Having previously announced that they would be stepping aside at the end of this season, the carrot of playing in next season’s All Ireland senior championship would tempt Mayo management team of Martin Brennan and Pete Finnerty to stay on for another season according to Brennan. Standing in Mayo’s way of achieving that goal are seven other sides and the competition will begin in earnest this weekend.
After an adequate league campaign where two early defeats scuppered Mayo’s chances of making the division three league final, Mayo will get this season’s Christy Ring Cup campaign under way in Tralee against Kerry. The six weeks between the end of the league and the start of the championship have given Mayo plenty of time to prepare for this contest where they played challenge games against Galway outfits, Kinvara, Liam Mellows, Mullagh, and Rahoon/Newcastle, and a lot of good work has been done in the past month and half according to Brennan.
“We really hit the ground hard over the past few weeks since the league finished up, the Christy Ring was always our goal for the year especially after coming so close to making the final last time around. We would have liked to have done better in the league, we got off to a slow start losing two games, but then we won two on the bounce and were unlucky to lose to Kildare in the last game. If we had won that game we would have made the final and had a good shot of winning the title.”
While the long trip to Kerry is going to be a tough encounter, Brennan is confident his side have what it takes to bring home the spoils. “They are all tough games at this time of the season, Kerry are a good side, but so are we, it could have been a tougher opening and we might have had to go away to Down, but that’s not to say that Kerry won’t be a tough side to see off.”
The six weeks since the league has seen a lot of hard work put in by the panel and Brennan is sure that it will show against the Kingdom. “The lads have put in the effort both on the training field and in the challenge games, there are a lot of lads in the side who are around the 28-30 age bracket and they know there won’t be too many seasons left in them, so they are all really putting in the effort to get the most out of it.”
Higgins back in action
The return to the fold of Keith Higgins who is just back from a break in Australia, and the dual players availability to the hurlers for this weekend’s game, despite the senior football side also being in championship action, will be a boost to the small ball men, but Brennan was always sure that Keith would be available for this game. “It’s great he’s available to us for the Kerry game, but I always knew that he would be. I was in contact with him in Australia and he told me he would be. The footballers don’t need Keith this weekend, not being disrespectful, but the footballers know that they’ll beat New York with or without Keith, and I’m sure they’ll be glad that he gets a hard championship game under his belt this early in the season also.” Also returning to action will be Tooreen’s Cathal Freeman who is available for selection again after injuring himself in the Connacht u21 semi-final against Roscommon, an injury that saw him miss the rest of Mayo’s run to the All Ireland u21 semi-final.
That old familiar feeling
The Mayo side that will line out on Saturday will show two changes from the team who lined out in their last league game. Keith Higgins returns to the side and Mayo management have given Kilkenny man David Dowling the starting spot at full forward. Derek Walsh, Aidan Connolly, and Paul Hunt will man the full back line. The half back line sees Brian Higgins, Paddy Barrett, and Conor Ryan taking up the positions. The experienced and established midfield pairing of Stephen Borderick and Pierce Higgins will be the fulcrum of the side in the middle third, and big games will be expected from the Westport and Ballyhaunis men if Mayo are to succeed down south.
The half forward line sees Keith Higgins slot back into the fold at wing forward, while Derek McDonnell will take up position on the 40’ with Eoghan Madigan on the other win. The full forward line sees Dowling who only joined the squad two months ago get the number 14 jersey after impressing in recent challenge games, with Adrian Freeman and Derek McConn playing in the corners.
Time to go or is there time to stay?
After four years involved with the senior hurling panel Brennan admitted that he thought the time was right for a change for both parties, but come the end of the season that could also change. “Myself and Pete didn’t know we’d be back this year at all ourselves. We sat down after the season and talked about it, but we decided to stick it out for this year after having come so close to making the Christy Ring final in 2008. If we do manage to win it this year, we’d have to look at it again after saying that we were leaving at the end of this term, but if we were able to propel Mayo into that level of competition it’s something that would be very hard to leave, that’s if the county board still wanted us.”
