LONG before the final whistle sounded under the floodlights and the drizzle at Croke Park on Saturday evening, there was a climactic sense.
Following their 2-13 to 0-11 win over Donegal, Mayo can now plan ahead to an All-Ireland semi-final against Dublin in three weeks time. For Donegal, it was a case of quietly slipping out the back door of the party before it gets into full swing.
There’s never a good time to let in a goal but Donegal conceded goals at especially bad times on Saturday – right at the end of one half when Aidan O’Shea netted at the Davin End and then at the start of the other when Lee Keegan looped over Paul Durcan in front of Hill 16.
At 0-8 to 0-7 down as the clock ticked from black to red, Donegal’s position wasn’t unsatisfactory. O’Shea, scorer of 3-4 in the Connacht final against Sligo, had been sounding the occasional warning shot and his personal dual was Neil McGee was perhaps the most interesting of a myriad of match-ups.
The Donegal full-back had been giving as good as he was getting but we later learned of a hamstring injury and he was also the recipient of a heavy enough hit from Durcan, who did what a goalkeeper should do in those situations – take man and ball. Nobody will ever know if those were telling factors in O’Shea’s goal but it’s fair to give the Mayo talisman the benefit of doubt.
Keegan’s goal might’ve possessed a streak of luck in its execution but the wing-back- arguably the best player on the pitch – had shown his proficiency to pop up into dangerous positions in the first half, having scored Mayo’s opening two points.
The seven-point advantage meant Mayo had something worth holding onto. With Barry Moran playing a rather unorthodox yet completely effective role sweeping in front of Michael Murphy and Ger Cafferkey, Mayo also had another man of stature to assist Tom Parsons and Seamus O’Shea at centre-field when the need arose.
The contest petered out, with Murphy scoring all but three points of Donegal’s total in an effective shift at full-forward. Mayo were content to keep their sheet clean as means to success; it was almost a role-reversal from the 2012 All-Ireland final when it was Donegal who had seized the initiative first and then had something to hold onto.
There was a lot of talk in the immediate aftermath of possible retirements and the end of an era. For now, those  conversations will be topical and Rory Gallagher, the Donegal manager, will probably be getting a call or two as the evenings shorten.
Privately some of the more experienced players will have made up their minds and those thoughts will become words in the coming weeks and months. Time will certainly tell.
But there are sprinklings for optimism. Life is full of ifs, buts and maybes but Donegal have reached the last three Ulster under-21 finals and come within a whisker of winning two of them. There’s also the back-to-back Ulster Minor League winning panels, of which the 2014 version reached the All-Ireland final having lifted the provincial crown on the way.
There might be a transitional period but when Jim McGuinness and Gallagher took Donegal to Sam Maguire in 2012, they did it with a panel of players who had largely won nothing, barring the infusion of the 2006 minors and 2010 under-21 sides who had won their respective Ulsters.
There’s no reason to lose hope. Look at Mayo, who haven’t won an All-Ireland since 1951 yet its people still follow their side with fervency, passion and colour.
Perhaps, on reflection for Donegal, Saturday wasn’t the disappointment. It was the closeness Gallagher’s team came to winning a fourth Ulster SFC in five seasons. Following an arduous journey that saw Donegal defeat Tyrone, Armagh and Derry, the performance in the provincial final against Monaghan was short of their best but was still almost enough to gain at least a draw. Monaghan won 0-11 to 0-10 and Donegal kicked 16 wides.
In many ways, the rough and tumble of Ulster might’ve caught up with Donegal, although that’s not an excuse to discredit Mayo on their victory on Saturday. There are suggestions aplenty as to how to restructure the overall championship and create a more level playing field, but for now you deal with the cards you are dealt.
And as difficult as the level of competition may be, counties in this part of the country revere the Ulster championship.
Overall, Donegal’s season wasn’t a bad one. Consolidation in Division One and a first league semi-final since 2007, an Ulster final spot and progression to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
It wasn’t that long ago that the vast majority of Donegal supporters of a certain vintage would consider an appearance in Croke Park in and around the August Bank Holiday weekend as the barometer for a decent campaign.
The reason that there’s an increased expectation now is a consequence of the sharp progress football in the county has made over the last five years.
That, in turn, is because of the commitment of a group of players who are Donegal’s most successful ever and taken us to places we never would’ve expected.
Regardless of what happened on Saturday or what might occur in the coming weeks as some of those players ponder their futures, that’s something that should never be forgotten.
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