Dearth of new forward talent is Mayo worry ahead of 2024 season

by Martin Carney, Mayo foremost GAA columnist

Football occupies so much of our time in Mayo.

I’d go as far as saying it’s an obsession that on occasions borders on the unhealthy. Analyses of games, dissection of players performances and the never-ending bitching about the internal GAA politics of the day are never far from the lips.

It’s an all-consuming passion that is central to life and straddles gender and people of all ages. But where would we be without it?

So, at a time of year when anticipation for what’s to come is balanced by reflection on what’s gone it’s appropriate to look back and review some of the events from the last 12 months.

Last January marked the changing of the guard in senior football. The appointment of a new management team headed by Kevin McStay was greeted with high levels of expectation and excitement.

Laden with great experience as a player of renown and as an All-Ireland club winning manager with Roscommon’s St. Bridget's, he never made any secret of his ambition to take the reins of the senior team in his native county.

Self-assured, organised, a shrewd analyst possessing strong views on how the game should be played, his appointment was broadly welcomed.

Admittedly, there was some surprise with the announcement that 22 others were required to complete his backroom staff but with the demands from the modern game this seemed par for the course.

Aside from the rigours of managing the playing squad, the job of keeping the constituent members working alongside himself happy must take great organisational, diplomatic and leadership skills.

Tensions in management groups are never far from the surface in any club or county team.

To the outsider everything in the Mayo camp seemed smooth during the season so it came as a surprise when his lifelong friend and brother-in-law, Liam McHale, stepped aside late in the year.

Speculation as to why it happened raged in the absence of an official announcement. Perhaps all along McHale’s playing philosophy differed from that of his fellow selectors.

Whatever it was, differences in approach appeared to widen so by year’s end he felt his position had become untenable. Not that the big boy was idle for long. His appointment as ladies team manager for the coming year will present a new and refreshing challenge.

Early success in the FBD competition with victory over Galway was a welcome start. Successive draws in the opening games of the National Football League against Galway and Armagh followed.

Reeling off four wins on the spin guaranteed a place in the National League final, despite a defeat in their closing game with Monaghan. Beating Galway by three points in the final was deeply satisfying for different reasons. A win over the old enemy at any time is worth celebrating.

Doing it in a national final in Croke Park adds some bells and whistles. ‘Sure, it’s only the league’ is a frequently trotted rejoinder when the feat is mentioned.

Yet the facts are it’s the second most important competition in the GAA calendar; it is only the third time in the last 50 years that Mayo have been on the winner's rostrum, the first since 2019; furthermore, it was a sweet turnaround from their final defeat at the hands of Kerry in 2022.

In the main though it was a result that added to McStay’s status as a manager and seemed to indicate that matters were moving in the right direction.

Despite all this positivity the title came at a price. An injury sustained by Rory Brickenden in round three ruled him out for the remainder of the year.

A vital member of Westport’s 2022 title winning side, he looked a natural fit for a defensive role. I’d go as far as saying that Mayo struggled to fill the void in the full-back line created by this setback.

Equally, injury cut short Enda Hession’s season; when he returned for championship it was exclusively as a substitute.

At a time when the county was trying to recover from Lee Keegan’s retirement and and Oisin Mullin’s departure to Australia their injuries were something the team could have done without.

The reality that Mayo had to face Roscommon in the opening round of the championship a week after the league win immediately dawned on everyone.

This was a very difficult ask. Inadequate recovery time from the rigours of the final itself alongside an unacceptably short preparatory period before the game were contributory factors in the defeat to the Rossies.

If you like, winning the league was a poisoned chalice of sorts. With a newly condensed season accommodating a greatly expanded championship fixture list, the same issue, as Mayo had this year, will become commonplace in the future for many more.

Five more championship ties followed over a six-week time frame; four of these were on the road. These were against Kerry, Louth, Cork, Galway and Dublin. The euphoria of a six-point win over Kerry in the opening game was dampened somewhat by a struggle in scraping by Louth by a point.

A defeat at the hands of Cork in Limerick had repercussions. It meant Mayo now had to face Galway the following Sunday in Salthill.

This game they duly won so Dublin was next on the menu seven days later in Croke Park. By now Mayo looked a tired team and it came as no surprise that a Dublin victory put an end to Mayo’s season.

The eventual All-Ireland champions, Dublin, fully merited their 12-point success but by then, in their fourteenth game of the season, Mayo were a shadow of their former selves.

Over the course of the season McStay gave game time to a total of 34 players. It would be wrong not to recognise the parts played by Jack Coyne, Stephen Coen, Matthew Ruane, Jack Carney, Ryan O’Donoghue, Aidan O’Shea and Jordan Flynn who played a part in each and every league and championship game. Indeed, Flynn alone had the distinction of starting every one of them.

Another notable milestone saw Jason Doherty and Kevin McLoughlin make their final appearances for the county when they came on as substitutes against Dublin. Few, if any, gave as much to the cause over an extended period as this pair. They deserve our gratitude.

Robbie Hennelly donned the number 1 shirt for the last time in a league game against Monaghan while Brendan Harrison stepped aside in recent weeks. All four were central to memorable days over the last 12 years or more.

Most of the new faces introduced by McStay were in defence or midfield. Jack Coyne took little time to settle in the full-back line while Bob Tuohy gave a glimpse of his immense potential at midfield during his few appearances.

The only new attacking players to make the squad for the first time were Ballina’s Conor McStay and Frank Irwin. Their displays in the coming year will be closely monitored to see if they have a future in the county game or not.

The dearth of newly emerging forward talent is a worry. Even during the year deficiencies in the attacking sector were clear. Of a total of 12 goals scored only three were registered over the course of their six championship games.

On the basis of their league win alone the season was a qualified success. Management will have learned a lot about the players at their disposal.

Strengths and weaknesses and positions where changes are needed are now more apparent to all.

Mayo supporters are a race that demand a lot and have become used to the highest performance standards in recent times.

Seeing that these are maintained and improved will be what McStay is judged by in year two.