Connacht title the focus for Mayo Ladies

Diane O’Hora’s term as Mayo senior ladies football manager gets underway this coming Sunday with a trip to Breffni Park to take on Cavan in Division 2 of the National Football League (2pm) but the focus for the year is quite singular – a Connacht title.

“That (winning a Connacht title) is our absolute full focus,” the Ballina native told the Western People. “Everything we are doing is a stepping stone towards championship in terms of developing a style of play, working on our kick-out, transition and scoring. Rome wasn’t built in a day and the league is very important in developing towards the championship,” she added.

The three-time All-Ireland winner and All-Ireland winning captain in 1999 is not making the same singular target for winning Division 2, admitting that while ‘the expectation will be on us to be back up in Division 1’, the opportunity to develop players, the squad and their game during the league is vital.

O’Hora takes over at a time of huge change in Ladies football with many of the new rules adopted for the men’s game last year coming in for the ladies game this year while a change to the tackle definition is set to make the games more physical. From what O’Hora has seen so far in challenge games, the game will be faster too and more pleasing on the eye.

There are currently 37 players in O’Hora’s panel and she said it will be a ‘really difficult task’ to pick a team for the game in Breffni Park. Many of these players came from trials late last year while everyone who played in the last five years was contacted.

It has been a difficult few years for Mayo with player turnover high and morale around the senior team quite low.

One thing that O’Hora is very frustrated by is the number of former Mayo players playing Aussie Rules but unable to come back and play with Mayo in the close season. There are seven players from Mayo playing Aussie Rules and there is no doubt their quality means their loss is keenly felt.

“I’m not sure why it seems to be only the Mayo girls who have contracts which cannot free them up to play for their county. Other counties have players in Australia but get them back. I feel really sorry for the girls if they do want to play GAA, that they are being denied that opportunity. It does upset me that Mayo have lost so many players like this,” she said.

O’Hora, who took over from Liam McHale last August, felt the time is right for her to take on this role. She first got involved as a coach with St Brigid’s of Roscommon in 2011.

A former Army corporal, she concedes she has had to ‘soften’ her approach over the years but remains ‘direct’. ‘Buy-in’ from the players and ‘trust’ both from the players and her trust in members of her management team around her are repeated themes.

She said she will be ‘forever grateful’ to Aghamore man Seán Finnegan who brought her in as a coach in Kildare three years ago which led to O’Hora managing for the next two years, which included significant successes in the form of Junior and Intermediate All-Irelands and Division 2 and 3 league titles, which represented huge steps in her development as a manager.

The game in Mayo has changed dramatically since O’Hora’s youth with the sheer volume of players and clubs a transformation from O’Hora having to register with Castlebar Mitchels in her teens – then the nearest club to Ballina.

O’Hora is the first female Mayo senior manager since Ita Hannon in the mid 1990s, who actually was O’Hora’s first manager as a 15-year-old with the Mayo ladies.

She hopes they can reignite support for the senior ladies team again with crowds in recent years very low but concedes it will take on-field results to change that.

After taking over in July, she admits they are raring to go.

“I can’t wait to get going at this stage and I am really excited to get them out playing competitive games.

“We really do need to step it up a lot now and when we step onto Breffni Park we will find out where we are at. I hope we start positively but if we lose, we will be able to see where we are at and what we need to improve,” she said.

Her target for her term – she admits she will step away if she feels the first year has been a failure – is to raise the levels.

“To leave Mayo in a better place is the aim. To set standards and get players on the right path and when players come and go, the systems and structures are there for whoever comes next,” she said.

O’Hora has named Charlestown’s Ella Brennan as captain for the year with McHale Rovers’ Sinéad Walsh as vice-captain.

Her management team include Tom Mulderrig, Brían Noonan and Noirín Moran as coaches; Martin Connor, strength and conditioning; Michael Schlingermann, goalkeeper coach; Marian McNamara, nutrition; Anne-Marie Kennedy, sports psychologist; Deirdre Devine, female liaison officer; Leo Kelly and Martin O’Hagan, logistics; with Richie Heneghan as the county board point of contact.