Mayo Trayn’ their thoughts on Oscar history
Jack O’Connor slips past his Sligo/Leitrim opponent Ryan McManus on his way to scoring the winner for Mayo in their Oscar Traynor Cup semi-final at Athlone Town Stadium. Picture: David Farrell Photography
It is the sort of game that may only come around once in a generation, if at all. 43 years ago was the last time that the Mayo League reached the final of the Oscar Traynor Cup and on that day lost to a Leinster Senior League team marshalled by one Paul McGrath.
1981 was the dawn of Castlebar Celtic’s heyday after the 1970s in Mayo were dominated by teams from Westport, although Balla also claimed back-to-back league titles. Celtic did win the top flight in 1979 but it was from ’82 onwards that Celtic became the force they are.
The fact that the current Castlebar Celtic team looks set to become a similar force after the Westport-centric decade of the 2010s, again a decade ended by a Hoops Super League title, and the fact that we have also switched Taoiseachs this year, are probably the two standout similarities between 1981 and 2024.
While the days of Charlie Haughey, Garrett Fitzgerald and Fergie McEllin have passed us by, history bears its wait and weight. The waiting since the days gone past and the weight of expectation it places; no one remembers who finished in second ultimately, but it is a weight that Oscar Traynor manager Joe Kelly is happy to bear if it means Mayo end their wait for that coveted cup.
“It’s always in the back of your mind, you’re thinking about those 43 years. You have a league as successful as the Mayo Junior League and you’re thinking how it has been 43 years since we were in a final.
“But the one message we would give to the players is that these are amateur players and they have to enjoy this. They have to enjoy the build-up, it will be over in a flash for them and they’ll look back in years to come, saying they were part of this team.
“There are a lot of them around the 22, 23, 24 age group and they live life in the now. So we do the worrying and they do the playing.”
Mayo have home advantage for this fixture, something that assistant manager Eamonn Daly feels could make a huge difference.
“It is definitely easier than having to travel and obviously they’ll probably travel the night before so it’s a better preparation for us,” said Eamonn, who is hopeful of a large home crowd to support the team.
Mayo’s campaign has been defined by selection headaches throughout, between players getting injured and returning from those setbacks. The injury to Cillian Redmond threw up a lot of concern that the star centre-back was somewhat irreplaceable in defence alongside Ioseph O’Reilly, but Ioseph’s Celtic club mate Mark Cunningham slotted in fairly seamlessly against Sligo-Leitrim last time out.
“We had two or three choices to make there,” said Eamonn. “But we really didn’t want to make too many changes in our back line which had been excellent for us up to now. But we brought in Mark, who is a club mate of Ioseph and Oran (Groarke) who was in at six. It worked out for us and we’re delighted.”
Joe Kelly said that each game has brought different challenges and believes this Sunday will be no different.
“You’re always thinking about these calls and trying to pick the best 11 in your head and then I’m wrecking Eamonn’s head and we try to reach the best conclusion,” said Joe.
“We’ll make them calls but we’ll wait until later in the week and see how the lads are moving before we decide things.”
Among the players making Joe Kelly and his management team’s life a bit more difficult in terms of team selection is Jordan Loftus. The Castlebar Celtic striker recently returned from injury and lit up Celtic Park with a jaw-dropping assist for Dylan Edwards’ winner against Athenry in the Connacht Cup last Saturday night. He said he is hoping to make the cut for the starting XI next weekend.
“Every player wants to play games, that’s the truth of it. I feel I’ve been training very, very hard. I don’t think any amateur player has been training harder than me this year.
“It has been tough, physically and mentally, but I feel really, really good.”
Captain Cillian McGlade is also a doubt due to an injury but is hoping for a big performance this weekend to cap what has been for him, one of the most enjoyable spells he has had playing football.
“The main thing for us this year is the togetherness and the team spirit, it is huge this year. We’ve basically become like a club side, probably because we’ve been together so long.
“It’s been one of the most enjoyable couple of months I’ve been playing football in a long time,” he said.
Standing in Mayo’s way of glory are Waterford, who knocked out Carlow and Donegal in the quarter and semi-finals to advance to this game. They are proving to be somewhat of an unknown quantity for Joe Kelly.
“We’re no different than any other management team in the sense that you go hunting, you go talking to people, you try to get footage of whatever you can get. We know somewhat about them.
“We know that we’re the underdogs next Sunday but we will have our homework done on them but we don’t really focus an awful lot on opposition. We try to trust ourselves and what we’re trying to do.”
Jordan Loftus has a different idea of what to expect. He has a connection to soccer in Waterford having scored twice for Finn Harps in his debut for the club against Waterford United in 2014.
“All I know is that Waterford are good and they play 3-5-2,” he said. “We have to prepare for them as if we’re preparing to face the best team in the world.” Cillian McGlade is much in the same boat.
“We only got over Sligo last week so we haven’t looked any further since that. I’m sure in the next week we’ll have a couple of sessions and get a bit of detail on them and maybe a few clips.”
All will be revealed come lunchtime Sunday when the Mayo League get the opportunity to put their names into the history books against the Waterford League.
