So Mayo have hung the ‘help wanted’ sign outside the front door again. Once the final whistle was blown in Pearse Park at around 8.25pm last Saturday, there was never going to be any other option. John O’Mahony wasted no time in putting to an end his four seasons in charge of the side once the dye had been cast and the terminal whistle on the game and his managment of Mayo was blown by Gearoid Ó Conámha in the fading midlands sunlight.
So the attention now turns to who will be next to take over on the sideline for Mayo; will it be a man from outside or inside the county? Liam McHale has already thrown his hat in the ring; he has previously been involved on the management side under John Maughan as a selector. Paudi Ó Sé said this year in his Sunday Independent column that he’d be able to win and All Ireland with Mayo or Dublin, but would be a long shot to take over the role.
Many people’s favourites to take over the role would be the duo of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes, who guided Mayo to the 2006 u21 All Ireland title and won four Connacht titles on the trot at that grade, but work commitments may rule out Holmes, who has already had a run at the senior job from 2001 to 2003; while he did win the National League title in 2001 championship success escaped him in that tenure.
Peter Ford is another who would be a strong candidate having already managed both Sligo and Galway inside the past decade. In a strange turn of events if he did get the job he would be following in familiar footsteps having taken on the Sligo job in 2000 after Mickey Moran left that post, and in 2004 he took over Galway after John O’Mahony stepped down, with both Moran and O’Mahony the last two men to hold the Mayo job. Ray Dempsey is another name which has been mentioned; the Knockmore man guided Mayo to the last two minor All Ireland finals, and took over the u21 job this year. However he may not wish to go forward this time and stick with the u21s for a few years before going forward when the job comes up again.
The county board executive met on Wednesday night to discuss the future direction that the board will look to. When contacted about the meeting, the county board informed the Mayo Advertiser that they would be making a press release available on Thursday afternoon, unfortunately that release was not available at time of publication.
