A couple of months into his reign as manager of the Mayo ladies’ senior side, Tuam native Kevin Reidy is looking forward to his side’s National League division one final against Cork on Saturday May 9. “I’m looking forward to the final, it was a very tough game last Sunday against a very physical Laois side.” Reidy’s ladies’ side came out on the right side of a 3-10 to 0-13 win in Aghamore thanks in no small part to a player of the game display from Kilmaine sharp shooter Emma Mullin. She hit 3-4 for Mayo from play, while Cora Staunton landed five points on the day, four of them coming from frees as she was shackled by the Laois defence.
While the experienced players have all stood up to be counted once again this year, the input of the younger players in the panel is something that Reidy has been really impressed with. “We’ve been building towards the championship since the start of the year so we tried to give a number of the younger players a run during he league and we managed do that, and they have all stepped up when given the chance, which is great to see and good for the future of the game.”
While getting back to being within an hour of picking up some silverware before the championship action heats up is a great achievement, Reidy knows that it is not going to be easy. “Cork have been raising the bar every year for the past number of years and it’s up to us to reach it. We have two weeks to get ready to face them, they looked very good against Dublin so we will have to sit down now and prepare ourselves to better them in a fortnight.” The last time Mayo were in the league final was in 2007 where a win in that competition spurred them on to an All Ireland final spot, and Reidy will be hoping that a similar result the next time out can spur them on a similar run.
