McStay issues warning to New York: ‘We will be going very, very hard’

Clones. The home of Barry McGuigan and apparently, more than one Butcher Boy.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Alexander Pearce, born in Clones and deported to Van Diemen’s Land for stealing six pairs of shoes where he was subsequently hanged in Hobart Town Gaol in 1824 for cannibalism. Pearce’s story, should you care to investigate, is infinitely more interesting – and tragic – than anything that happened in his hometown last Sunday, with nothing hanging on the outcome of this rendezvous between Monaghan and Mayo.

But that’s a different thing than to suggest Mayo had nothing to play for, as was pedalled in some quarters in the run-up to Sunday’s final round of the Allianz Football League.

I wonder if Rory Byrne, who was making his first appearance of the year, felt there was nothing to play for when it was his save from Monaghan substitute Joel Wilson in the very last seconds of second-half stoppage time that meant Mayo won instead of lost their final Division 1 game of the year.

And I wonder if Padraig O’Hora would agree there was nothing to play for when lining out for his first game of competitive football since last October’s county final, and marking it by scoring Mayo’s very last point.

And I wonder if Darren McHale, handed his first start of the year, felt there was nothing to play for when he slammed home the game’s very first goal. And if Eoin O’Donoghue would agree there was nothing to play for when the Belmullet defender started his first National Football League game since the Covid year of 2021.

Or try telling James Carr, bedeviled by injury, that there was nothing to play for when he was sprung from the bench for his first minutes of the season. Or try saying it to Paddy Durcan and David McBrien, who were returning to action from injury just in time for the serious business of championship. Or try even telling it to Aidan O’Shea, who equalled Andy Moran’s 185-game record for the most senior league and championship appearances for Mayo.

An unimportant or insignificant game? No day you get to wear and represent the green and red should ever be described as such. And on that point Kevin McStay was in agreement.

“People think there’s nothing to play for in these last round matches but lots of players on both sides, we’re two weeks out from championship so you can imagine they’re all trying to stake their claims and with that you get a fairly competitive game. It was a touch off championship action, obviously, but the endeavour was there right throughout the game,” said McStay.

And to be fair, whatever Mayo’s failings on Sunday – and there were several of them, even in victory – the one thing that could not be levelled at the players was lack of effort, albeit they were, conceded the manager, “a bit sloppy” at times.

“I’m happy with the two points because it puts us on eight points in the league and when I reflect on it overall, the trip to Kerry, we might have got something, the trip to Omagh, we could have done better, so we know we could have accumulated a decent number of points if the league was our total focus. We went after everything but at league pace, if I can put it that way.” 

The fact that management were able to use 36 players (it would have been 37 had Frank Irwin, named to start last Sunday, not been a late withdrawal due to injury) throughout the course of the seven rounds and comfortably manage to retain Mayo’s Division 1 status is no mean achievement, albeit the dearly sought indicators that the team might have enough about it to become a genuine All-Ireland contender this summer have been difficult to identify.

For example, on the attacking front, Mayo ended the Division 1 campaign having scored 39 points fewer than Dublin. That’s an average of almost six points less per game. They scored 23 points less than Derry, nine points less than Kerry, and on Sunday, against officially the most porous team in all four divisions (Monaghan conceded 148 points in seven games), not one of Mayo’s regular full-forward line of Ryan O’Donoghue, Tommy Conroy and Aidan O’Shea managed to score as much as one point from play. In fact, no Mayo player whatsoever managed to score from play between the 13th and 55th minutes when for most of that time Monaghan were operating with only fourteen players.

And yet asked afterwards for his thoughts now that all focus immediately turns to the start of championship on Sunday week, Kevin McStay offered: “I think we’re in a good place.” 

One thing in the manager’s favour is that the health of the panel is relatively good. There was nothing serious, assured McStay, to the niggles that saw Sam Callinan and David McBrien substituted early in Clones which really leaves just Diarmuid O’Connor as an injury concern – but even he is back on the training field after his hamstring issue against Tyrone.

“We’re going to New York to win a championship fixture, nobody takes chances in championship so we’ll be flat out to do a very decent job in New York and build on the league campaign we’ve had,” said Kevin McStay, quashing any notion that he’ll use the occasion to experiment further with his team.

“Whatever is the best fifteen to start for Mayo, that’s the way we’ll go. There might be a few other considerations in a league campaign but not in championship. And the boys know that we’ll be taking this incredibly serious, very professional.

“We had a great brief during the week with the board in terms of logistics and admin, we have every conceivable box ticked, so that side of the house is sorted. The football now is our side of the house and let me assure you, we will be going very, very hard after that New York game.” 

Next stop Gaelic Park, W. 240th St., Bronx.