Team news aplenty as Mayo gear up for Offaly challenge
Supporters will have the opportunity to meet the Mayo senior footballers after next Sunday's challenge match but are reminded that the 'Meet and Greet' will take place beneath the stand on the concourse. INPHO/Ben Brady
While a number of new faces will feature in Mayo’s first ‘public’ game since the appointment of Andy Moran as manager, it’s likely there’ll be a number of familiar names on the team-sheet too, as next Sunday sees the Green and Red take on Offaly in a senior football challenge at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.
Mayo hosting an inter-county game in aid of a local charity at this time of year has become something of an annual event and this year’s beneficiary is Mayo Cancer Support Association. The game (1.30pm) will be followed by a ‘Meet and Greet’ on the MacHale Park concourse where supporters will have the opportunity to have photographs taken and autographs signed by the Mayo players.
Andy Moran has confirmed that Mayo panellists from senior and intermediate club winners Ballina Stephenites and Kilmeena are on an extended rest period, so too players from Westport, and so won’t feature until at least the FBD League.
“I think we have sixteen guys under the age of 22 and the majority of them will be playing Sigerson football so we’ll have to do without them at the start of the FBD League and maybe some of the National League as well,” added Moran.
“The key thing is that you have seven games in nine weeks throughout the course of the National League, and those games, from Offaly next Sunday right through to the end of the league, you need to be playing some of your top guys to get minutes into their legs to make sure you don’t have to go looking for challenges up the country.”
Encouragingly, Moran said the squad is free of any long-term injuries, with Donnacha McHugh on course to be ready for action in early 2026 having undergone a “tiny procedure”.
One man who won’t be playing is Evan Regan. That mightn’t surprise too many given it’s 2019 since the Ballina Stephenites attacker last wore the green and red of county but on the back of some terrific club form that saw him yet again end this year’s Mayo SFC as top scorer, Andy Moran has confirmed that he asked his former teammate if would he care to trade his role as team nutritionist for a place in the squad.
“My job is can we get the best players playing for Mayo, so the question was put to him. I think it would have been remiss of me, after him scoring 2-14 in two county finals, not to ask him if he wants to give this a go, but Evan has decided to stay in his role as nutritionist.”
Regan did travel with the squad to this month’s training camp in Portugal but as Moran explained, “He had the boots with him, he was mad to get in but we didn’t let him in at any stage.”
Another player who will not feature for Mayo in 2026 by choice is Colm Reape who was first-choice goalkeeper for the past three seasons. Adrian Phillips, who featured off the bench in last season’s National Football League Division 1 final for the injured Reape, remains in the squad which also contains Breaffy custodian Jack Livingstone. However, it looks like Andy Moran, judging by his comments, may already be leaning towards Robbie Hennelly as his number one.
In one of his first moves as manager, Moran recalled Hennelly, with 75 league and championship appearances to his name, along with the GAA’s all-time leading championship scorer Cillian O’Connor, James Carr and Michael Plunkett.
“I think Rory Beggan scored fifty points throughout the league and championship for Monaghan last year, which is incredible. It just shows the importance of what players like that can do.
“The two-pointer, you’re up .5 automatically on your score, you get the keeper to set up on a kickout, it’s just a huge area of the game that we need to bring into ours. Not just Robbie but right throughout. Michael Plunkett, you saw what he did throughout the course of the [club] championship, Adam Barrett, Kuba Callaghan, Cillian O’Connor, James Carr… they’re all well able to shoot from outside the arc and that’s a key area of the new game and an area we’ll be chasing,” assured Moran.
After next Sunday’s outing against the Faithful County, Mayo’s next assignment will be the FBD League first round clash with Sligo in Charlestown on Saturday, January 3.
“You’re going to have to play some of your top guys because you need to get minutes into the guys who are going to play on the 26th (National League). Before, the FBD would have been a completely experimental, fifteen new guys, but I don’t believe we have our Sigerson players for those FBD games so there’s going to be a bit of balancing there.”
Next Sunday’s match will see all proceeds donated to Mayo Cancer Support Association. It’ll add nicely to the more than €310,000 that the members of Mayo GAA already helped to raise for the Rock Rose House facility last October in the ‘Brave the Drop’ abseil challenge at Croke Park.
“Everything that goes to Rock Rose House stays within our own community. It’s an amazing charity, the work it does is just huge for families,” said Andy Moran who has encouraged as many people as possible to turn up for the game.
“I just think it’s a really nice Christmas thing to do, if you want to watch a good game of football and get your photo taken with some of the stars who’ll be playing that day. And the big kicker on top of that is that supports this great local charity.”
