Who said that the Connacht championship is becoming meaningless?

I’ll admit, this writer did last week.

In fact, I exchanged messages with a friend shortly before throw-in where we agreed the game felt slightly meaningless but was also one we wanted to win.

I was wrong.

Because three days later, there is still such a huge sense of frustration over the result.

Admittedly, it’s far from the end of the championship for Mayo.

And in two weeks time, should they beat Cavan and Galway lose to Derry, maybe Sunday will be an afterthought.

But it brought some serious concerns to the surface.

After watching the game back on Monday evening to try and make more sense of it, there are a few takeaways to consider.

The ‘Mayo Roar’ is hibernating

Kevin McStay did his best to rouse the supporters for last Sunday’s game, but his rallying call fell on deaf ears.

The travelling support was well outnumbered by Galway fans and it was clear to see and hear.

Witnessing the huge home support on the pitch afterwards was akin to the scenes that McStay and his comms team would only love.

However, the only thing that will wake the hibernating cohort of the Mayo supporters is the hard currency of good performances and the smell of sweet success over the likes of Galway.

Mayo lack both right now.

Low-risk approach isn’t paying dividends

It’s hard to draw a direct correlation between the decline in support and Mayo’s style of football right now, but it certainly isn’t helping it.

The team’s passive, low-risk style isn’t catching the imagination of the county and it has come under serious fire since Sunday.

My frustration lies at the lack of direct ball that Mayo are willing to kick into the full-forward line and the slowness of their build-up.

The odd occasion we managed to isolate Tommy Conroy with quick delivery, he did well, O’Donoghue too.

It also begs the question as to what exactly is Aidan O’Shea’s role at full-forward?

The Breaffy man is arguably the best ball winner on the team, yet all he receives are looping handpasses that, when he gathers, has his back to goal way outside the scoring zone.

Galway played with some abandonment on Sunday with Damien Comer and they made hay. Any time they won a ball on the break, it was head down and deliver.

There wasn’t an instilled notion to slow it down and retain possession.

Furthermore, when we needed a target man in midfield to win some kick-outs, Aidan was sitting in the stands.

McBrien must be feeling disillusioned

It was a seriously tough day at the office for David McBrien.

But no full-back in the country would have played well with the cards he was dealt.

A rampaging bull in Damien Comer who was given an acre of space to do damage.

And that he did.

It was bizarre that the Ballaghaderreen man wasn’t given cover to try and tie down the sensational Comer in the first half.

McBrien is, by a distance, the best full-back in this county.

It’s a position we have struggled to fill for years.

Yet he is finding himself being handed a different job, playing out of position every week, which must be incredibly frustrating.

The defence should be built around him at no.3 and until it is, Mayo will have issues.

Poor refereeing decisions

David Gough had a poor game on Sunday.

Saying so is not ‘being a sore loser’ or deflecting from the fact Mayo had done more than enough to win that game anyway.

But we should be able to constructively criticise a refereeing performance like we do players and managers.

The Meath man was poor for both teams.

He made a mistake in not allowing Sean Kelly’s quick free to Damien Comer and his decision to give a hop-ball for a free not taken in the right position was technically correct but extremely harsh.

He would have been aware of this too.

And I felt this fed into his psyche when awarding an incorrect free against Tommy Conroy right in front of the Mayo posts.

While Johnny Maher made absolutely zero attempt to pull his hand out of the tackle against Conor Loftus at the death, which resulted in Gleeson’s late score.

Another wrong call.

Ruane and Conroy returning to form

We’ll finish on some positives.

Tommy Conroy looked back to his old self on Sunday.

The Neale player wanted to attack his man at every go made some really piercing runs into the Galway defence.

Likewise, a three-point return for Mattie Ruane was great to see.

The Breaffy man was Mayo’s best player on the day and we need to see him push on if Mayo are to have a crack at a run into the knock-out stages.