Larkin looking forward after Laois loss

There are not many inter-county games that teams go into certain of defeat but Sunday at home to Laois was one of those for the Mayo senior hurlers.

Facing a team who operate two championship tiers above Mayo is hard enough on a normal day. Add in the fact that Mayo were missing the bulk of their Tooreen contingent and a total of eight players from the starting team in last year’s Nickey Rackard final and the challenge becomes nigh on impossible.

“It was a hard draw, Laois at home in the first game, it is probably one of the toughest of the whole lot down the line,” said Mayo manager Ray Larkin of their approach going into the game. “We had to just focus on ourselves. We’ve a nice bit of work done and we just have to bring that out on the field, forget about the result and work on stuff we want to work on. We’ve good lads coming back, we’ve a couple of lads injured, hopefully in three weeks’ time we will be a different team.” 

It was a chastising first-half for the Mayo hurlers, trailing by 28 points at the break and only scoring one point themselves, right on the stroke of half-time. What do you say in the dressing-room after such an experience?

“It’s just about pride and working hard,” said Larkin. “Laois are far superior than we are but we still have to work hard and once you work hard, anything could happen. We worked hard in the second-half, we made a few changes too which worked as well and you always take some positives out of the game and to score twelve points, we’re kinda half happy.

“There was a strong breeze there in the first-half but you have to take some positives out of the game and to lose the second-half by a point against Laois, listen we’ll take it. The lads worked hard, that’s all we could ask them for. We got a couple of nice scores in the second-half and in terms of Laois, they’re a serious team and they’re big men, compared to some of our lads.” 

Ryan Duffy (‘a class hurler’) with ten points was Mayo’s best player by some distance while Larkin also singled out Oisín Ivers, Cormac Phillips and debutant Michael Gallagher at corner-back.

“This was a tough baptism of fire, some of them held their own, we’d a good second-half and we’ll be putting that home when we go in there (dressing-room), that we’d a good second-half, they got twelve points and we will push on from that.” 

After winning Division 3 last year, Mayo find themselves in a Division 2 where they are the only team from the Nickey Rackard championship. Three of the teams (Laois, London and Westmeath) are two tiers above in the Joe McDonagh while the other three (Derry, Kerry and Meath) are one tier above in the Christy Ring.

Ray Larkin is clear about where their priorities lie this year after their agonising loss in last year’s Nickey Rackard final against Roscommon in Croke Park.

“The league is the league but the Nickey Rackard is really what we are aiming for. We just need to build and work on a few bits in the league and see what happens and hopefully win a game or two and stay up,” he said.

It was very notable to see nine different Mayo hurling clubs represented in the matchday panel and seven Mayo clubs among the starting 15, a sign of the development of many new clubs in the county in the past decade.

“Nine different clubs were represented there today. I think I counted 11 or 12 lads who pulled on a Mayo senior jersey for the first time, we’re building and we cannot be relying on the Tooreen players the whole time,” said Larkin.

“Mayo hurling is in a good place and they got their chance there today and we’ll have London away next weekend, another tough game and Derry then again, both were in the Christy Ring final (in 2025) which is a division above us so it is tough but that’s the joys of winning it last year.” 

Four Tooreen players featured on Sunday. Jack Trench started while Fionn and David Delaney and Padraig Mooney came off the bench. The bulk of the Tooreen contingent are set to return to training imminently but may not feature in Ruislip next weekend.

“They’ll be back next week but the London game, these boys have been training since the start of December so we will work away with what we have for the time being and push on from there hopefully,” admitted Larkin.

He is, of course, the Tooreen manager as well so has been one of the busiest gaels in Mayo in recent weeks.

“Busy alright! Gone out of the house a good bit but it’s enjoyable. You don’t do it if you don’t enjoy it but, yeah, fully focused on this now,” he said.