Why Andy Moran can't fix Mayo football on his own

by Dr. Richard Martin

ANDY got the job. It’s the right call. He commands universal success right across the county.

Along with Cillian O'Connor, he has a special connection with the Mayo faithful.

One of our favourite sons.

He has a proven track record of success in business and sports.

My sense is that he has a deeper understanding and intuition of the game than people may give him credit for.

I remember his performance in the All-Ireland SFC quarterfinal against Cork in 2011. High energy explosive football.

He blew Michael Shields out of it. A year later he ruptured his cruciate.

On his return in 2013, he had to change his game to compete at the highest level.

He lost a yard of pace but was astute enough to adapt and compensate in other ways.

Four years later, in 2017, he was Footballer of the Year.

That takes doing. Mental strength and intelligence.

The big worry is will he be too close to the players? Some of the men he soldiered with are in the autumn of their careers. A lot of mileage on the clock. Father time waits for no man. The team must come ahead of any individual.

Will he have the courage to drop a big name for a big game? Management is about making tough decisions.

The county craves having a team we can get behind. In the end we have to trust that Andy Moran has the mettle to make those decisions and should be entrusted to do the job accordingly.

Watching the recent All-Ireland final between Kerry and Donegal has given me pause to reflect on how important the role of manager is.

Perhaps there is too much emphasis on the cult of management. Players play and players win. Simple as.

The recent All-Ireland triumph by Kerry final was crafted 10 years ago.

A decade ago the Cliffords, Seán O’Shea, Gavin White and company were focused on developing their skills on pitches around Kerry and have spent the intervening time honing their skills.

If you're serious about making a Kerry team you must be two footed. You must be able to kick the ball accurately at pace. You must be able to score.

In hindsight, with the advent of the new rules which rewards two points for balls kicked over the bar from beyond the 40-metre arc, this year there could only be one winner. Kerry.

The new rules reward skill and talent. In the end the real winner this year was football.

Looking to the near future, this Kerry team could scoop up another few titles whilst the rest of the country plays catch up.

An All-Ireland SFC final is a specialist game and the ultimate stress test. Jimmy McGuinness was shown up big time.

The Donegal team of 2025 was a pale shadow of the 2012 outfit. A lot of the Donegal players were exposed as one dimensional, lacking flair and talent.

This wasn’t the team of 2012, where Donegal was loaded with All-Star footballers on every line of the pitch.

Micheal Murphy’s opening goal in 2012 is etched on my mind. Karl Lacey breaks forward. Nimbly skips by Barry Moran. Not a hand laid on him. All the time in the world to deliver a diagonally placed ball with perfect weight into Murphy’s path.

Murphy catches the ball in mid-air whilst simultaneously turning towards the goal. He lands and blasts the ball into the net. A few minutes in. Game over. Power. Precision. Skill. Execution. The highlight reels always show Murphy’s finish, but never show Karl Lacey’s contribution.

The new rules have changed scoring totals.

In the quarterfinal Kerry scored 32 points against Armagh with five two-pointers. In the semi-final against Tyrone, Kerry scored 1-20 (23 points) and in the final against Donegal they scored 1-26, again with five two-pointers.

The game has changed.

Going forward, if Mayo are in any way serious about competing at the business end of championship we must develop players who can score two pointers.

James Horan revolutionised Mayo football between 2011 and 2014.

We became mentally stronger, more consistent, and S&C was modernised. He completely revamped and professionalised the county setup along professional rugby lines.

His team played a ‘running game'. Running from deep. It worked to a point.

In the end in big games against big teams we were like boxers who’d punched ourselves out by the 60th minute.

Playing like that is energy-sapping and naïve. It was too one-dimensional and lacked variation.

We were always picked apart on the home straight by Kerry and Dublin. Tired legs and tired minds.

In today’s game that approach is suicidal. Clever more skilled adversaries will pick us off with two pointers all day long.

If Mayo are to win Sam Maguire we must have the capacity to score 25 plus points on All-Ireland final day.

Right now, as it stands, we are light years away from that target.

So what is the answer? We must look to our youth. They don’t have the psychological baggage of numerous All-Ireland final defeats.

By and large it’s too late for the majority of the players in the current Mayo panel to develop their skill levels.

The vast majority of them have spent the last 10 years deadlifting and bench-pressing.

Without being cruel or insensitive, the current panel cannot amass scoring totals of 20 plus.

In simple terms, we won’t be competitive any time soon, unless there is a major overhaul in playing personnel.

This leads to the following pertinent and obvious question. Are we developing players with the requisite skillset to play at the highest level? Our history suggests we aren’t.

If footballers haven’t developed their weaker foot by 18 it’s too late.

If they haven’t addressed that weakness by the age of 14 it’s a waste of time.

I went to the Mitchels v Crossmolina minor game in Castlebar recently. Kobe McDonald lined out at 14 for Crossmolina. Joe Forry at 14 for Castlebar. The game was simple. Crossmolina worked the ball to Kobe and Castlebar worked the ball to Joe. Crossmolina won by a point. They are the future.

We have the talent at underage but they must be nurtured.

To lose Oisin Mullin and Pearse Hanley to Australian Rules was unfortunate. They were singular talents, but it would be criminal to lose Kobe McDonald.

He is our David Clifford. Talent like that only comes along every 20/30 years or so. We saw it in Brogan and his father. He is the heir apparent and the future of Mayo football.

Put simply, he’s irreplaceable, and if there was a draft in GAA he would be the number one draft pick.

It is imperative that he remains and fulfils his destiny as a Mayo senior footballer.

I heard James Horan complain recently that when he was managing the team he found it a struggle to find something as basic as a pitch to train on. This leads to the major systemic issue in Mayo football.

Debt.

Mayo GAA is in serious debt. Something in the region of €7 million.

How can we develop a centre of excellence and create a culture of high performance when we don’t have the facilities and won’t have the facilities for the coming decades?

We are falling further behind all the time.

The clubs across the county are financing the debt, which is stopping them from growing and developing.

To my eyes, solving this debt crisis is exponentially far more important than any other issue in Mayo football, including the manager.

Ultimately, managers come and go but this debt is suffocating the game in the county. Remember, running an inter-county set-up is getting more and more expensive every year.

The Mayo set-up under McStay had 25 people in the backroom team. They all have to be paid.

What’s the solution? To me it’s obvious. Martina Jennings.

Jennings has strong GAA connections. She has proven herself to be a formidable leader in developing the Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation. Currently she is developing a hospice for children in the county.

She has the expertise and capacity to take control of the situation and get a professional fundraising operation in place which will alleviate the crisis.

Like Andy, she’s one of us. She’s a proud Mayo woman. She should be given a leadership role and empowered to use her considerable talents to resolve the debt crisis.

Mayo GAA hasn’t done itself any favours over the last few years.

If we are to change the trajectory of Mayo football we must identify the right people for the right positions.

We have Andy Moran on board. Getting Martina Jennings on board would be a solid step in the right direction.

Making sure Kobe McDonald is on board is the only thing that matters.