Boyle concerned by Mayo injury issues ahead of Galway clash
FORMER Mayo defender Colm Boyle has admitted the injury list piling up on James Horan for Mayo is giving him more worries than their heavy Division 1 final defeat to Kerry.
Jack O'Connor's men blew Mayo away in Croke Park earlier this month in what was a disappointing display for the Green and Red.
Worse still, Horan saw his injury list grow ever longer as Jordan Flynn was forced off with injury and is expected to miss the Connacht quarterfinal match with Galway this Sunday at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar.
Speaking at the RTÉ GAA championship coverage launch, Boyle – who hung up his inter-county boots in November with four All-Stars, six Connacht medals and six All-Ireland final appearances – said his main concern for Mayo is the number of players who are in a race against time to be fit for this weekend.
"I was more worried about how the next three weeks would go in preparation for Galway with so many injuries," he admitted.
"I think that was my major concern, because the way that Mayo set up against Kerry and how much they were overran in the middle third, normally we are so strong there. When I sat down and thought about it, and thought about the players that were missing – Oisín Mullin, Paddy Durcan, Diarmuid O’Connor, those three especially – and Jordan Flynn is obviously an injury doubt as well now.
"Kerry really overran Mayo in that middle third and when you get those four or five players back eventually Mayo will be very different around that sector. The injuries are more of a concern for me at the minute. Who is going to be available for Galway and what level of training will they have done up to that?"
With Cillian O’Connor only returning from a long-term Achilles tendon injury and Tommy Conroy ruled out for 2022, the burden of scoring responsibility has fallen on Ryan O’Donoghue, though Paddy Durcan and the midfield pairing of Matthew Ruane and Jordan Flynn normally chip in with a few scores.
Mayo’s weak point in many respects has been an inability to punish teams up front, but Boyle did take two positive from the sobering Kerry defeat.
He said: "James Carr in the first half looked not maybe back to his best, but looking a small bit sharper. He had a lot of injuries over the last couple of years. He obviously made the breakthrough in 2019 with Galway and has suffered really bad with injuries and has been in and out of the team since.
"He is probably the closest player to Tommy Conroy in that he has a small bit of power and pace. He is very direct, he takes on his man when he wins the ball. He took on Jason Foley (in the league final) a couple of times and kicked two points.
"The second positive was Cillian (O'Connor) getting back and getting 20 minutes into the legs after the horrific injury he suffered last May, which is probably one of the worst injuries you can get as a footballer. Hopefully the last couple of weeks have gone well for him and another couple of weeks into the legs and a 20/25-minute appearance against Galway, coming on in a huge game for Mayo, if he can get that, it would certainly be a huge boost for the Mayo forward line going forward."
'OFFENSIVE' MARK
This championship marks (pun intended) the third year of the advanced mark, which gives a player a free when catching a 20-metre kick pass that crosses the 45-metre line. Boyle wasn't a fan when it was introduced and his feelings haven't changed.
The Davitts man explained: "My thoughts on the advanced mark have been very clear from the start. I don’t like it. I never have. I don’t think it adds much at all to the game. How long is it now? Third year? Can anyone really think of any one outstanding mark or moment of brilliance from a mark? When it was brought in, everyone was thinking it was going to lead to a lot more kicking and high-fielding, especially in the full-forward line. I don’t think it has, really. I think of the marks I’ve seen – they’ve been of what I call the handy variety where they’re in loads of space anyway and the ball is just put into their chest with a 30-yard pass.
"I don’t think it adds anything to the game. If anything, I think it slows the game down a small bit more. What it does too is it gives you a chance to set up. So if you are the forward and you take the mark, you’re taking every bit of that 15 seconds, even going over to 20 seconds, so all your team can get pushed up the pitch and you’ve boys from the back pushing up and it becomes a set-play kick-out like it would be from a normal free kick-out.
"I don’t think it adds absolutely anything to the game and whatever about inter-county level, certainly at club level because it’s so hard to officiate. If you’re asking a club referee, who is basically on his own, to try and adjudicate whether it’s a mark, whether it’s a 20-metre kick, whether it was kicked outside the 45, it’s really hard for any referee to adjudicate that."