Born into football – a Mayo U20 team full of pedigree

Living in Achill, when you discuss the potential of promising young footballers in the club with locals, they can and will point out to you ‘where they got it from’.

It might be a first cousin once removed on the mother’s side but Achill folk’s ability to join the dots and see where the pedigree is coming from is remarkable.

So many Achill people can trace their lineage back to the Famine that there is little need for DNA searches online – locals know each family and their traits intimately.

Sometimes a talented footballer will come along with no obvious football pedigree on either side and I have heard some locals wonder aloud if the child was adopted!

There will, thankfully, always be exceptions to the rule. You are not guaranteed to be a good or bad footballer based on your lineage. Attitude and application matter – and these are traits which can pass through the generations too but outliers exist.

However, it is not for nothing that we hear the phrase ‘an ounce of breeding is better than a tonne of feeding’.

Whether it is the raw talent and the attitude of the parent, combined with cajoling them along and installing a grá for the game, pedigree can make a profound difference.

You cannot help but look at pedigree when you assess this year’s Mayo Under 20 team. I do not recall a Mayo team at any grade having such strong bloodlines in them.

For a lot of casual fans, it will begin and end with Kobe McDonald, that most exciting footballer and son of a Mayo icon, Ciarán and brother of Mayo senior player Jordan Flynn.

But pedigree pulses throughout the team to a staggering degree.

At centre-half back is Rio Mortimer, son of Kenneth, a two-time All Star at corner-back and one of Mayo’s most highly rated defenders of all time. Add in the fact that he is also nephew to Trevor and Conor Mortimer, and it is clear he did not lick the ability from the wind.

At midfield last time out were Darragh Staunton and Joey Holmes. Holmes is son of Pat, an accomplished All-Star defender and former Mayo manager, while Joey’s younger brother Ben – still only a minor last year – is also on the panel.

Darragh Staunton is son of Kevin, the herculean Knockmore and Mayo midfielder of the 1990s and early 2000s who, many would argue, was badly underused for his county (he won Connacht Club Footballer of the Year in early 1997 but never played for Mayo after that).

Darragh Beirne (already a key part of the senior team) is son of Kevin, who was on the Mayo Minor team who won the 1985 All-Ireland and was a quality defender for Mayo at senior level for over a decade while Darragh watched his older brother Adam play minor and under-20 before him.

Wing-forward is Dylan Flynn whose father Peadar was on the Crossmolina team that won their breakthrough county senior title in 1995 and has been heavily involved in the development of underage in the club for many years. Jordan Flynn is his older brother so the pedigree is strong.

Full-back Tom Lambert is son of Charlie, the well-known former Westport footballer, coach and administrator. Charlie won a Hogan Cup with St Jarlath’s College, Tuam in 1984 (on the same team as Pat Holmes) and played minor championship for Mayo while Tom Lambert would also have watched his older siblings, Paul and Pat, play Under 20 and minor for Mayo.

And that is only scratching the surface.

Team captain Colm Lynch from Parke comes from a family heavily associated with the club. His father Ray was a tigerish and skilful half-back/half-forward while several of his uncles featured for the club for years too. Moy Davitts’ Conor Reid, who lined out for Mayo in recent years, is his first cousin on his mother’s (Siobhán) side.

Josh Moyles from Crossmolina is a cousin of 2001 All-Ireland club winner and former Mayo footballer Michael Moyles.

Andrew Quinn from Mayo Gaels has heritage on both sides of the family – the Quinns and the Duggans are stalwarts of the Gaels for decades. His uncle Damien Quinn played league for Mayo in the late 1990s.

Substitute Seán Óg McGuinness is a nephew of Crossmolina ’01 star Paul McGuinness. Another substitute, Yousif Coghill from Breaffy is son of Theron Coghill, who played junior football with Breaffy for many years but was better known as an accomplished soccer player with Ballyheane and Castlebar Celtic. Theron’s brother, Yousif’s uncle, Konrad was an exceptional defender for Breaffy in the 1990s and 2000s and Theron and Konrad are first cousins of former Mayo star Alan Dillon.

Aaron Coggins’s uncle Richie was a very good underage player with Crossmolina and Mayo while he witnessed his brothers Diarmuid and Niall play for the green and red in recent years too.

Shane Cunningham from Castlebar Mitchels is a son of Jarlath Cunningham, who was a coach on the All-Ireland winning Crossmolina team in 2001 and later was involved at inter-county level with Sligo under Peter Ford. Shane’s brother Mark also represented Mayo at under 20 level four years ago.

Ben Thornton from Ballina is a nephew of former Mayo midfielder David Brady.

We canvassed widely across clubs and while there is not a rich lineage in every member of the squad, one thing that came home loud and clear across the board was the importance of a ‘very supportive family’ for a player’s development. And plenty of very passionate Mayo GAA folk with their sons reared on going to Mayo games.

I could also be doing a disservice to some lineage that I am not yet aware of, particularly on the maternal side of things. Please accept my apologies in advance!

Of course pedigree is an important but not only factor in development.

Other factors which have to be considered are the clubs players are from and the quality therein.

Take Crossmolina for example who have been on the crest of a wave in recent years at underage. Their All-Ireland winning team of 2001 and various county winning teams were full of players who went on to coach or manage at a high level and plenty of them have been involved in the grassroots in the club, not least the aforementioned Peadar Flynn, Joe Keane and Barry Heffernan, to name but a few.

Seeing Cross’ having no fewer than five players in the starting team and one among the subs must be very rewarding for the club and shows how a well-structured underage system with quality personnel can make a profound difference.

Of course it helps as well when you come to county level that you have a high standard of coaching too and this year’s Under 20s are certainly learning from fellas with serious footballing pedigree too.

There is massive Mayo senior experience in manager Keith Higgins, selectors Kevin McLoughlin and David Drake and goalkeeping coach David Clarke. Assistant manager Mark Ryan is a highly regarded coach also.

For those of us who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, there is something especially pleasing in seeing the sons of McDonald, Mortimer, Holmes, Staunton and Beirne now carrying themselves so naturally in green and red. The more things change, the more they stay the same.