McHale optimistic but knows Mayo must be more ruthless

In the wake of Mayo's opening round defeat in the All-Ireland Championship, Mayo senior ladies football manager Liam McHale offered a candid assessment of his team's performance against Dublin. And yet despite the 1-10 to 0-5 scoreline at Parnell Park on Sunday, McHale found several positives to highlight, particularly in the first-half.

“We were very happy with the way we played in the first-half. We normally don’t play that way, but we wanted to try and be clever,” McHale said after the game.

“We didn’t want to go toe-to-toe with Dublin for 60 minutes with a game in six days’ time. We were 0-5 to 0-2 behind at half-time and not in bad shape.” 

The first-half strategy, focused on patient play and possession, saw Mayo staying competitive. However, the second-half proved more challenging.

“We had a couple of chances early on in the second-half, we didn’t take them. Dublin got the goal, obviously there was a lot of talk that it was a square ball. That set us back a good bit, but we had some really good opportunities,” McHale said. “Little things like that, that we have to work on and get better. That’s decision making.” 

The former Mayo men’s coach acknowledged the youth and inexperience in his squad, noting the tendency for younger players to rush plays.

“A lot of young players play with massive enthusiasm and energy, and sometimes that’s great, but sometimes it can be a hindrance. A lot of really good young players with potential don’t reach their potential until they let the game slow down for themselves.” 

One particular period encapsulated the manager’s frustrations. “There was one passage of play, we held the ball for four minutes. God knows how many passes there were, but we didn’t get a score out of it. It ended up being turned over by Dublin in the end,” McHale recounted.

“We were quite happy with the score at 5-2, and then we felt with the breeze we had a chance. But we missed those chances early on in the second-half.” Dublin’s third quarter goal from Carla Rowe was a turning point. “You’re like, the game is nearly busted then at that stage because of the quality of the team that you’re playing,” mused McHale who, looking forward, emphasised the importance of converting possession into scores.

“We have to try and improve. We obviously have a recovery session tomorrow, (Monday), practice on Tuesday and Thursday, and some video analysis. We’ll show those opportunities and go over it again,” he said. “With a young team, that’s all they can do, just keep trying to get better, and you have to be patient.”

The scheduling challenges Mayo faced were also a topic of discussion. “We had a six-week break and a five-week break in between the league, and we found it very hard to get challenge matches. Teams just weren’t available due to exams or injuries,” McHale noted. “Now we have two big games in six days. If they could juggle the scheduling a little bit, it’d be better.” 

Despite the loss, McHale and his backroom and players are optimistic ahead of next week’s home game against Kildare.

“Even though it was a loss today, I think the management and the players will take a lot of positives from it,” he said. “Now, we have to try and get up for six days’ time.” 

Kildare, Mayo’s next opponent, presents a different test.

“They won’t have had the game today. They’ve had a couple of losses recently but in the last few years, they’ve had a pretty good winning run,” McHale observed. “We played today, so you’d be hoping that this game would bring us along.

“We lost by eight points to the best team in the country today. We only scored five, that’s disappointing, but we’re at home next week. We’ll have the Ballina crowd behind us and hopefully we can put in a performance.” 

The game will throw-in at 2pm at James Stephens Park this Saturday, June 15.