Board to hold review of Mayo senior team’s 2024 campaign

A review of the Mayo senior football team’s 2024 season will be held in the coming weeks, with executive officers of the county board due to meet with team management in mid-August.

Mayo GAA secretary Ronan Kirrane told club delegates at last Wednesday’s monthly board meeting that they “do have a huge part to play” in the review and that questions for management would be welcome from clubs as long as they were not “targeted” at individuals.

The discussion arose when Garrymore delegate John Farragher said he had “got it in the neck from several people” over the way that the Mayo senior team played this year, saying to him ‘You’re the delegate, you bring it forward, the way people are feeling’.

Mayo retained their National League Division 1 status with relative ease but from a promising position, lost the Connacht SFC final to Galway before exiting the All-Ireland race when losing a penalty shoot-out to Derry in MacHale Park.

Mayo GAA vice chairman Con Moynihan said the role of officers was to “ask hard questions” and that a review would be pointless without asking them.

One delegate suggested, however, that any unrest about Mayo’s performances was only among “people sitting on high stools” and that in his opinion the management were doing a “reasonable job”.

“You can only dance with the girls in the hall,” he said, to which Westport delegate Willie McDonagh responded, “There’s different ways of dancing.” 

“The best players are available but I don’t think they are playing in the best way possible,” McDonagh added.

The executive committee of Mayo GAA was asked by Ballyhaunis delegate Padraic Regan that once the review has taken place, they would make the delegates aware of exactly what came up, what was said and what the plans going forward are, “because that’s what the people are asking, and that’s all we need to know”.

“I’m not saying anything wrong about any management but when the review does take place, there’s no point you just coming in here saying the review took place, we had a frank discussion and we’re moving on. We’re still no wiser, so maybe if we were made wiser we’d be able to put to bed many of the rumours,” said Regan.

A review of the Mayo U20 football team’s season took place with manager Peadar Gardiner and selector Mark Ryan, which Con Moynihan described as an “open and frank discussion” and not a “back-slapping exercise”.

The team’s season had begun promisingly when taking three points from their opening two games against Roscommon and Galway, but back-to-back defeats against Leitrim and Sligo saw them fail to reach the Connacht final.

The review identified a deficit among the players in both strength and conditioning, and nutrition.

“Going forward there was plans made for the next three months in relation to S&C for the under-19 academy and players who were on the panel this year who are underage again. There is a nutrition plan as well. We will meet again in October as a follow-up,” said Moynihan.

A review of Mayo’s U17 season will also be held in mid-August. The Green and Red won a Connacht title before losing an All-Ireland semi-final to Armagh.