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He was standing arms folded looking up as his team each took their turn lifting the Nicky Rackard Cup high into the sun kissed Croke Park sky on Saturday, but there as a grin from ear to ear on Mayo hurling manager JP Coen. The man known in hurling parts as “the Rock” had just overseen the first senior hurling championship success for a Mayo side in Croke Park.

After getting relegated from the Christy Ring Cup for the first time, getting Mayo back up to that competition as soon as possible was the number one objective for the management team. In looking to achieve that goal, JP Coen and his management team looked south of the border and asked former Galway hurling captain Liam Donoghue to get on board as a coach and the Clarinbridge man duly accepted their invitation.

Mayo dual star Keith Higgins has been named in Mayo hurling manager JP Coen’s starting 15 for Saturday’s Nicky Rackard Cup semi-final against Donegal in Letterkenny at 3.30pm. The Ballyhaunis native will line out for the Mayo hurling side just eight days before the senior footballers get their championship season underway in London next weekend.

Getting relegated out of the second tier of the senior inter-county hurling championship would never have been part of the plan for Mayo, but that was what happened last year when a disappointing season ended with them dropping down into the third tier competition for the first time since the new championship gradings were introduced back in 2005. Up until this demotion Mayo had operated in the Christy Ring Cup and held their own for the most part with the sides in that competition.

The Mayo senior hurlers will take on Armagh in the second round of the Nicky Rackard Cup tomorrow afternoon in Ballina when they take on Armagh, as they look to book a spot in the semi-final of the competition. Last weekend Mayo opened up their Rackard account with a 4-19 to 0-17 win over Tyrone, but it was very hard fought encounter, as manager JP Coen explained. "It was just bad play and a bit of complacency. We hadn't played a competitive game in a good while, probably the journey too didn't help — it's a lot further than you'd think for a bus journey — that coupled with a small bit of rustiness and it took us a while to get going. In fairness to Tyrone, they came at us at a good tempo and they did very well. While we might have looked to be playing badly, we had a few bad wides that could have had us in front at the break, but we found our range in the second half and took it from there."

The Mayo senior hurlers got their National League season off to a winning start last Sunday, when they saw off Donegal in MacHale Park in round one of the league. This year sees Mayo drop down to the Nicky Rackard Cup for their championship campaign in the summer time and we caught up with Mayo senior hurling manager JP Coen during the week to look ahead to the season and what he expects from his charges.

The Mayo senior hurlers get their league season underway on Sunday, when they host Donegal in Elverys MacHale Park at 2pm. Mayo will be hoping to use the league as a learning curve as they have much bigger things on their mind come summertime.

The Mayo senior hurling team management for next year has been finalised this week, last year's manager JP Coen is staying on in charge of the side for another year and his backroom team has been bolstered by the addition of former Galway goalkeeper Liam Donoghue for 2016. Donoghue will join Ballyhaunis duo Dave McConn and Derek Walsh along with Tooreen's Tommy Feeney in supporting Coen as Mayo look to get back to the Christy Ring Cup for the 2017 season.