Mayo may draw some comfort from league opener
Dublin’s Cormac Costello and Mayo's Sam Callinan, left, in action during last year's drawn All-Ireland Series game. PIcture: INPHO/Ryan Byrne
Not just a new year for Mayo, but a new era for Gaelic football as the new rules introduced by the FRC begin to get a real examination when Mayo begin their National League season away to Dublin this Saturday night.
It will be Mayo’s first time in Croke Park since these two met in the 2023 All-Ireland quarter-final. Early year promise at the beginning of Kevin McStay’s tenure, which saw Mayo win the Division 1 title, ended in brutal fashion as the Dubs, who won Division 2, swept the Green and Red away in a blue tsunami in the second half on their way to a 12-point win, before going on to lift Sam Maguire.
Based on their two meetings in 2024, the gap has very much narrowed and this could be another close call. Both games were settled by late scores, Fergal Boland winning the league game for Mayo in MacHale Park last February as, like the previous year all of us began to look at the near future with much optimism while the fist of Cormac Costello rescued a draw that, in hindsight, was the beginning of the end of Mayo’s All-Ireland championship, with Derry delivering the fatal blow a week later.
Another set of departures have not helped Dublin’s cause once again, as they prepare for life without legendary duo James McCarthy and Brian Fenton. Between them, they have 16 All-Ireland titles as they formed the crux of Jim Gavin’s all conquering Dublin side of the 2010s, with Mayo fans needing no reminding of how devastating they could be.
Still, talk of Dublin not remaining in the mix is foolish. They still possess men with more Celtic Crosses than anyone else in the game currently, including Ciaran Kilkenny, John and Paddy Small, Brian Howard, Paul Mannion, Michael Fitzsimons and Con O’Callaghan. The latter may not be involved given his exploits with Cuala in the All-Ireland club senior final (managed by Mayo’s Austin O’Malley) but there still remains plenty of weapons in Dessie Farrell’s arsenal to stay with the very best.
Trying to guess Mayo’s starting fifteen for the Dublin game will be a challenge, although two men who will definitely play no part are Aidan O’Shea, Tommy Conroy and Paddy Durcan. O’Shea and Conroy a recovering from ‘procedures’, which was announced by McStay at last month press conference, and both may not see any action in the first few rounds, while it is hoped Durcan sees some game time at the end of the league as he continues his recovery from knee injury sustained against Cavan in the All-Ireland Series.
Quite where Mayo see the League in their list of priorities is difficult to measure. Their 2023 success did not help their championship cause, although the logistics of playing a Connacht quarter-final, which ended in defeat to Roscommon, a week after a league final in Croke Park did no favours. There was no final last year but Mayo were undone in the closing moments of three key games: the Connacht final defeat to Galway, the drawn Dublin game and losing to Derry on penalties.
That evidence suggests Mayo are not as far away as it may seem and while McStay will definitely look to blood new talent, expect also to see familiar faces like Colm Reape, Stephen Coen, Eoghan McLaughlin, Enda Hession, Sam Callinan, Fergal Boland and talisman Ryan O’Donoghue starting or, at the very least, making the bench.
You would have to go back to 2017 for the last time Mayo tasted defeat in the opening round of the National League, when Mayo were beaten in MacHale Park by Monaghan 0-12 to 1-11 and there is certainly more than enough in the Mayo team to suggest that record will not be broken. Since then, Mayo have had four wins and three draws in their opening league matches. Like last year’s affairs, this is another that see a share of the spoils.
