Celtic hero O’Reilly named MFL’s Footballer of the Year

The ballroom of Westport’s Castlecourt Hotel was packed to capacity on Saturday as clubs from every nook and cranny of the county gathered to celebrate the 2023 Mayo Football League season.

Newly-elected FAI president Paul Cook was in attendance for the always exceptionally organised awards night, where scores of presentations were made with military timing.

Among the most popular winners on the night was Christy Rowland, who was inducted into the MFL’s Hall of Fame. A reluctant recipient – “I don’t mind marking the fields and everything, but this is not my thing,” – Christy entertained the crowd in an interview with MC Angelina Nugent.

Liking his contribution to Glenhest Rovers and to Mayo football in general to those who the current housing and rental crisis have turned into accidental landlords, he said: “You can become an accidental volunteer and an accidental committee member and an accidental chairman very fast too, so maybe I’ll put [the award] down to that.

“It’s a good honour for my club more than for myself,” said Rowland humbly. “And totally unexpected!” 

Those were the same three words used by Ioseph O’Reilly too, after he was only revealed on the night itself as Footballer of the Year, seeing off stiff competition from his Castlebar Celtic teammate Johnny Cocozza and Ballina Town’s goal machine Benny Lavelle.

Celtic enjoyed an incredible year as a club, winning the Super League, League One and U21 Division One titles with unbeaten campaigns in all three divisions.

“The club absolutely dominated last year, we were exceptional, but that’s down to a lot of hard work by committee, management, the teams,” said Ioseph O’Reilly who admitted that to be named Footballer of the Year meant “absolutely everything” to him.

“I started playing senior football in 2006. I’ve been lucky enough to get to two Connacht Cup finals, unfortunately we lost both of them on penalties. Last week I won my first Connacht medal at senior level, with Mayo, the Oscar Traynor, which I’ll hold very dear. But there’s six Celtic players who have held this award and they’re so well regarded in the club so I’m so happy to have it,” declared the defender.

O’Reilly was one of several Castlebar Celtic members to pick up individual awards on the night, another of them being long-serving club officer Pat Naughton who was one of two ‘Service to Football’ recipients. Last year he personally registered over 600 players of 35 different nationalities.

“We’re a community club. For whatever reason we’ve had such an influx of players into Castlebar and we try and accommodate everybody, boys and girls,” said Naughton before being asked about what keeps him driven.

“The love of soccer, the clubs, the people involved, meeting people, getting to know people,” he said succinctly.

S&F United chairman Brian Wallace also received a Service to Football award.

“The acknowledgement is unbelievable, I couldn’t say thanks to the Mayo League enough,” said Wallace who trebles up as the club’s groundkeeper and youth coach as well.

“Just to see the integration, from youth level up, from young to old, and to see that development, it’s unbelievable,” he explained. “To see lads, 12 or 13 years of age, to progress on and then get their senior debut, it’s what you want to see.” 

Ballyglass FC’s John Boyle espoused a similar view when he accepted the prestigious Club Person of the Year award.

“I love to see the players progress through the teams and to be involved and help in every way. Every club is the same, everybody goes out and makes that effort and without that we wouldn’t be where we are. It’s to keep pushing on and improving and making the game the best we can,” he declared to rapturous applause.

Aside from Ioseph O’Reilly winning overall Footballer of the Year, the names of the Player of the Year winners in each of the other divisions were also held in reserve until the night itself. Danny Broderick won the Premier League award for the role he played in Claremorris AFC completing a league and cup double to secure promotion back to the Super League at the first time of asking.

All three nominations for League One Player of the Year were from Castlebar Celtic ‘B’, with Dylan Howley edging out his teammates Ruairi Nevin and Conor Joyce for the gong.

Aran Reilly of Iorras Aontaithe was named Player of the Year for McDonnell Construction League Two while Stevie Gavin, the man who masterminded Castlebar Celtic’s Super League title triumph, was named Manager of the Year.