By Colm Gannon
They may not be the current kings of the game, but the thought of getting one over Kerry is something that supporters from every other county still relishes. On Sunday in Elverys McHale Park, Mayo will start their Allianz National Football League campaign looking to give those there in support of the green and red that very same satisfaction come full time, and set themselves up nicely to retain their division one status at the very least.
Having gone through the cobweb clearing exercise of the FBD League with a one of each record, beating GMIT, drawing with Roscommon and losing to Leitrim, the real business starts this Sunday for James Horan and his charges, when Eamon Fitzmaurice brings his side fresh from winning the McGrath Cup to Castlebar. One man who will need no introduction to the Mayo set up is Cian O’Neill, who will be back in McHale Park for the first time since he departed the Mayo backroom team after the All Ireland final defeat last year to take up a role as the trainer of the men from Kingdom under Fitzmaurice. In his one year with Mayo, the Kildare man was very highly regarded and that has continued into his newest role, with long serving Kerry defender Marc O’Sé singing his praises in an article in the Irish Examiner at the turn of this year.
Backroom switch arounds
Mayo will also have a man in their backroom team who has an intimate knowledge of many of the Kerry players, with James Horan replacing O’Neill with Donie Buckley who had been part of Jack O’Connor’s managment set up in recent years, and has been involved with the Kerry club champions Dr Crokes as a trainer. While Horan is facing into his third campaign as Mayo supremo for Fitzmaurice it’s his first in charge of the big boys, having previously been a selector under Jack O’Connor and taken charge of the u21 team for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. He was also part of the Kerry teams who dismantled Mayo in the 2004 and 2006 All Ireland finals, where he won two of his three senior All Ireland medals. Fitzmaurice will more than likely be doing without the services of the Dr Crokes contingent as they prepare for their All Ireland senior club semi-final in a few weeks, which would leave him shorn of the services of the likes of Colm Cooper, Eoin Brosnan, and Kieran O’Leary, and with his own club Finuge having made it into the All Ireland intermediate final with a win last weekend, Paul Galvin could also be out of contention as the club build up to their big day in a few weeks.
Mixing the new and the old
As for Mayo, so far this year we have yet to see either double All Star winner Alan Dillon, or back-to-back young player of the year Cillian O’Connor in action for the county yet this year. O’Connor is still overcoming the shoulder he injured in a club game after the All Ireland final, while Dillon has been nursing muscle injury. Other injury concerns included in the build up to the game are Keith Higgins and Ger Cafferkey, while Mayo will of course be without last year’s captain Andy Moran until later in the spring as he gets over his cruciate ligament injury. The FBD League saw Horan give run outs to a number of players looking to stake a more permanent claim in the Mayo set up with Keith Rodgers, Cathal Carolan, Alan Murphy, Conor O’Shea, Darren Coen, James Shaugnessy, Cathal Hallinan, Shane McHale, and Brendan Harrison all given game time, over the hectic seven day, three game, whistle-stop tour of club grounds in the FBD League a few weeks back.
No easy game in this division
How many of those aforementioned players will get game time in the league proper over the next few months remains to be seen as Mayo came so close last year that minor tweaking may be all that is required. But first things first, remaining in division one is not going to be any easy task with Kildare the only team out of the eight division one sides not to have been in the All Ireland final in the past five seasons. While seven of the eight teams have got to the All Ireland final in the past five years, there have also been five different All Ireland champions in that time going back to Tyrone in 2008 and all of them are in division one this year. Having four home games this year will be an advantage to Mayo with Tyrone, Kildare, and Donegal all following Kerry to Castlebar, with two Saturday night road trips to Croke Park and Newry along with a Sunday afternoon game in Cork on the agenda for the seven games over the league run.
The FBD League saw Horan tinker around with his side and try out the experiment of playing last year’s All Star winning wing back Lee Keegan lining out the half forward line. The Westport man showed his versatility in playing quite well there in the outings against GMIT and Roscommon, but his defensive qualities will probably be required further back this weekend. With a number of Mayo players in action in the Sigerson Cup this week Horan will have been keeping his fingers crossed that none of them picks up any lingering knocks that could keep them out of action over the weekend in the season proper opener.
Allianz National Football League
Division One, Round One
Mayo v Kerry
Elverys McHale Park, Castlebar
Sunday, February 3, Throw in: 2pm
