The future of Mayo football - everything begins and ends with the clubs
OPINION: Dr. Richard Martin
'THERE'S so many clubs been ruined by people’s egos.
'The day after we won our first European Cup, we were back at 9.45 in the morning, talking about how we would do it again, working from that moment, because nobody has the right to win something they haven’t earned.' - Bob Paisley.
In the aftermath of Mayo’s All-Ireland victory, there’s only one question on my mind. The pertinent question is as follows. What does Mayo GAA need to do to win more All-Irelands? How do we reach a place where we win the All-Ireland roughly three times in every decade?
Kerry can do it. Why can’t we? The glass ceiling has been smashed.
I feel that there are three key items that need to be addressed.
1. Underage development
2. MacHale Park stadium debt
3. Mayo GAA Centre of Excellence at Bohola
Before I moved to Palestine House on Castle Street, I went rooting around the attic at home, looking for an amp, and I came across a few cardboard boxes.
In the midst of it all, I found an old photo. The Castlebar Mitchels Under 14 Féile team of 2001. I was on it. Of course, I have it framed now and it’s hanging over my piano. That team played 28 games that season. And lost one - the semi-final in the Féile to a team from Blanchardstown in Cashel. We did the clean sweep.
Five of that team played in the All-Ireland minor final in 2005.
The interesting thing is that there is a lad in the back row, second from the right, who was a sub on that team. He got the odd run but rarely the start. Five years after that photo was taken he was centre-back on the Mayo All-Ireland winning Under 21 team of 2006.
It’s hard to believe it but it’s true. At that point he was 19 years of age and probably the best footballer in the entire club. If he wasn’t, in a very short space of time he was. After that he represented Mayo for the guts of 10 years at senior inter-county level, playing in All-Ireland finals in front of 82,000 people.
His name? Tom Cunniffe.
The moral of the story is that player development isn’t linear. In actual fact, in my experience, in life, in sport, in academia, in anything, a person’s development isn’t linear. And let’s face it, isn’t that what makes it interesting?
It’s virtually impossible to construct an underage system in Mayo GAA which will identify every future star. The most famous example is Lee Keegan.
He never represented Mayo at any level at underage. He’s the highest scoring defender of all time with 6-40 in 54 championship matches. In his autobiography, Mark O’Sé recognised him as the greatest ever never to win a Celtic Cross. That’s a compliment.
If neither were part of Mayo underage academies, who developed these two outstanding players? The answer is simple. Their clubs. And schools. Jimmy Feeney and Benji Smith coached Mitchels' underage teams. Joe McCabe coached the St. Gerald’s teams. Tom eventually flourished in that environment and his potential was realised in time.
The essential thrust of what I’m saying is that our clubs are the real academies. I understand the importance of elite academies, but the clubs are where the skills are honed. In the GAA, everything begins and ends with club. And the major problem facing Mayo GAA at this moment in time is the MacHale Park Stadium debt.
As I write, Mayo GAA owe between €7-8 million to GAA Central Council. Mayo GAA pays €25,000 per month which comes to €300,000 per annum. This repayment structure is in place for the next 29 years.
This issue must be resolved. There’s no point bellyaching and complaining about it and wondering why Mayo GAA got itself in this predicament. What’s done is done. The debt is there and it needs to cleared.
Mayo GAA are repaying the loan, but where are they getting the money? From numerous sources, but the clubs around the county are major contributors. The clubs are continually servicing this debt, when this money could be spent on developing facilities and coaching within the clubs themselves.
This ongoing saga is a millstone around the neck of Mayo GAA. I would suggest that there needs to be a major fundraising drive to get it cleared.
Could Martina Jennings of the Mayo Roscommon Hospice be involved in an advisory capacity? After all she is steeped in Mayo GAA. Her husband Jarlath played for Mayo in the early '90s.
Could major concerts be held in MacHale Park? Why not? We saw the huge crowds at the Mayo homecoming event after the All-Ireland. Was there 50,000 people in the stadium? Surely, if they can hold concerts in Nolan Park in Kilkenny and Pearse Stadium in Galway, we can hold a major concert in MacHale Park?
I’ve heard it said that Mayo is ‘too far away’. I have to laugh at that one.
Isn’t there good rail and road access to Castlebar? Anyone that knows Galway city knows you would need between one and two hours to get across town to Salthill in traffic. People didn’t complain about going to the Isle of Wight music festival because it was on an island. Jimi Hendrix was playing and that was that. If the act is big enough, people will travel. That’s the bottom line.
The Connacht-Munster rugby match was a proven major success, and a major money spinner for the town. In any event, I firmly believe that we should capitalise on the current goodwill and joy out there and fundraise aggressively.
By clearing the debt, you are in effect investing in the clubs. If you invest in the clubs, that’s where you find the rough overlooked diamonds like the Tom Cunniffes and Lee Keegans of this world.
We can’t afford to be complacent and rest on our laurels. As All-Ireland champions we now have a target on our back.
Do we stay where we are and hope some success arrives 20 years down the road, or do we become proactive and build on what we’ve achieved? We are at a critical fork in the road.
The future is in our youth. The Centre of Excellence in Bohola must be developed in a timely fashion. Elite players are developed in elite environments. The current all-conquering Limerick hurling team was built through their underage academies in UL. The foundations of underage academy structures were put in place in 2007. Twenty years ago. There’s a lesson in that.
If we are serious about the future, the work starts now.