McStay confident Mayo will improve in 2025

Kevin McStay believes his side is ‘very close’ to a breakthrough, with preparations for the 2025 season now in full swing.

The Mayo senior football team returned to collective training at the beginning of December and recently held a camp in Belmullet. The first chance for supporters to get a glimpse of Mayo in the New Year will come on Saturday, January 4 when they take on Monaghan in a charity match for the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association.

The game is at 6.30pm in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar.

After a review of their 2024 campaign, Kevin McStay is upbeat about Mayo’s chances in the season coming, in what he feels is a ‘wide open’ league and championship.

“There's so many teams that will be bullish, exactly like we are here in Mayo, certainly in our group, in our squad,” the manager told media at a press conference at MacHale Park. “We think we're up there without anybody else, but we have to prove that now. Last year, we had big moments, in big, big games. Dublin, Galway, Derry, especially come to mind. Big games, big moments. But they're gone now. I can't be going through those three games in the minutiae. All I can say is there is a learning there for us.

“We have to be better in those critical moments and the proof of the pudding [will be] next July or August, we'll know whether we've been better in those moments. My expectation is that we will be.” 

The details of that review, overseen by Mayo County Board, will remain in-house said McStay, but he acknowledged a failure to close out big games was a problem.

“There was a frustration in the way we closed out maybe some of the bigger games. But then I would say six or seven teams left this year's championship as a result of one point, so there's a lot of teams in that space where the margins are very, very tight, and of course we can be better at finishing the games and that will be a focus among many other ones.” 

A number of players have left the Mayo panel following the end of the season. Goalkeeper Rob Hennelly has retired while Cillian O’Connor, Padraig O’Hora, Michael Plunkett, James Carr and Rory Byrne have all opted out for a variety of reasons and McStay thanked them all for their contributions since he arrived as manager in late 2022.

“The effort they put in to be part of a Mayo senior setup, some of them travelling from Dublin, all their young lives, the camaraderie that they have when they're in among us in the group, it's very hard to leave that behind you. The joy of putting on a Mayo jersey and playing for Mayo, it's a huge, huge part of their lives and all the excitement that comes from being at a top level county in Gaelic football.

“It’s really important I say that I respect all those decisions. It's very important that I wish them well. They've given me and my management team so much and the group so much over the last two years.” 

O’Connor’s decision to leave made the headlines and McStay revealed he urged the Ballintubber clubman not to retire.

“I’m not going to go into personal detail because obviously I have huge respect for Cillian,” McStay outlined. “But it’s been happening with every county team in Ireland where people step away for work or for personal reasons.

“In Cillian’s case, he was a double minor and I think he did 14 years [at senior]. That’s 16 years. He’s 32. That’s half his life. So obviously I’m going to respect whatever his decision is and in discussions I had, I would have strongly encouraged him not to retire if that’s the way he was feeling, and to give himself the option.

“Who am I to say? I would never put an end to a guy’s ambition to play for Mayo, any of them,” he stressed.

“There’d be plenty of people I always feel that will retire you when it’s ready, so stay open to the possibility for as long as you can.” 

New additions 

Goalkeeper John Vahey is among a number of players who Kevin McStay has called into the Mayo senior football panel for the first time. The manager confirmed the addition of the Breaffy clubman but the Western People understands that Evan Ivers (Belmullet), Jack Melvin (Davitts), Davitt Neary (Breaffy), Dylan Prendergast (Louisburgh), Niall Treacy (Davitts) and Cian McHale (Moy Davitts) are also training with the panel currently.

“Everybody should know and understand the jump from a very good club player to coming into the inter-county scene is so significant. The training load, way of life, dedication… some of these lads will be dealing with driving from Dublin two or three nights a week for the first time in their lives. Not simple,” explained Kevin McStay last week. “Then when they get here in training, hard sessions, physical sessions, trying to get them ready for what's ahead of them, so it doesn't very often happen that it's an immediate transition.

“We had one, Sam (Callinan), maybe in recent years, those sort of players, the way they're built, they can make it in year one or two. But what I will say is there's some very, very exciting young players in there. I don't know how it's going to pan out for them yet because there’s another three or four weeks of the preseason before we start looking at a National League panel.”