An All-Ireland final that defied logic on a damp day in Croker

Dublin 2-09 Mayo 0-15

Sometimes this whole thing is just chaos. Sorry. This All-Ireland final defied logic in so many different ways that to pretend to be able to explain it in a some-way cogent manner would be the football equivalent of chin-stroking your way through a particularly dense David Lynch film. There is decent a chance that anyone who says they understood everything that went on here might just be bluffing a small bit.

These are some facts from the game, none of which we could have plausibly imagined beforehand. No Dublin player scored inside the opening half an hour. Mayo walked in not one but two own goals in the first half to go in at the break five points behind. Dublin didn’t score for 15 minutes after the restart and still didn’t fall behind.

Mayo were three points down in the 69th minute and still got out with a draw. The clock read 79:00 when Conor Lane’s full-time whistle finally called a halt to it all and sent us back out into the real world again. Oh, and the floodlights were on in Croke Park at four o’clock in the afternoon. Through-the-looking glass stuff.

This was an extraordinary All-Ireland final, the first to be drawn in 16 years. The persistent drizzle in Dublin through the early afternoon greased up the pitch and turned the game into a roller derby at times. It seemed to affect the Dublin players far more than those from Mayo – Jim Gavin’s side only scored five points from play all afternoon.

For all that, the regrets here must be Mayo’s. In a game where they were by a distance the better side, they never once led after Kevin McLoughlin’s own goal in the ninth minute. Outside of a handful of Dublin players like John Small, Brian Fenton and Paddy Andrews, the champions woefully underperformed. And still Mayo couldn’t put them away.

Granted, the slapstick concession of two own goals in the opening 20 minutes was always going to be difficult to overcome. Freakish or not, both were poor goals to concede. For the first, Brian Fenton got in behind the Mayo cover through nothing more complicated than a one-two of handpasses with Michael Darragh Macauley.

Fenton was through on goal and though his low shot was saved by David Clarke. Bernard Brogan swivelled to prod the ball at the goal but his shot was scuffed and heading wide before McLoughlin stuck out a boot to divert it in. A desperately unlucky result but pretty much what the systems failure deserved.

Ditto with Colm Boyle’s own goal 11 minutes later. Dean Rock stole in behind Boyle on the edge of the square as Diarmuid Connolly stood over a free. By the time Boyle realised it, Connolly was delivering a laser-guided ball right to Rock’s chest. In the wet conditions, the ball squirted out of Rock's hand and right onto Boyle’s instep. Nothing the Mayo centre-back could do – but the mistake was losing Rock in the first place.

Dublin grew visibly as the half went on. A terrible black card decision removed James McCarthy from the action soon after but it actually worked to Dublin’s favour in that Paddy Andrews scored two rapid-fire points off the bench. Rock, who was otherwise having an awful day from frees, kicked a settler just before the break to send Dublin in 2-4 to 0-5 ahead.

And yet, and yet. Even if this Mayo team never wins an All-Ireland, their resilience will live on in the memory of everyone who has watched them. They emerged with guns in both hands and started unloading at will. Andy Moran kicked an excellent point, ditto Patrick Durcan.

Diarmuid O’Connor attacked the next kick-out and sent Cillian O’Connor away for a third. A couple of frees from the elder O’Connor soon after and the five-point gap was zapped with only 46 minutes gone.

It was a cracking game now. Mayo couldn’t get ahead, however, and when Small pounced on an intercept to send Fenton away for a point, Dublin looked to have weathered the storm. Rock kicked a neat point after good work from Andrews and Macauley to put them 2-6 to 0-10 up on 52 minutes.

Back came Mayo. Moran sliced a goal chance over the bar with only Stephen Cluxton to beat. Alan Dillon came off the bench to level it as the clock turned 63. They were the better team but it looked for all the world like it wasn’t going to be enough, all the more so when the excellent Small bombed forward for a point of his own.

Dublin squeezed up and Mayo couldn’t get out. Rock potted a free, Connolly scored his only point of the day when a Clarke kick-out hit him on the back. Dublin were three clear, dogging it out like champions.

But Mayo wouldn’t die. O’Connor chipped a handy free, Donie Vaughan came up with a hero’s effort to close the gap to one. Seven minutes of stoppage-time. Plenty left. Connolly tried to add the grace note with a shot from a sideline ball but it dropped wide.

And from the kick-out Mayo worked it through Tom Parsons and Aidan O’Shea to Cillian O’Connor and the Mayo captain jinked inside Darren Daly to split the posts from 40 metres. All square, all over.

Madness.

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; P McMahon, J Cooper, D Byrne; J McCarthy, C O'Sulivan, J Small (0-1); B Fenton (0-1), MD Macauley; R Flynn, K McManamon, C Kilkenny; D Rock (0-4, 0-3 frees), D Connolly (0-1) B Brogan.

Subs: P Andrews (0-2) for McCarthy (black card), 24 mins; P Mannion for McManamon 47 mins; M Fitzsimons for Macauley 53 mins; E O'Gara for Brogan 62 mins; D Daly for Byrne 66 mins; D Bastick for Flynn, 74 mins; C Loftus for Regan, 79 mins.

MAYO: D Clarke; B Harrision, D Vaughan (0-2), K Higgins; L Keegan, C Boyle (1-0 og), P Durcan (0-1); S O'Shea, T Parsons (0-1); K McLoughlin (1-0 og), A O'Shea, D O'Connor; J Doherty (0-1), A Moran (0-2), C O'Connor (0-7, 0-5 frees).

Subs: A Dillon (0-1) for S O'Shea 54 mins; C Barrett for Boyle 58 mins; B Moran for Dillon 67 mins; S Coen for D O'Connor 67 mins; E Regan for A Moran 71; C Loftus for Regan, 76 mins.

Referee: Conor Lane (Cork).