Glenhest Rovers ready for another Super League battle
MAYO SUPER LEAGUE PREVIEW
A NARROW escape from relegation last season leaves Glenhest Rovers even more determined than ever to improve their situation and remain in Mayo’s top division for the foreseeable future, writes Cian McNicholas.
Four points was all that separated the Rovers from the bottom two last season, but it was the west Mayo men’s grit and resilience that saw them retain their status for yet another season.
Speaking to Glenhest Rovers manager Stephen McLoughlin at the Mayo Football League launch night in TF Royal Hotel, the aim very much stays the same.
“The most obvious aim is the same again - to retain our status in the league, that’s the overall goal of the club. We have things we would like to work on from last year, one of them would be to get more of a stable home form. We hope that can be a platform to work off and build on,” said McLoughlin.
REFLECTION
The winter months gave clubs a chance to reset, rewind and reflect on the season just gone, and most importantly identify where the team has gone right and where the club has gone wrong.
“There was a combination of things. We could have been better at home. I think there certainly were some key games that didn’t go our way that we would have targeted to get better results in. Also, how our squad can be different week-to-week, so it’s about trying to get as much consistency as we can.
“But definitely as we are getting later into the season and the GAA starts to ramp up more players start to feel pressured to go off and play with their clubs. And it is hard then to field a consistent starting eleven,” McLoughlin told The Connaught Telegraph.
A big ploy of many clubs across the county is the integration of youth for the season ahead. This is a big part of Rovers’ plans for the season ahead too and in Ciaran McCormack’s case, he sees it as a ‘positive’ change for the team.
“We as players are looking forward to getting some of the younger players into the squad. It is great to a bit of youth coming into the team and I suppose it is down to us older members to integrate them, bring them on and get them up to speed as quickly as possible in the super league,” he said.
“I think it boosts everything around the squad, not only morale but you get the youthful energy into the team as well. Some of us are on the wrong side of 30 so the legs aren’t what they were maybe five or six years ago, but it is great to have them.”
McCormack’s views were echoed by his manager and hopes to boost his starting side and squad with a few more of their young players coming through.
“Just what Ciaran said there is a youthfulness and an energy that they bring in but you can’t be reliant on the same core of lads season-in, season-out.
“You always have to be looking to integrate one or two lads into your starting 11 and then maybe two or three into your bench as well, so that’s where we are heading towards - to lean less on the core that we would have lent on for the last five or six years and try and develop more lads into the squad and have them as the formation of the team going forward,” concluded the Rovers boss.