There was one sequence around the half-hour that exemplified this: Coming onto the ball, booming a long ball beyond the cover for Conor McKenna to flick into McCurry for a goal chance that he snatched at and Hennelly saved at the expense of a 45 – which Morgan sent over with the help of a post. He nailed all his dead-ball attempts and the ambition of his long-range restarts was striking even if they didn’t all come off.
Morgan swooped onto anything threatening in the air, including at one stage around the centre-back position, held the ball like a quarterback and distributed it expertly. Opposite number Rob Hennelly had a mixed bag, missing a couple of frees and getting caught in no-man’s land for the first Tyrone goal. He quickly parked that and went on to play a significant role in settling the team: commanding in the air, giving the team the flexibility of a seventh defender and kicking with assurance.
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McCurry secured the TV man of the match award but there was an argument for goalkeeper Niall Morgan, who survived a ropey opening when he failed to get a kick-out beyond the 20-metre line. Kennedy’s early heroics gave way to a spectacular catch from Kilpatrick in the 59th minute to send Conor McKenna away and set up the second goal. Tyrone’s unsung pairing of Brian Kennedy and Kilpatrick won a nice bit of conventional possession in the air and had industrious afternoons, each outshining the other in either half. They were achieving a definite edge in most areas of the field, even unexpectedly as centrefield where Mayo Footballer of the Year candidate Matthew Ruane had a frustrating afternoon, culminating in an injury-time red card for striking Conn Kilpatrick, who escaped with a yellow, in a brawling confrontation. Their defence was organised and suffocating with a couple of exceptions when conceding goal chances but in both cases the defensive recovery was impressive. Tyrone led by only two at the break, 0-10 to 0-8, but the mainframe for their victory was already installed. To be fair to Mayo that clinical sense of predictability didn’t kick in until later in the match and the first half was keenly contested. Once a Darren McCurry free edged them a point ahead, 0-3 to 0-2 in the 10th minute, they never again trailed in the match.
The steadier rhythms of their play allied to an admirable economy gave the Ulster champions surprisingly swift command of a match that had begun brightly for their opponents. For all the historical portents and yearning around Mayo, the 2021 All-Ireland football title was not decided by anything more noteworthy than the better team, smartly managed, taking Sam Maguire back to Tyrone for a fourth occasion.
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