Two of the potential names in the hat for the vacant Mayo senior manager’s job have spoken to the Mayo GAA County Board in relation to the job, the chairman of the board, Paddy McNicholas, told the Mayo Advertiser this week. The closing date for nominations for the post was 11pm last night. Speaking to the Advertiser yesterday morning, McNicholas said: “We’ve two men who are interested in the job, with Noel Connelly backed up by Pat Holmes and Kevin McStay who is backed up by Liam McHale. We’ve spoken to both men about the job, one in person and the other on the phone recently. There are a few other names out there, but none of them have come to any of us about it yet.” When asked how many nominations had been received as of yesterday morning, a number of hours before the deadline closed, McNicholas said that he was not aware that any official nominations had been submitted at that stage, but expected them to come in during the course of the day.
Whoever gets the Mayo hotseat will not have to work too hard on getting his side motivated for the opening game of next year’s Allianz National Football League. The fixture list for the competition was announced on Wednesday night, with Mayo opening their 2015 national season away to Kerry on Sunday February 1 at 2pm. The Mayo squad will be chomping at the bit to have a crack at Eamon Fitzmaurice’s men. Mayo have four home games next year along with three fairly long distance away trips to Kerry, Cork, and Derry. The other highlight of the fixture list is the meeting of Mayo and Dublin in MacHale Park under lights on Saturday March 14 at 7pm. The night time games always add a bit of extra spice to the league games and it is sure to be the same next March.
Mayo will follow up their opening day trip to Kerry by welcoming Tyrone the following Sunday at 2pm. They will then have a three week break before Monaghan pay a visit to Castlebar on Sunday March 1 before they make a trip to Derry the next weekend. That game has yet to be confirmed for a throw in time, so it would not be surprising if it was a Saturday night game in Celtic Park. Next up is the Dublin game under the lights, followed by a trip to Cork a fortnight later on Sunday March 29, before Mayo wrap up the group stages of the competition at home to Donegal on Sunday April 5 at 3pm.
