Mayo football is in the abyss. Dumped from the All-Ireland series before July and subsequently manager-less, they find themselves at a crossroads. The next direction, well, is anybody’s guess.
Less than an hour after Mayo were stunned by Longford in the qualifiers last Saturday, a team which had recorded their only NFL wins against lowly London and Kilkenny this year, manager John O’Mahony left the Mayo dressing-room for the last time.
O’Mahony announced to the assembled press that he had taken the players as far as he could and that it was time for him to step aside as county manager.
Mayo supporters are accustomed to demoralisation, but not in the early stages of championship football, and it hasn’t taken long for the questions to pour in over accountability of the senior side’s display.
One man who is unwavering on his ideas of where the football-crazy county should be heading is former Mayo midfielder Liam McHale (pictured above right.)
McHale’s lust for an All-Ireland title has seeped into a third decade after his failure to taste ultimate success as a player, reaching All-Ireland finals in 1996 and 1997. He won an All-Star award in ’96 but his life-long ambition, of which he has made no secret, is to win an All-Ireland with the Green and Red.
Speaking exclusively to JOE, the Ballina Stephenites clubman wears his heart on his sleeve and sends a come-and-get-me message to the Mayo County Board.
“There are a lot of top class coaches in the county,” he says. “The longer this goes on everybody realises how good of a manager John Maughan was. Pat Holmes, who has done a good job at underage level, Peter Forde and myself in the shake-up. My ambition would be to manage Mayo one day. Not just to manage them, but to win an All-Ireland with Mayo. As a player I’m satisfied and happy and my conscience is clear that I gave it my best shot as an individual (to win an All-Ireland).
I don’t want to manage Mayo, I don’t want to do just that…I want to win an All-Ireland with Mayo
“I was part of two very good teams that fell short and were a little bit unlucky and with a little more belief in ourselves we could have won one. I don’t just want to manage Mayo, I just don’t want to do that… I want to win an All-Ireland with Mayo. As a player I believed was good enough and now as a coach I believe I’m good enough.â€
It’s clear that McHale is a graduate of the John Maughan school of play and coaching. He was by Maughan’s side as a selector in 2004 when Mayo fell short to Kerry in another fruitless All-Ireland final. And now, he’s ready to bring his beloved county to the promised land.
We just don’t have red raw, fundamentally solid, talented lads coming through and for a county of our size that is just unforgivable
“Someday, I don’t know it might be now or not, I do believe with the current team and my style of coaching I am 100% positive that I can improve them and bring them back to one of the top five positions that they were under John Maughan and Mickey Moran. We’ve really fallen from grace in the last four years.
“While we lost [finals] in 2004 and 2006 I didn’t think we were good enough to win those games. I believe the teams over-achieved in those years and that is a testament to the lads’ commitment to the jersey. Instead of building on that team and producing a better team down the road, we failed to do that and it was very disappointing.
We keep looking for the best coaches to coach the Mayo senior team. What we need to do is find some top class coaches to coach the under-10s up to the under-18s
“You could bring in Jack O’Connor, Mickey Harte, John Maughan, Liam McHale or anybody else but the coaching at underage level and in school academies and stuff like that is not good enough either. We just don’t have red raw, fundamentally solid, talented lads coming through and for a county of our size that is just unforgivable.
“We have to have a serious look at what’s going on at grassroots levels. We keep looking for the best coaches to coach the Mayo senior team. What we need to do is find some top class coaches to coach the under-10s up to the under-18s and until we do that we’re going to find it very difficult to win an All-Ireland.
“Whoever gets selected has to get there on merit. You can’t be just playing players on big names. Having said that it’s good to have players who have seven or eight years experience. You need a certain amount of experience. I won’t be for clearing the decks. What we’ve shown last year and what we’ve shown this year – it’s just a matter of rejuvenating some of those lads. The Alan Dillons, the Ronan McGarritys and the Trevor Mortimers of this world are very decent footballers. They’ve played in All-Ireland finals and they don’t become bad footballers overnight. Making sure they’re enthusiastic and that they’re willing to fight for their place is important.â€
The Mayo players will have seven months to rest and think about what the future holds for their individual contribution to the county set-up, and the County Board will have the same time to find a new manager.
McHale knows that there are numerous top class managers that are capable of filling the position but if he should be the chosen one, he would be calling on some old friends.
“Every now and then you’ll get lucky with good groups coming through. The time in ’96 Martin Carney was over the under-21 side that lost two All-Irelands, so you had that good group and you had the likes of myself and Dermot Flanagan and people like that already there. In Kerry that’s happening every four or five years. In Mayo that happens maybe every 20 years and that’s because the coaching isn’t right.
“We’re only getting lucky. If the coaching is right at grassroots we’ll be pulling good players through the system on a regular basis. Then we’ll be contesting for big honours year in, year out. That’s what we want. We’re a proud county. We live for our Gaelic football but we’ve let it slip as regards producing the top class players.”
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