Performance satisfies McStay as much as the points

According to Kevin McStay, there’s not much difference these days between the robustness of championship football and the National Football League. It’ll be interesting then to see what gains, if any, his team has made against the side that removed them from last year’s All-Ireland race.

Dublin come visiting Castlebar next Saturday night having beaten Mayo by a dozen points when last the teams clashed, in the 2023 All-Ireland quarter-final. But with both outfits experiencing very different results in last weekend’s opening round of matches in Allianz Football League Division 1, already there is an opportunity for the Green and Red to create some daylight in a division where survival seems to be the aim of everybody’s game.

Mayo posted an emphatic eight points victory over host side Galway on Sunday after Dublin the night before had suffered a rare Croke Park defeat to Monaghan.

“There’s no eternal truths in round one, I can assure you, but two points in the bag puts you a little bit in charge of what might happen over the next few matches,” offered Kevin McStay after his Mayo team’s 2-12 to 0-10 triumph at blustery Salthill. “It’s better to have two now than be chasing them; we’ve Dublin next Saturday and that will fairly sober us up. If we were going into that with zero, everything gets a bit tighter, but maybe we can look at it now through a slightly different lens.” 

The nature of the Green and Red’s win at Pearse Stadium was as impressive as it was surprising, given they played into the stiffest of wins in the first-half yet changed ends in command of a four points lead – a lead they were able to double with the elements at their back for the second-half. McStay retained eleven of the team that had started last summer’s championship exit to Dublin.

“It never feels comfortable coming up here, it just doesn’t. That’s the nature of the contest. But I think we saw it out nicely and I’m happy with that,” admitted the manager.

“Galway won the toss and elected to go with it, which we felt they would, to try and establish a lead. But we went after that, we worked very hard against it and I thought we played a really strong opening half. We’d have been very pleased at half-time with where we were on the board. But way beyond where we were on the board, the performance was tight, it was good, it was energetic, a nice bit of physicality in it as well, [and it was] also consistent, from the throw-in to the 36th or 37th minute, which was great. We might have had a slightly bigger lead but didn’t, and then we managed that as best we could in the second-half.

“At the end of the day, other than a good start and two points, it’s January and you know things are going to be dramatically different further down the road,” said McStay, obviously mindful to quell any overenthusiasm so early in the season.

There were several causes for optimism though. Among the incomers was Moy Davitts attacker Conor Reid who contributed to the cause in a very efficient manner from his right-half-forward berth, playing a key role in the creation of Mayo’s opening goal scored by Eoghan McLaughlin. And on the opposite wing, Bob Tuohy scored an excellent first-half point and hinted he could be primed to build upon last year’s encouraging first term in the county colours. Sam Callinan not only man-marked Shane Walsh but offered a springboard to suggest he could quickly become the long-term solution to Mayo’s centre-back conundrum while behind him, Jack Coyne, the powerfully athletic David McBrien, nor Rory Brickenden hardly put a foot wrong.

In the absence of Diarmuid O’Connor and Matthew Ruane, Mayo happened upon an excellent midfield partnership in Jack Carney and Jordan Flynn who along with dominating Galway’s John Maher and Dylan McHugh, contributed three points from play, which, as Kevin McStay observed, “tells us is that we’re continuing to build it out and we’re getting a little bit deeper into our squad.”

With that in mind, the two points contributed off the bench by Paul Towey, who replaced an out-of-sorts Tommy Conroy, also caught the eye. But it’s fair to say that no one player probably excited the supporters quite so much as Fergal Boland who marked his recall to the panel by kicking three points from play and having a hand in practically everything that Mayo did well in a go-forward sense.

It’s a year since Boland opened up about his feelings at learning that Kevin McStay had decided not to make him part of his plans for 2023.

“I wouldn’t be the sort of fella to start arguing or anything, or to cause any conflict,” said Boland who then, was speaking in advance of an All-Ireland Club hurling final with Tooreen.

“He gives you one or two reasons why you’re gone, or let go, and basically it’s up to yourself then.

“It’s up to me now if I want to force my way back onto the panel, it’s as simple as that. And you just have to be completely honest with yourself. You’re just going to have to get better as a player and play well for your club and then hopefully force your way back next year or whatever.” 

It’s fair to say Fergal Boland took up that gauntlet and ran with it, looking the best of the Mayo forwards on display last Sunday.

“I’m delighted for him, I’m thrilled,” insisted Kevin McStay. “I know you think that Fergal has had a difficult journey; Fergal and us is fantastic. We’ve a great relationship. He has really gone after this with all his heart and he got his just rewards today. He had a really good performance, tired a little bit, which is totally understandable, he’s not too long back from Australia.

“He’s just a really top panel member and he gives it everything every day he goes out for us and that’s good enough for me,” assured McStay who added that he may be in a position to welcome back a couple more players for next Saturday’s clash with Dublin.

“I could name names but then you’ll say I was lying when you don’t see them next week. We are expecting fellas back but the nature of this is, just because they are fit to go out on the grass doesn’t mean they are fit to play National League. It’s a fairly robust contest, these league matches. It’s not too far off championship.

“We’re in good shape in the medical department,” he concluded.