Newbies Mayo FC need belief, not begrudgery

In these early days of the Mayo FC project, I have been keeping a close eye on and a keen ear out for any talk that might constitute begrudgery.

Contrary to widely held belief, begrudgery is not totally an Irish thing although we are good at it. Cillian Murphy’s Oscar hasn’t been on the mantlepiece long enough to gather even a speck of dust and I already had someone tell me, “it’s great to have an Irish winner but it’s a pity he’s from Cork.”

Cillian should really be the second Irish Best Actor winner in a row after Colin Farrell, who arguably should have won for his performance in Banshees of Inisherin, a very Irish story about two men, one played by Farrell, the other by Brendan Gleeson, who have a big falling out because one man gets bored of the other’s friendship.

That movie was nominated for Best Original Screenplay as well and probably would have won if director, writer, auteur Martin McDonagh had put a bit more begrudgery at the heart of the dispute. A truly Irish tale, rife with spite and begrudgery would have seen Brendan Gleeson’s character get upset because Colin Farrell’s had won the Achill Rovers club lotto.

That’s the sort of begrudgery the Irish are about. A fella is grand in our eyes until something happens him that elevates him slightly above everyone else and it typically involves money or some level of success.

When it comes to Mayo FC, I have heard stories and stray comments that seem to be begrudging the project before a ball was even kicked. Even when the concept was still but a concept, there was probably a cohort out there who were not in favour of it.

Fears of underage players being hoovered up from local clubs have been bandied about, that young players would be chewed up and spat out and we would all suffer in hell’s seventh circle as a result of this. Oppenheimer’s calculations of a chain reaction that could destroy the entire world paled in comparison to the damage Mayo FC was set to do.

I have yet to run into a true begrudger of Mayo FC myself out in the wild but I am told that these are sentiments that exist, by friends, colleagues and through the grapevine. That is why I am on the lookout for these people, to see if they are really out there because I struggle to imagine they really feel this wretched way.

It is not my intention to force my own opinion on them or to force some agenda on them. I have no agenda, I just love local sport and I like to see our local athletes thrive. Whether that is watching the growth of something like Mayo FC in real time or seeing south Mayo darts player Conor Heneghan excel or the success that our county’s many karate clubs have at national level like the Mayo Karate Academy, to name but one, taking home 20 medals, including 11 gold from an All-Ireland Open in Kildare recently.

My own opinion is that Mayo FC is a worthy pursuit. Soccer in Mayo belongs on the map, so let’s get it on the map. A lot of the right things are happening with the venture into the underage leagues with the U14 and U15 boys’ teams and the U17 girls’ team and let’s hope the growth continues from there.

Let me be clear as well that I am not a shill for Mayo FC. I’ll be the first man pointing out things that aren’t right. The club crest was a well-intentioned design with a lot of thought put into it, but I personally don’t like it, and based on the reaction to its unveiling, quite a lot of people agree with that. The jerseys look brilliant but that away one is a little bit too ‘Portugal at the Euros’ for me. I will be doing plenty more giving out before Shelbourne and Shamrock Rovers come to town in a few years’ time to play under the Umbro Park lights, but I generally and genuinely support the project as whole. I want it to succeed, and so do the majority of people.

I won’t be giving out to the begrudgers when and if I meet them but what I would love to ask anyone who harbours any kind of ill will towards Mayo FC is why? Why do you feel this way towards something that can only be good for soccer in this county? There might be fears and concerns and worries racing through the mind about what will come of this but that is a terribly negative way to look at things. A lot of these fears and concerns about Mayo FC are founded on extraordinarily little because the project has only just begun.

Then, of course, there are those people heavily invested in other sporting codes who are downright terrified of the allure that Mayo FC could have for young players. Those people need to forget about Mayo FC and ensure that their own house stays in order. Remember when Kerry joined the senior ranks of the League of Ireland and the Gardaí came around and seized all of the O’Neill’s footballs? Young people are not going to stop playing Gaelic because Mayo has a League of Ireland team; they’ll stop playing Gaelic or Soccer because they want to play something else. Or at least that should be the reason. If they stop playing because a coach, parent or club member doesn’t want them playing something else, then that is a problem but that is a column for another day.

For anyone who feels in any way uncertain about Mayo FC, my only advice is to attend a match and see for yourself what is being done in this county to develop young players within the Mayo FC project. I attended the U14s game with Longford Town recently and it was joyous to see this group of young footballers carrying the weight of the county colours on their shoulders, representing us all with a style and identity that is being carved out by a coaching staff consisting of all sorts. Head coaches, assistant coaches, goalkeeping coaches, statistics gurus, set-piece personnel, medical practitioners and all the hallmarks of the professional outfits.

A massive effort is being put in and while it is fine to have concerns, worries, et al anxieties about Mayo FC, you need to give it a real, good chance. Will your club’s underage team suffer for losing a talented player? Maybe. But it is not as if talented young players joining a LOI team is a new thing. Before Mayo FC, it was off to Sligo Rovers, Galway United, Longford Town or elsewhere for these players and it still is. The Longford U14s boasted quite a few Mayo-based players in their squad. Mayo FC means we have a chance to hang on to our talented players.

Will there be young players who fail to make the grade? Yes, of course, but there are lessons in that. I was at the Mayo-Roscommon GAA match the evening before the U14s played Longford and Kevin McStay told us after the game that cutting his panel down for the Championship was the most terrible part of the job. Coaches are not inhumane, what they do is part of their remit.

What reassured Kevin McStay was the attitude of those who were left out, asking what they could work on to get themselves back into the picture. I would hope that the coaches of Mayo FC’s academy adopt a similar approach when it comes to letting players down gently and I would hope that the players respond in kind by taking whatever advice is given to them.

This weekend, get yourself down to Umbro Park on Saturday for Mayo FC U15 against Treaty United at 2pm. Drink it in, take some pride in your county and the young men representing them and put your faith in the coaches and people in the background trying to make this thing the best it can be. Just don’t begrudge them their fledgling wings in these early days of learning the art of flight.