Mayo look to upset the odds as Rossies come to town
Mayo’s Adam Kelly outjumps his Galway opponents at midfield in MacHale Park last Friday evening. Picture: David Farrell Photography
It’s a funny old game. Mayo have won each of the last three editions of the Connacht Minor Football Championship and Roscommon just one of the past fourteen yet not even home advantage seems to be swaying the chattering classes into believing the Green and Red will win a fourth consecutive provincial title, when the final is played at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar this Friday evening.
The uncertainty all boils down to one evening in April when Roscommon cut loose to inflict a nine points beating on Mayo, in what was the latter’s second game of the group stage. Mayo might also have lost a subsequent game to Galway but that was inconsequential in comparison; there they fielded what practically was a second team in the knowledge that a second outing against the Tribesmen in the Connacht semi-final was already guaranteed.
But ultimately the table still showed that Roscommon were provincial finalists with four wins from four and a positive scoring difference of 26 points while Mayo needed to go the back door route, coming from behind at half-time to beat Galway in Castlebar last Friday evening.
But if any county is acutely aware of how fickle the form of minor footballers can be, it’s Mayo; memories of beating Galway twice in Connacht in 2022 but losing to the same opposition in the All-Ireland final remain very raw. So to use the April 4 encounter at Dr Hyde Park as some sort of barometer of what to expect when Mayo and Roscommon rendezvous in MacHale Park this week is most likely a futile exercise.
That said, joint managers David Heaney and Tom O’Reilly are unlikely to turn down the opportunity of reminding their Mayo players what the popular opinion is and how sweet it would be to rail against that and reverse the result of five weeks ago.
Adding a level of intrigue to the encounter is the presence of another Mayo man on the sideline in the guise of Shane Moran who is in his first season as Roscommon minor manager. The former Charlestown Sarsfields player, now of the Roscommon Gaels club, also served as selector and coach during the reign of previous manager James Duignan which saw Mayo defeat Roscommon in last year’s Connacht minor final at Dr Hyde Park.
Corner-back Conrad Coghill is the one surviving member of that Mayo team which lifted the Kilcoyne Cup in 2024 while Roscommon have retained corner-forward Shay McGuinness and full-forward Dara Curran in their ranks; Curran, in particular, will take careful watching on Friday considering he scored two goals along with four pointed frees in his team’s 4-15 to 3-09 group win over Mayo this season. There were goals too by Luke Shally and Christopher Feerick while Sam Hannon landed three two-pointers, two of which were from play.
The Mayo team that beat Galway last Friday showed only two changes from that which had lost so heavily to Roscommon, with the Ó Cinnseala brothers from Westport, Fionn and Fiacre, replaced by Patrick Garvey and Tony Carey, the latter making the most of his opportunity by scoring 1-0-3, while Conor Hession, who hit that exact same tally against the Rossies, increased that with a total of ten points against Galway – form he will hope to continue into this Friday’s final.
Hession scored eight of his points from two-pointers in the second-half, his other two points coming from frees in a first-half that ended with Mayo trailing the Tribesmen by 1-4 to 0-8.
“A little more composure and we could have been ahead at half-time,” reasoned Tom O’Reilly after what he described as a “tough enough” game.
“We had a few words with them at half-time. We told them to be a little more patient on the ball and in fairness, the bench came in and made a huge difference, every one of them. And we took our scores.
“We’re happy to be in a Connacht final, it gets us into the next part of the series,” added the joint manager, knowing that win or lose next Friday, Mayo will be up against Leinster opposition (Offaly or Louth) in an All-Ireland quarter-final.
“We wanted to be in the All-Ireland part of the series and we’re there. Connacht games are great, we’re learning as we’re going along,” said O’Reilly, explaining how the earlier ‘free shot’ game against Galway in Tuam Stadium had allowed management to discover more about the depth of their panel.
“We’ve one week to work on what’s going to bring us into the next stage of games. There are some things you are always seeking improvement in.
“We just want to be competitive every day we go out and obviously we’re fighting for a Connacht title, which we want to win. We’ll put our best 21 players forward.”
Mayo are seeking to win four provincial titles in-a-row for a fourth time in history and their first time since 1977-80 whereas Roscommon’s aim is to win a first Connacht U17 crown since 2020 – a final that was played on St Stephen’s Day during Storm Bella at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
