The soap opera that is Mayo GAA is distracting from the real problems
by Dr. Richard Martin
It's another interest week for Mayo GAA.
Kevin McStay and his management team relieved of their duties and the massive media fall-out over the manner of the announcement.
Then the revelation about the management declining an offer to resign and very few interested in that side of the story because it did not suit certain agendas.
And now the ongoing speculation over the new manager with Oisín McConville emerging as the new favourite.
The soap opera goes on and on.
The bottom line, as we have seen over recent years, is that Mayo football lacks bottle. This is what needs to be talked about.
Great teams find a way to win even when they’re having an off day.
Even when Mayo teams have a good day and perform they seem to have the unfortunate knack of losing in any variety of creative ways.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but nonetheless, I’m going to have a crack.
The first move is to get a new management team in place for the next three years.
Unfortunately, the McStay/Rochford management team didn’t work out. Not even a Connaught title over their three year reign just isn’t acceptable. As it stands, we are light years away from being All-Ireland contenders.
Apart from what the bookmakers are telling use, there isn’t really clear stand out candidate.
James Horan revolutionised Mayo football when he came in in 2011.
In his own words he ‘took the bullshit out of Mayo football’. The badly bleached hair and body art and other unnecessary egotistical nonsense were removed from the equation. We didn’t get over the line, but he created a powerful setup. Should he return for a third time?
I genuinely can’t see anyone better qualified than him to take the role at the moment. This is all depending on whether or not he wants it also.
There has been speculation about Austin O’Malley who is based in Dublin currently.
He guided Cuala to an all-Ireland club title earlier this year which is a formidable achievement.
He also represented Mayo at inter-county level. He wasn’t the same class of a player as Horan but he should have seen more game time throughout his career.
Does Andy Moran have a role to play? He’s a shrewd, successful businessman. A Mayo football legend. A former footballer of the year. Probably, Mayo’s most popular ever player.
A fan favourite par excellence. He has managed Leitrim in recent years and was this season involved with Monaghan in the backroom.
Having some level of inter county management experience is vital which is something I feel Austin O’Malley lacks.
I feel it would be a wise move to have Andy Moran involved in the future Mayo setup in a coaching/selector role. He would command universal respect off all the players. He represented his county over 150 times in league and championship.
Jim McGuinness brought in Colm McFadden and Neil McGee alongside him. We should follow suit. Andy Moran has a lot to offer Mayo football in the years ahead.
Do we go for an outside manager? If so who? We’ve gone down that road before and it hasn’t worked out well.
Jack O’Shea being the classic example. I’m not a fan of the outside management. There’s no real deep intrinsic loyalty and money is the real motivator. It goes against the ethos of the GAA.
Even if that’s the road we decide to pursue who is out there? Mickey Harte? Personally, I think we should pick from within.
Oisin McConville and Tony McEntee are also being mentioned
Aside from a management clear out, there needs to be a changing of the guard. We need to go with youth and develop a new panel of players. Allow the younger players to express themselves.
There are too many players still involved who are psychologically scarred from disastrous All-Ireland SFC defeats.
Coming out the wrong side of so many big matches leaves deep psychological wounds. We need new management but we need new management that’s ruthless. Mayo football is soft and perceived to be soft by the other 31 counties.
The upcoming club championship is a great shop window for any future management team.
Let’s hope the talent around the county is spotted. From Shrule to Belmullet and Louisburgh to Ballaghderreen, there has to be 18 high quality footballers in this county.
Another simple perennial question has being highlighted this year with the introduction of the two-point rule. Why can’t Mayo footballers kick the ball over the bar from outside the arc?
As it stands Mayo football is going nowhere until we develop players that can kick accurately from outside the two-point line. Other teams will simply overwhelm us with two-pointers and we can’t compete.
The ‘running game,’ for which Mayo were famous, is primitive and backward in the two-pointer era. Unless we embrace the new reality, we will remain in the doldrums.
Kicking a football is a motor skill. It has nothing to do with being from a town or the countryside. Talent counts but the skill is pretty straightforward.
The trick is to coach it properly and then practice practice practice. Over and over. On repeat. Until the way we coach our underage players changes we are going nowhere. We are not producing skilled two footed flair players.
The crucial time is the teenage years. If you’re not a footballer by 16 you never will be. Simple as. Donnellan, Joyce, Fallon and company were all nurtured and honed on the playing fields of Jarlaths. We are not producing skilled forwards with electric pace.
If we’re not producing them, it then stands to reason that we shouldn’t win Sam Maguire.
The Tyrone team of the Noughties and the Down team of the 90’s had star studded forward lines. Assassins in every position. Ross Carr, Mickey Linden, Canavan, Stephen O’Neill and others.
With all respect to the Mayo teams over the years. We have produced some good forwards but nothing of the class just mentioned.
If that is the case, that we have failed to nurture underage talent and produce lethal forwards, it’s then logical to assume that in this county as a collective we have a poor grasp of how the game should be played and what constitutes a ‘good’ player and a ‘bad’ player. That has always been my view.
Another major cause for concern is the debt. Mayo County Board owe €7.8 million for the development of MacHale Park, but what people fail to realise is that Mayo GAA doesn’t own MacHale Park.
It’s owned by the Castlebar Mitchels and is currently on a 50 year lease. The lease agreement was signed in 2005, so there is currently 30 years left to run. However, as it stands the loan repayments will take 32 years to service the debt entirely.
That means, that when the stadium returns into the full ownership and guardianship of the Castlebar Mitchels in 2055, Mayo GAA will still be repaying the debt for another two years.
At that juncture Mayo GAA will be tenants in MacHale Park yet at the same time still paying for the stand they built.
The officers of Mayo GAA like many others in the Celtic Tiger era made a bad decision in developing the stand. In that era, not enough people asked themselves the following questions.
Can I do this? Can I really afford this? What happens in the worst case scenario? Restraint and common sense weren’t very common in the mid noughties. Foolish decisions and impulsiveness were both fairly common.
I have heard disquiet in some quarters about the fact the Castlebar Mitchels ‘own’ MacHale Park and that Mayo GAA made a bad deal in 2005. A deal is a deal.
Both parties went into it in good faith. MacHale Park belongs to the Mitchels and the town. It is a part of our heritage going way back over 100 years and the town will never ever let it out of its grasp.
If Mayo GAA then made bad decisions that is hardly the fault of any other individual club.
I’m a Castlebar man and a Mayo man, but my deepest loyalty is always to the town and club.
Thirty years isn’t that far away you know.