McHale is all about the balance as ladies venture south
Sinead Walsh will hope to inspire Mayo to a big scalp when they face All-Ireland champions Kerry. Picture: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
It has been a tough year for the Mayo ladies and matters don’t get any easier as they made their way to Tralee next weekend to face All-Ireland champions Kerry in the opening round of the championship.
Defeat in the Connacht final to Galway means Liam McHale’s changes will meet the Kingdom as well as Cork in Group 1. A win against either of them may be enough to book a place in the All-Ireland quarter-final, depending on how the all-Munster clash goes a week later, but given Mayo’s year so far, it’ll be a big ask for the Green and Red to get a result in Kerry but the Mayo manager insists they won’t be going to Tralee to just keep the scoreline respectable.
“I think the consensus was that we need to be a little bit more aggressive,” said McHale as he reflected on the Connacht final, which saw Mayo play very defensively. “Obviously we have to be really defensive because we're the underdog in all these games. We will be defensive, but we won't be as defensive as we were.”
Looking back on the Galway defeat at a very wet and windy MacHale Park, Liam McHale felt his team could have been closer had they taken their chances, which has been a problem for Mayo all season. Sinead Walsh found the net from a penalty while Kathryn Sullivan hit the bar, and Clodagh Keane was denied by Galway goalkeeper Dearbhla Gower.
“We pushed up on them and started to play with a bit more aggression. I think we had two or three wides that you’d would expect the girls to kick over the bar. We were better in the second-half but we're trying to get the balance right of being defensive against these good teams and not give them easy scores and trying to get some scores ourselves. We're really struggling to score in the last few games.
“It's hard on the players, especially the younger players. They're trying their best. There's no indication that they're letting go of the rope or throwing in the towel. It's been a struggle all year to take the chances that we're creating.”
Through struggle can come strength however, with experienced trio Sullivan, Nicola O’Malley and captain Danielle Caldwell key in ensuring much of Mayo’s young panel don’t lose their way in a challenging year.
“Dani is captain for the first time after playing for eight or nine years. I'm sure it couldn't have been a tougher year for her, but she has grown and they're all developing in their own way. I know from my experiences that this will stand to them. I know it's a tough ride at the moment. It will get better, and they will improve because of this. They'll be much tougher mentally at the start of next year’s league.”
Aoife Geraghty is likely to miss the Kerry game due to the struggle of the aftereffects of an injury suffered against Armagh in the league. McHale hopes the Westport midfielder will be back for the Cork game but Keane and Saoirse Lally will be available after returning for the Connacht final.
Kerry, meanwhile, have not missed a beat since winning a first Brendan Martin Cup since 1993. They have lost twelve players from last year’s panel, including Louise Ni Mhuircheartaigh (retirement), Hannah O’Donoghue, Emma Dineen, Brid and Eilish O’Connor (all opted out), and Ciara Butler (travelling). They still possess last year’s All-Stars Danielle O’Leary, Niamh Carmody, Anna Galvin and Ashling O’Connell in their squad, along with Siofra O’Shea and Niamh Ní Chonchúir, and all played a part in Kerry winning the Division 1 League final against Armagh and the Munster title against Waterford.
Mayo were blitzed in the second-half when Kerry beat them in Swinford earlier this year but Mayo earned a draw in their visit to Kerry last year and McHale believes there is no reason they can’t do something similar in their ‘free hit’, provided they can get the scores necessary.
“We went down there last year, nobody gave us a hope, and we drew with them in the league. Hopefully we can perform. We have to get 12, 13, 14 points if we're going to be anyways close to them at all, and the reality is we've been struggling to do that.
“When you’re the underdog and you create a couple of chances you need to score them. The way the girls are going, the way they’ve responded all year, we’ll be down there full of energy and full of enthusiasm and we'd be giving it a best shot for sure.”
