It was not exactly back with a bang, but inter-county football was back last weekend for Mayo when they took on and defeated a hard working Leitrim side. January throws up very little in definite road signs for the direction the summer will take, but there were a few new options in route planning on show that will have given both James Horan and the Mayo supporters something to think about in the coming weeks and months.
The return of Barry Moran from injury and into the county colours was a welcome boost and the Castlebar man put in a good shift in the middle of the park, alongside Seamus O’Shea to give an extra option that was missing last year. His clubmate Danny Kirby was given his first inter-county start on the half forward line, and marked his debut with a point before most had settled into their spots in the healthy crowd in the east Mayo town. Kirby has the look and potential to be a serious player at this level, after a number of years of impressive performances under age for the county and with his club side. One of the other returning faces after some time away was Colm Boyle in the half back line, the Davitts’ man had an outstanding year for his club last year and brought that form with him last weekend. He was hard working and efficient on the ball and did himself no harm for the future. However things did not go so well for his fellow Davitts man, Michael Conroy. He was by far and away the stand out player in last year’s intermediate championship and showed he wanted to play for Mayo no matter what the level, by lining out with the junior inter-county team when asked. But on Sunday it just did not work for him and he pulled a few bad wides he would have expected to score, but it is still early days and he deserves an extended look.
Darren Coen will be happy with his first start, kicking two points over the 60 minutes, the second of them a fine effort from under pressure. All eyes were of course on when Conor Mortimer would make his return to Mayo colours after his injury. He got 20 minutes, kicked two points, one the score of the day, set up Coen’s second point with a great flick off, and brought the biggest cheer of the day from the sidelines. All in day’s work for Mortimer in a Mayo game.
Sunday will see the bandwagon roll into Ballinrobe for the second game in the FBD League where the visitors will be the students from GMIT for the occasion. A similar line up, with a couple of changes from last weekend’s game would be expected for this contest, with Horan’s hands tied with some players involved with their colleges and others out through injury. Throw in on Sunday is at 2pm in Flanagan Park, and you can read how the game panned out on Sunday evening on www.advertiser.ie/mayo
