Finding consistent Mayo forwards is Kevin McStay's biggest task

by Martin Carney, Mayo's foremost GAA columnist

AS we await the opening round of the Allianz National Football League tomorrow week, it’s as good a time as any to conduct a pre-season examination on where Mayo football finds itself just now.

Changes – by this I mean changes in playing personnel over the past 12 years – have been occasional and undramatic.

By and large the core panel that shouldered the burden of the 2012 All- Ireland final defeat to Donegal remained the nucleus up to the last year or two. Since the loss to Tyrone in 2021 the rate of slippage has accelerated, stripping the squad of some of its best ever players.

The departure of Kevin McLoughlin, Jason Doherty and Brendan Harrison in recent weeks has removed another layer of their most experienced. As a consequence, the race to find new talent has assumed much greater importance.

Though the recent defeat to London was a shock, it nevertheless gave management an opportunity to see how the newcomers would respond to wearing the jersey for the first time.

Yes, the team was understrength and experimental, but the defeat to a Division 4 team was disappointing.

Aside from the result, what was particularly sobering for all Mayo followers is that the displays of most of the newly selected talent didn’t reach the performance levels hoped for. Based on the evidence presented, many of the new faces aren’t primed and ready just yet.

Kevin McStay made the right call by giving debuts to nine newcomers. However, with the exception of just one or two, the others found the going tough.

All of those trialled had shone for their clubs in the recent championship and by virtue of this, they deservedly earned their shot for inclusion.

Yet the manager was correctly blunt in his post-match comments when he implied that there are limits to the chances newcomers are afforded.

He added that when occasions like this arise, it is up to the selected player to make the most of his opportunity.

Not alone did McStay's comments resonate a personal sense of frustration, but they echoed what was universally felt on the day.

Aside from the defeat itself, depriving the team of a game with Roscommon in the FBD semi-final left a void. This, I gather, was filled at the weekend by a challenge game against Armagh.

The search to identify new blood with a view to refreshing a squad is a never-ending and difficult task. Starring with club is the accepted pathway.

Today’s club star, though, often finds transition to the county scene more daunting than he imagined.

For openers, if for this reason alone, the time demanded nowadays is on a scale that not all can commit to.

Nonetheless, newly identified players blessed with good attitudes can reinvigorate squads with their enthusiasm.

Possessing fresh outlooks, different skill sets and seeing the game played in a different way can often provoke a positive rethink and re-set the bar for all concerned.

At the moment Mayo has a high percentage of competitive, athletic players who are a match for allcomers. Indeed, from the teams who played Galway and Dublin in their last two championship games of 2023, all remain available for selection this year.

Athletically, none of these will be found wanting; physically they will be a match for most and attitude-wise they rank among the best.

Yet the quest to find that talented clutch of newcomers in the forward line to complement what is already there remains ongoing and never-ending.

It is in this department more than any other that the need to unearth new blood is greatest.

At the moment it looks that for their opening game of the league, Kevin McStay will select an attack from a list containing Diarmuid O’Connor, Aidan O’Shea, Tommy Conroy, Ryan O’Donoghue, Jack Carney, James Carr, Eoghan McLaughlin and Cillian O’Connor.

Conor McStay, Conor O’Shea, Aidan Orme, Paul Towey, Fergal Boland and Evan Regan are rumoured to be on the panel.

With the exception of McStay, all the aforementioned at one time or another have over the last few years seen action in championship football.

Ballina’s McStay got game time last year and the hope is that the experience gained will act to his advantage this coming year.

Frank Irwin had his moments during Ballina’s successful championship run but, beyond these, have any other forwards caught the imagination and heralded their worth?

Has the recent championship unearthed new faces that possess what it takes to put pressure on the incumbents? From what I’ve seen, the answer is no.

It’s the age-old problem in the county: Why aren’t Mayo producing forwards of the required calibre and quality to be ranked among the best?

There is a train of thought inclined to the view that the required instincts and skills necessary for forwards to thrive in attack aren’t given space in the modern game.

The pressure to conform with prearranged playing systems – in particular having an active role in the modern day ultra defensive formations – extinguishes some of the attacking spark demanded from a forward.

Outside of Ryan O’Donoghue, Tommy Conroy and the wonderful Cillian O’Connor, where is the new batch of guaranteed score-getters?

The Ballintubber man cannot go on indefinitely. In 2022, after missing all the league, he scored one goal and 15 points in his three championship appearances. From Mayo’s total of 14 games last year, a single start complemented seven substitute appearances.

It’s quite clear from these figures that his starting appearances are getting fewer as the increase in injuries mount.

Mayo supporters cannot expect the same return this year from one who has given so much. Hence, the immediate need to identify, groom and integrate new faces to share his workload and broaden the attacking base was never greater.

As I see it, therein lies one of the many tasks that are vital to the present and immediate future of Mayo football – unearthing new and dependable scoring forwards.

What’s new, I hear you say! Nothing indeed. But yet without discovering a cohort of new attacking talent capable of adding ballast to what is already there, the problems will remain and multiply.

Trying to find these will remain one of Kevin McStay’s biggest tasks in the coming year.