes away from yet another All-Ireland final appearance, in Andy Moran’s first season in charge.<\/p>\n
Their defence had been pegged as a glaring weakness after the loss to Roscommon and they continued to look vulnerable even in the wins over Monaghan – when they allowed numerous goal opportunities in the second half – and against Meath – who plundered two goals in the first half.<\/p>\n
However, things were much improved against Cork, as they successfully quietened the inside forward pairing of Chris \u00d3g Jones and Steven Sherlock.<\/p>\n
But Whelan believes that was much due to Cork’s failings as anything else.<\/p>\n
“While Mayo deserved to win at the weekend, I thought at times in the first half, they were very, very shaky,” the former Dublin midfielder said on the RT\u00c9 GAA podcast.<\/p>\n
“Mayo still play a high-risk game. A lot of teams do. Your scramble defence has to be really good.<\/p>\n
“Some teams still go with that deep zonal approach. They’ve four or five on the arc, handing forwards off, and they’re trying to protect that area.<\/p>\n
“Mayo are still very much man-to-man. And they hope they can get a double-up when it matters.<\/p>\n
“I thought in the first half, there were times that they looked very open.<\/p>\n
“I was amazed Cork didn’t really go at them or try to expose them in any great way. Cork did get in and missed a lot of chances in the first half. But I thought they could have been a lot more direct.<\/p>\n
“I thought the second half was much better [from Mayo]. They nailed Chris \u00d3g Jones, they stopped [Steven] Sherlock.<\/p>\n
“They got their match-ups right and they had a very good scramble defence.<\/p>\n
“But it’s very high risk. And when you look at the Louth team, they probably have a little bit more offensive threat.”<\/p>\n
During their push for an All-Ireland title in the 2010s, Mayo’s ultimate weakness was perceived to be in the forwards, while their half-back line and defenders were deemed a source of strength.<\/p>\n
This has flipped in 2026, with their full-forward suddenly the most vaunted element of their team, with the attacking trident of Ryan O’Donoghue, Kobe McDonald and Darragh Beirne contributing 0-19, the bulk of which came from play, last Saturday.<\/p>\n
However, according to former Offaly attacker Nigel Dunne, the current Mayo side have inherited their immediate predecessor’s penchant for high-octane football.<\/p>\n
\n
Listen to the RT\u00c9 GAA Podcast on the RT\u00c9 Radio Player, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>, and email us at sportpodcasts@rte.ie<\/p>\n “Mayo will want a game of ping-pong, not a game of chess. And Louth know that and they can set the terms of engagement,” Dunne said.<\/p>\n “If it turns into a game of phased attacks, I think they could be in trouble. They lack patience, they want it to be gung-ho.<\/p>\n “They historically have and this team is no different.<\/p>\n “They got good bang for their buck out of their full-forward line at the weekend. They got 0-13 from play, whereas Cork only got three or four.<\/p>\n “It’s high risk but when it goes well, the rewards can be brilliant. I’m not saying they can’t beat Louth – of course they can. I just have a sneaky feeling for Louth and I’m not quite sure why.”<\/p>\n While still concerned about their defensive approach, Whelan does stress that Mayo’s midfield have the form to match up better against Louth than Monaghan did last weekend.<\/p>\n “The two lads, Darragh Beirne and Kobe [McDonald] have added that X-factor. Jack Carney is in good form, Jordan Flynn is in good form. They need to get Matty Ruane back on the field.<\/p>\n “You look at that area of midfield and Dara McDonnell’s dominance [against Monaghan] and Louth got a lot of scores off first phase from winning ball in midfield.<\/p>\n “And Mayo’s midfielders are going well enough so they can definitely compete in that area. So if they can stifle Louth a small bit and win their fair share of possession to get it into the two lads [McDonald and Beirne] that’ll definitely help them.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Louth have the attacking game to potentially exploit Mayo’s high-risk defensive approach, according to Ciaran Whelan. Two months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-528585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}