The Mayo ladies' senior football team have got their season off to the perfect start with three wins from their opening three games. On paper it looked like the toughest of starts that Frank Browne's side could have had away to the defending All Ireland champions Cork, before Dublin came to Mayo the following week, and then a trip to Tuam to take on a Galway side that have claimed the last four Connacht titles. But Mayo have come out of those three games with three wins out of three and have set themselves up nicely for a crack at the league title.
Mayo manager Frank Browne spoke to the Mayo Advertiser this week about the great start to the season his side has had and their ambitions for the year ahead. "It's a really good start to the year for us, and we got back and were training hard early on and we're well organised and structured and got the really boring stuff sorted out early. I suppose we got hurt a little bit last year with people going on J1s and various bits and pieces, but we've got all those people back so that's a bit help as well," he said.
Mixing youth and experience
Browne had used the Connacht Winter League as a proving ground for some new players but he has a fairly settled squad now that are full of confidence. "That was the plan of action [to try some new players out in the Connacht Winter League], if we see there are other players who are really standing out they are welcome by all means, but we've a fairly settled group and we're training away now and doing our business.The Connacht Winter League was great because otherwise you're going on the chicken and chips circuit looking for challenge matches and games and what not, like looking for pitches. This was games set up ready to go and go and play them, it's great. It gives you a chance to have a look at people when the pressure isn't so much, because when the league is up and running and we had Cork, Dublin, and Galway in the first three games you have to be playing nearly close to your full team at that stage, to make sure you're competitive.:
With three wins under their belts a place in the semifinals at least is the next objective for the side, he said. "The real thing for us now is that if we could get one more win it would nearly book us a place in the semifinals, and that takes the pressure off, and when you win the first three games in the league the pressure kind of comes off you and goes on to other teams a little bit and that's where we are now."
Mayo had to battle hard to get the win last weekend against Galway, falling behind a few times before they came good at the end, but you have to earn the bit of luck you need to win these games according to Browne. "It was a big thing, we kind of saw that too against Dublin to a certain extent, now we didn't go behind in that game we went ahead, but we gave away two goals and that's something we're going to have to look at, but that day we came back with the next three scores. With the Galway game they got ahead of us and then we fought back, if you compare it to last year against Kerry in Limerick in the All Ireland quarter-final, they got a goal and pulled ahead of us and we lost our shape completely for the next 10 minutes and the game was gone. That was a big thing we looked at this year when Dublin came back at us, we kicked on, and the same thing with Galway, we went a few points behind but we kept working away and got our bit of luck, not that you get luck, you earn the luck. But you need to be in the situation that if your bit of luck comes you are in the situation to take advantage of it, like a ball hit the post and it dropped to Sarah Rowe and she got a goal and there was only two in it. But we were in the situation that we were still able to strike form there and we were in the position to close out the game and win by one in the end."
Taking it one step at a time
With just Mayo and Galway playing at senior level in Connacht, getting to the knock out stages of the league is a big bonus for their preparations for the championship in the summer says Browne. "I think semifinal of the league is the first ambition and see where that takes us then, the other value of getting to a semifinal or final of the league apart from winning it, which is great, is it's all giving you more time and better games to prepare for the Connacht final. Ultimately it's the Connacht title then after that we'll see. A big target for us is to win back the Connacht title, Galway have won it four years in a row."
Last year from the midway point of the league Mayo were out of contention for a spot in the play-offs so the focus switched to the Connacht championship. This year Browne hopes they will have more competitive football played before that focus switches this time around. "We were awful, awful disappointed [to lose the Connacht final], we put a huge amount of effort into the Connacht final last year, it was our one sole focus nearly from this time last year after Kerry had beaten us in the league and put us out of contention for a semifinal place. We switched focus then and spent four months getting ready for Galway believe it or not, and we were incredibly disappointed, it was a nice one to get a win there last week against them, and it's great for confidence and winning breeds winning."
Cora Staunton has been getting the headlines once again for her scoring displays for Mayo, but it is about a lot more than her says Browne, and he says Staunton would be the first to admit that herself. "She'll be the first to say, it's not just the Cora show, she'll tell you that there are players making runs and giving her the ball and doing plenty of work and winning frees to get her in scoring positions. That being said, I don't care whatever level of football you're at be it men's or ladies', if you've got one chance and need someone to slot a free, it would be Cora. Because she's got ice in the veins, she'll back herself. You only ever really see that in professional sport where a player continues to back themselves, she's exceptional, she really is."
Coming back for more
Last year Mayo's season came to a close in Limerick after Kerry got a run on them early in the second half and Mayo could not pull back the lead. Browne had no doubts that he was going to come back for another crack at an All Ireland with Mayo this year and neither did the players. ""It's great to be back with them, in someways it was a disappointing end to last year, but after that game in Limerick we all said we'd come back and have a right good crack at it this year and see where it takes us, everyone is back and now we're ready to dig in and hope for the best. The way we're looking at it this year is, let's throw the kitchen sink at it and work as hard as we can, at least if we win brilliant, if we lose we can say we left nothing behind and that's the big overriding emotion, let's throw everything at it and see where it takes us, if we're not good enough, there's no dishonour in that."
