Mayo manager Moran prepares for festive fixture
MAYO GAA supporters will be in for a festive treat on Sunday, December 21, when Andy Moran’s Mayo face Offaly in a charity senior football match at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.
The game, which will throw in at 1.30 p.m., is in aid of Mayo Cancer Support – Mayo GAA's charity partner this year.
This will be Andy Moran’s first official match as Mayo manager and afterwards, the players will be available for a meet and greet with supporters on the concourse at the back of the stand.
A large attendance is expected at Mayo GAA headquarters to help raise funds for Mayo Cancer Support and see the senior team in action ahead of the upcoming FBD League campaign. Incidentally, Mayo’s opening FBD fixture will take place on Saturday, January 3, at 1 p.m., when the Green and Red host Sligo at Fr. O’Hara Park, Charlestown.
Ahead of the match against Offaly, Mayo manager Moran said that the players involved in club action in their respective provincial championships will need some rest.
“The Westport, Kilmeena and Ballina players will need a rest period and we won’t see any of them in the challenge matches pre-Christmas. We also have seven to nine players involved in the squad and the development squad who also play with UL, and there are a lot of colleges’ football matches taking place over the next few weeks.”
Moran and his backroom team have done a lot of hard work over the last number of weeks. The manager will also have to try and do the balancing act of developing the Mayo squad as well as trying to maintain Division One status in the national league.
He said: “We’ve done a lot of hard work and we as a management team have been busy. We also had the training camp in Portugal, and that was a great trip with the players.
“I think there’s always a time when there has to be a turnover of a squad and you have to give these young fellas a chance. In the last four years, Mayo has won three Connacht minor titles and won an Under 20 Connacht title for the first time since 2018, I think.
“There are players coming through who like winning, are used to winning, and it is very important that we give them a chance. For me, to use seven or eight of those young players in a league game would be too much, so you have to balance it with senior players beside them, guiding them through and helping them.
“There will be debuts, and yes young players will make mistakes, but I think that has to be balanced with developing the squad and making yourself better over the next couple of years.”
Moran said that the chance to experiment with tactics and players in the upcoming games against Offaly, and the FBD League in particular, is slightly different to previous years.
“In those games you are going to have to play some of your top guys as you need to get minutes into those players who will be playing in the National Football League on January 26.
“Before, you could have 15 new guys in an experimental team in the FBD League, but now we need those players who will be playing on January 26 to get some game time.
“Unless there has been a tweak to the rules, I don’t think we will have the Sigerson Cup players for the FBD games, and that takes an awful lot of our guys out of the FBD League. I think we have currently 16 players under the age of 22 and the majority of them play Sigerson Cup. We will be missing them for the FBD and perhaps some of the National Football League as well.
“The key thing here is you have seven games in nine weeks throughout the course of the National League. The upcoming game against Offaly, and right through to the end of the FBD, you need to be playing some of your top guys to get minutes into their legs so you don't have to go looking for challenge games throughout the country.”