Mayo ready for Sligo/Leitrim test
Mayo team manager Joe Kelly and head coach Eamonn Daly are ready to see can they guide Mayo to a second FAI Oscar Traynor Cup final in as many seasons, with the team's opening game of the season next weekend. Picture: David Farrell Photography
Given the strength of the squad, hopes will be high across the county that Mayo League can repeat their heroics of last year and reach another final or go all the way but manage Joe Kelly is looking no further than the challenge ahead this Sunday against Sligo/Leitrim DSL, .
Mayo were ultimately beaten by Waterford & District League and they are coming up against the side that they beat in the semi-final of last season’s competition. But the Westport man knows that how vital it will be to get a good start before they welcome Galway League next month to Umbro Park.
“It's very hard to predict that. I don't even look past Sligo/Leitrim because in a three team competition, the first game is always absolutely critical,” Kelly told the Western People.
“I think it's probably a tough draw in the sense that we're away now in two of them this year and our home game is probably against the favourites for the Connacht side of it.
Galway announced their squad and they're stacked with ex-League of Ireland underage players so they're going to be very strong. That's our home game so the first game is really important down in Sligo. We definitely have to get a positive result, obviously a win is what we're looking for but it needs to be a positive result.” With the Galway game in November and Roscommon in December, match fitness can pose a challenge with the Mayo League season finished while Gaway and Roscommon league are well underway.
“I think there's two ways of looking at that. I think you have the scenario where there's a good few Mayo team now that haven't played in a few weeks and then you have Sligo/Leitrim that are probably five or six weeks into their season.
“So they're probably on the upward curve in terms of fitness and match practice. And our lads are probably on the downward curve. But we're lucky that we've still playing in the last number of weeks so we're not too bad in that regard.
“When we played after Christmas it became a real issue. Our performance against Roscommon was the worst one in the provincial campaign. We were very, very poor because again lads hadn't played much football between November and December.
“It was a really tough game for us and I suppose it's going to be similar this year. It's that kind of challenge, you have to try and keep match fit but at the same time there's a lot of them out of action with their clubs so it's a difficult one to manage.
Kelly added: “The next game is against Galway, probably the favourites, at home and then you've got to go away again to Roscommon and that's coming that'll be a December fixture where match fitness can come into it then and may cause problems. There's nothing easy about it this year. So we're really looking at game number one.
“From there, then we're looking at qualification of the group in any of the first two places. That's really the height of our ambition up to Christmas anyway.” New additions to the squad including Iorras Aontaithe’s Owen McHale and Glenhest Rovers forward Connor McCarthy, although the latter will miss the Sligo/Leitrim game with injury. Another new addition is Castlebar Celtic’s Niall Brennan, who played for Sligo/Leitrim last year.
“We obviously had a few comings and goings, the normal thing this time of the year. We've a few injuries and stuff like that so we just have to wait now over the next week to see how everything pans out really. There's a lot of the old squad there but there's quite a few new faces now as well. There's a good freshness to it.
“(Niall is) a quality footballer. He's probably one of the best in the province. It's not just any other player coming in.
“He's a player that I was intending to make captain of the Connacht inter-provincial squad during the summer, but he just turned out that he was ineligible at the time. He's a fantastic footballer, very good, and he's really bought into us, great attitude. Delighted to have him.” A combination of injuries and study commitments see the likes of Cillian Redmond and Cillian White omitted from the squad. All four Ballina Town players from last year’s squad, who Kelly confirmed would have been ‘certainties’ for this year’s panel are also unavailable. Dylan McKee and Benny Lavelle are injured, Jamie Cawley has study commitments but all could return after Christmas while Raff Cretaro has transferred to Sligo club Real Tubber.
Captain of this year’s squad is Celtic’s Jordan Loftus, while Ballyheane’s Ben Edeh has been rewarded with the vice-captaincy following an outstanding campaign with Mayo last season.
“Ben does his talking on the pitch. He's a supreme athlete. He's a lovely guy, well liked in the dressing room. A quiet type of lad, but when he crosses the white line, he in many games is the difference between winning and losing.
“He's just got that physique about him. He's got power, good feet and it's something that we want to reward him with after last year's performances. Guys look at rewards in different ways but we just thought that Ben is coming of age. He's 22, he's representing Ballyheane as well as the squad, himself and Nathan (Reilly Doyle) and I think it's more than deserving.
“Jordan will be more of a talker and he's probably a little bit more experienced than Ben but I think he deserves the vice-captaincy because he leads on the pitch as well and that's what you want, you want leaders on the pitch.
