Austin O'Malley linked with task of reviving Mayo football

But is James Horan about to return for a third term?

by Aiden Henry

Speculation is mounting in regard to who will lead the Mayo senior football squad next season.

It follows the county's exit from the All-Ireland SFC series yesterday, losing by a point to Donegal in their final group on match in Roscommon.

It will be over six months before Mayo return to competitive action with the start of the national league in late January.

However, long before then I expect to see big changes in the Mayo senior set-up, with a new management team put in place.

Despite Kevin McStay having one year left on his contract, the prevailing circumstances have left the powers that be in Mayo GAA with no option but to give serious consideration to putting a new management team in place.

Despite the odd good result here and there, Mayo have dropped down the rankings further this year.

Consequently, the support for the county senior team has been dropping at a big rate and much of the blame for Mayo’s poor showing over the last number of years has been pointed at the management.

As to what direction the county board will take in getting a new manager in place is very much unknown.

However, there is already plenty of loud noises that former manager James Horan will seek to return to the hot seat for a third time.

While we don’t know how loud these noises are ringing in the ears of the hierarchy of Mayo County Board, we can be sure Horan will have plenty of supporters.

Yet, there will also be plenty who may well feel that bringing back Horan for a third time may not be the right choice in that he also failed to get Mayo across the line in landing the big prize on a few occasions.

Indeed, the general feeling is that Mayo now needs a fresh face and a new voice on the sideline.

With that in mind two former players, Austin O’Malley and Andy Moran, are seen as two leading candidates to take over the reins.

With regard to O’Malley, he proved his credentials for the top job by leading Dublin club Cuala to All-Ireland senior club success earlier this year.

It was regarded as a magnificent achievement by the Louisburgh native and one that earmarked him as a leading contender when the Mayo senior position came around.

When Monaghan appointed Gabriel Bannigan as their new senior manager for the 2025 season, he brought former Mayo star Andy Moran on board to assist him.

Moran, who had just stepped away as manager of the Leitrim team where he guided them to win promotion to the third division of the national league, has worked really well with Bannigan where they transformed Monaghan into serious contenders to win the Sam Maguire.

Like O’Malley, Moran is now seen as a future manager of the Mayo senior team.

However, if and when the position of a new senior manager comes up, we can be sure there will be a few more names added to the three referenced.

For now, the Mayo supporters will have all eyes on the county board as to what steps they will be taking to address the issue of improving the fortunes of the Mayo senior team.

While most Mayo supporters feel that McStay and his team have failed as a unit (during their three years have not won a Connaught title and have gone from qualifying for the All-Ireland quarterfinals in 2023, to failing to get beyond the All-Ireland preliminary quarterfinals in 2024 and now the all-time low this year of not getting out of the group stages), many see the Mayo GAA hierarchy as part of the problem as well.

There is a firm school of thought that the county board should have taken action at the end of the 2024 season when rumblings were circulating at a huge rate that all was not well in the Mayo camp.

They were slow to address the problems and to hold a review.

It went on for months and ended with the county board finally telling everybody that they were satisfied with the senior management and that everything in the camp was rosy.

It was far from rosy when eight or nine players decide to leave the senior panel for a year.

Let us hope whatever issues that have existed within the Mayo senior set-up for well over a year now will be addressed in the very near future by the county board and that they will not be sweeping serious concerns under the carpet.

Otherwise, the downward trend the Mayo senior team has been going on for the past three years will continue.