Last weekend saw the Mayo Ladies' senior side open their account in the National Football League this season with a defeat registered against them, but in the grand scheme of things, with the confirmation that Cora Staunton, Yvonne Byrne, and Martha Carter would be committing to another season in the green and red coming late last week, the result will be forgotten quickly enough.
The return of the aforementioned trio has strengthened Mayo's hand for the season ahead and even with all three dropping back into the starting line-up on Sunday, Frank Browne still started seven different faces from the ones that lined out against Dublin in their last proper competitive game in the All Ireland semifinal last August, with his half back line the only starting line to remain intact.
While Staunton may have only decided to throw her lot in with Mayo for another season late last week, the Carnacon attacker showed no sign of being rusty, hitting 1-8 for Mayo last Sunday in Swinford. Staunton will always be Mayo's main scoring threat, the fact that they only added on two points from other players, one each from Sarah Rowe and Emma Needham, is something that Browne will be looking to improve on as the league season goes on.
On Sunday Mayo will make the trek to Clones to take on Monaghan in round two of the league at 2pm. The Farney County outfit lost out to Dublin in the opening round last weekend by five points, going down 1-7 to 0-5 in the capital, and last year's Ulster champions will be looking to get back to winning ways themselves on home soil.
Browne will be hoping that Mayo can get up and running on the boards this season with a win on Sunday, before the competition takes a break for a weekend for the third level competitions to take centre stage, before round three on Sunday, February 19, where Mayo are pencilled in for another road trip to Ulster, this time to face Armagh.
