It all starts here on Sunday at 3pm local time (8pm at home ), the All Ireland senior football championship in its celebratory 125th year gets under way with the footballers of Mayo taking to the field in Gaelic Park, roughly 3,047 miles from home in McHale Park, Castlebar.
While no one in his right mind is entertaining any fears that Mayo will come unstuck against the ex-pats, the weekend will give John O’Mahony and his management team a chance to run their eye over their charges ahead of their challenge on home soil on June 20. The ex-pats themselves will feature a distinctive green and red tinge on Sunday with Robert Moran (Moy Davitts ), Dermot Keane (Knockmore ), Declan Reilly (Castlebar Mitchels ), and John McNicholas (Kiltimagh ) all part of the Big Apple set up who are under the guidance of Donegal man Seamus Smith this year. There will be a number of Mayo’s 30 strong championship squad not taking the flight out to New York for a number of reasons, four players Kenneth O’Malley (Ballinrobe ), Seamus O’Shea (Breaffy ), Mark Ronaldson, and Conor Mortimer ( both Shrule-Glencorrib ) have exam commitments, while recently returned dual player Keith Higgins will be lining out for the Mayo senior hurling side in the Christy Ring Cup in Kerry instead this weekend. The organisation of the trip itself was a complicated event as John O’Mahony explained. “The whole planning of this trip has been worked on for at least the last few months, we had to find out when some of the players were doing exams and to see if they could come, unfortunately some can’t make it. But the county board have done a good job in organising the whole thing, all we have had to do is to concentrate on the football.” Even without the five players not travelling, Mayo are unlikely to be taxed too much by the exiles.
Mortimer to lead the line
Last weekend Mayo manager John O’Mahony announced that Trevor Mortimer would be taking over the captaincy of the side this year from Ronan McGarrity, with Peadar Gardiner retaining the vice-captaincy of the team. The vastly experienced Shrule-Glencorrib man has been playing senior football since the turn of the decade and picked up two Connacht senior medals in 2004 and 2006, along with a national league division one winner’s medal from 2001. He will also be following in the footsteps of his brother Kenneth who captained Mayo to a Connacht title in 1999, when Mayo defeated the then All Ireland champions Galway, who were under the guidance of John O’Mahony at the time in Tuam stadium. The selection of Mortimer is a reward for the good form and hard work that he has shown lately for Mayo according to O’Mahony. “He’s been in the side since 2001 and has been a great servant to Mayo. He had a great run in the league and for the first time in a while he has been injury free which has been great for both him and the team. He’s a great leader on the field and everyone in the panel looks foward to him playing the captain’s role.”
This will be the second time that Mayo have clashed swords with New York in the Connacht championship, since they became the second exiles to enter the competition after London. In 1999 it was the New Yorkers who made the long haul flight to take on Mayo in McHale Park, where they put up a very solid showing going down 3-12 to 0-10 in the end. Four years later Mayo made the return trip to New York where Conor Mortimer hit top form and scored 1-12 of Mayo’s 3-28 in a facile win that kick-started Mayo’s run to that year’s All Ireland final.
Casting an eye on the action
Sunday will also give O’Mahony the chance to give a first competitive inter-county run out of the season to both James Nallen and David Heaney who did not partake in the national league campaign. Both of these veterans will bring a great deal of experience to the Mayo panel for the forthcoming championship assault. While his brother Seamus is grounded this weekend due to exam commitments, Breaffy teenager Aidan O’Shea could be in line for his first senior inter-county championship start in this game, but will face tough opposition from Barry Moran, the Castlebar Mitchels’ man recently returned from injury who put in a good showing against Aghamore in the league last weekend for his club. The overall shape of the line up should not deviate to much from the side which finished the league campaign, with the possible exceptions of Heany and Nallen being given the nod ahead of two other players to get some game time into their legs before the summer really starts.
A couple of hundred faithful supporters are expected to shake off the recession and make their way to 240th Street off Broadway in the Bronx. For those left at home who want to keep up to date on the action, MWR will be broadcasting the game live at 8pm on Sunday.
