Undue and unnecessary haste in Mayo county board's decision

By Martin Carney, Mayo GAA's foremost analyst

NO doubt about it, Mayo is the source that continues to provide the news – the gift that keeps on giving!

In a week when the focus ought to have shone exclusively on the All-Ireland quarterfinal clashes and debates on the merits of the teams most likely to reach the semi-finals, attention instead concentrated on the decision of the Mayo GAA County Board to relieve Kevin McStay of his duties as the county senior football team manager.

The news caught many by surprise. Those of us who thought we were privy to what was happening in the GAA world didn’t see it coming. Certainly I didn’t, nor in the manner the news was circulated.

For openers, Kevin McStay, I was led to believe, was still rehabbing from illness incurred on the weekend after the Cavan defeat. His absence from the sideline in the games with Tyrone and Donegal seemed to confirm the news, if that was needed, relating to his ill-health.

On top of that, to have arrived at a decision within days of exiting the championship seemed over-hasty on the part of the board.

Though the usual post-championship exit indicated much dissatisfaction and fuelled the usual rumour mill, few saw anything unusual with this. It was just rumour.

After all, management had a full year of its agreed contract with the board still in place. That said, every manager is aware that continuation of his tenure is up for grabs at the end of each season.

Understandably, as the third consecutive championship campaign ended in disappointment, doubts about the direction the team was taking grew and debate about the management team being left in situ grew proportionately.

That being the case, there were some real positives. Over his three seasons in charge, McStay's management deserves credit for keeping the team in the top flight. This in itself was a worthy achievement.

From a total of 23 league games in that time, Mayo were victorious on 13 occasions, drew three times, and were beaten in seven contests. In addition, securing a league title in year one was an impressive beginning.

When McStay was appointed manager of the team in 2022, many who had valiantly represented the county over a 10-year period had recently retired. Among those were David Clarke, Chris Barrett, Kevin McLoughlin, Ger Cafferkey, Keith Higgins, Tom Parsons and Seamie O’Shea.

Then when news broke that Oisin Mullin was to leave for Australia, supporters realised that one of rare quality wouldn’t be available. This was the reality McStay had to deal with. So, with the talent as his disposal, remaining in the top flight was not an insignificant achievement.

UNFORGIVING

In the unforgiving world of Gaelic games, managers realise that their success or otherwise will be measured as to how their teams perform in championship.

In this regard, Mayo’s outcomes fell short of ambition and expectation.

Over his three years in charge, nobody will have felt the pain of championship defeat and a failure to win Connacht more acutely than the manager himself. Defeat to Roscommon in the opening round in 2023 was gut- wrenching.

Using a justifiable excuse that the game took place a mere week after the league win over Galway didn’t cut much ice with the broader public. I have no doubt that the absence of energy that characterised the performance on the day was in part down to the quick turnaround but to the supporter it was a straightforward defeat.

Subsequent qualifier wins over Kerry, Louth and Galway were undone by defeat to Dublin and an exit from championship.

Of all the championship setbacks during McStay’s reign, losing to Galway in Pearse Stadium in year two has to top the bill.

I will forever remember seeing him exit the pitch on the final whistle that day. Ashen faced, devastated and in a fog of disbelief, he struggled, as we all did, to make sense as to how a team on the cusp of winning could lose by conceding three points in added time.

To his credit he managed to stabilise matters but when the team drew with Dublin and lost on penalties to Derry in the qualifiers, the curtain eventually came down on a season that should have yielded more.

As a criticism, I feel substituting Aidan O’Shea in the Galway and Derry games that year didn’t help the cause. The big Breaffy man, in my opinion, played his best ever football for the county under McStay’s management. Robbing the team of badly-needed experience and leadership in those games by replacing him didn’t help the cause.

As I’ve written before, that once-again sense of what-might-have-been clouded everything this year. Aside from squandering a great opportunity of beating Galway in the Connacht final, the subsequent display against Cavan in the first group game of the All-Ireland series was the low point of the season.

McStay's health suffered. He had to absent himself from active involvement.

The public by now no longer came to games in the same numbers as before. Despite this, and to their credit, the team performed with great gusto against Tyrone and were decidedly unlucky to lose to Donegal. This defeat brought the curtain down on the playing season, but what has happened since came from left- field completely.

When mulling over the events of the last week, two issues stick out; timing and content. Indeed, more questions than answers emerge.

For example, why was there such a rush arriving at a decision to sack McStay? Surely, given his state of health, more time should have been afforded before an issue of such enormity was broached. What levels and regularity of contact took place between the board and management in the days leading up to the call? Did face-to-face meetings take place?

Again, with respect to Kevin McStay, he deserved this right. Conducting conversations over the phone or by email, if this is what happened, seemed a cold way of doing business. Were players privy to what was happening?

Did management meet with them before all this unfolded? Were clubs aware that this was to take place? If not, then why not?

I know the board has a duty to appoint and remove a manager from his/her position but my question again is why was there such a rush in this case to do so?

It was the wording in the communication that stuck in the craw more than anything with me.

Stating that they had 'reached a decision to relieve Kevin McStay and his management team from their roles with the Mayo senior football team with immediate effect’ seemed insensitive at best.

The same manager had devoted most of his adult life to the GAA and represented Mayo at all levels with distinction. A former All-Star, All-Ireland Under 21 medalist, county senior provincial winner and All-Ireland club-winning manager, he had earned his spurs in the game.

On the other hand, there is no denying that the board has a duty to enact change if they see it is in the best interest of the game in the county.

Clearly, they saw this action was necessary. In this particular case though it was their undue and unnecessary haste coming to the decision, coupled to the way the matter was communicated, that reflected poorly on all.

Personally, I’d like to wish Kevin McStay a full recovery and good health going forward.