Kevin McStay's Mayo notebook would make interesting reading now

by John Melvin

THE notebook of new Mayo manager, Kevin McStay, could make for interesting reading if one could get their hands on it.

McStay and his fellow selectors benefited from the split season in football, which was tried in earnest for the first time last year and seems on current popular opinion to have been a huge success from a club point of view.

Squeezing the inter-county championship into a shortened period has not quite got the the full support of the GAA fraternity but I have a feeling the new system is here to stay.

The new season certainly provided the Mayo manager with plenty of time to assess some of the players that are likely to be given a run in the Mayo panel for the season ahead.

On the club scene, the names that keep coming up on a regular basis include Conor McStay, nephew of new Mayo manager Kevin McStay and not unlike the Mayo legend in terms of his style as a tenacious forward, while Dylan Thornton, Frank Irwin and Mike Murray, all Ballina Stephenites, make my short list as players who should be given a chance at least, and there are no doubt many others who will have come to the attention of the new manager.

Yet if you were to pick the top senior player of the year, I think the accolade should be shared by Lee Keegan (Westport) and Padraig O’Hora (Ballina Stephenites), with Evan Regan of the Stephenites not far behind.

Of the younger players to surface, Ethan Gibbons was certainly the talk of the town in Castlebar following two massive back-to-back performances for Castlebar Mitchels in the championship.

He is a son of Russell Gibbons, who also donned the Mitchels colours for many tears, and a grandson of the late Joe Gibbons, who had a distinguished career with the Mitchels.

Sean Morahan, Bob Tuohy, Paddy Heneghan and Donnacha McHugh (already a member of the panel) were other young players to catch the eye on that Castlebar team, who were hit by a late goal in a dramatic ending to the county senior championship semi-final against Westport.

The county champions, of course, also produced some big performances before they finally got a hold of their first ever title and the return of Cillian Kilkelly, son of former Castlebar Mitchels and Mayo player Brian Kilkelly, played a huge part in getting his team into the final.

Brian McDermott was arguably Westport’s most consistent defender during the year but I expect we will see a few of this Westport panel back on the Mayo scene in 2023, Mark Moran among the players who has a lot of potential, Conal Dawson another to catch the eye.

The players who also drew my attention were not confined to the senior championship and I think many of them are already in Kevin McStay’s notebook ahead of the FBD League and National League, which are just around the corner.

Ballyhaunis had star performances in top forward Jarlath Carney and full-back Jack Coyne, the latter looking a serious prospect at just 20 years of age, and they proved to be the leading lights in bringing the club that intermediate title and a return to senior championship football.

Further down the line we had the team which really set the 2022 scene alight – Kilmeena.

What a year they had in winning an All-Ireland junior title by beating the Kerry champions Gneeveguilla in extra-time and then reaching the Mayo intermediate final the same year before losing to Ballyhaunis in the final.

And then there was Islandeady, who were crowned junior A champions and the man who had a huge role to play in that victory was their goalkeeper Bryan O’Flaherty, while Brendan Gibbons certainly had his shotting boots with him.

On the sidelines, it was a fitting that a man who had made four attempts, twice as a player, should end up finally laying claim to the Moclair Cup.

If ever the adage try and try again applied, it is to the Westport manager Martin Connolly who brought the side to their first senior title.

Martin’s dogma is to succeed you first have to fail, although failure is a tough way to see as it wasn’t for the want of trying that he came up short more than once.