Connelly and holmes to cut mayo senior panel

The Mayo senior management team of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes are to draw up a panel for the remainder of the league this week, writes Aiden Henry.

Since the start of the year, joint managers Holmes and Connelly, along with selector Michael Collins, have given a huge number of fringe and new players the opportunity to stake a claim on the senior panel.

Throughout the FBD League and the opening two rounds of the national league plus the Under 21 Hastings Cup, many players were afforded competitive action. Such was the huge number of players brought in that a little pruning is required for the remainder of the league.

However, joint manager Noel Connelly told The Connaught Telegraph that they will be reviewing their panel on an ongoing basis and will be advising those who don’t make the panel to keep their focus on their fitness because if they are playing well with their clubs, county Under 21s or colleges, they could be asked to rejoin the panel.

Said Noel: “It is not an easy job for us to cut the size of our panel down as there is very little between many of the players. We have delayed cutting down the panel up to now so as to give every player we brought in every chance to show their worth, and I want to stress that this panel will remain open. If players are playing well with the clubs, Under 21s or colleges, they could well be brought back in. There is almost always the case where a player or players could pick up injuries and we might have to call lads in to replace them. The one thing is that our panel will remain open and players will come in and go out of it.”  

While it is expected that most of last year’s panel will be kept, it will come as no surprise to see a number of them having to make way for some new talents that have shown up well this year.

With regard to the goalkeeping duties, Mayo have three excellent ‘keepers in Robert Hennelly, David Clarke and Kenneth O’Malley. If one has to be dropped it is very difficult to see who it will be.

For the backs, most of the players who were there last year will again be involved. However, the likes of Stephen Coen, Darren McHugh, Pat Durcan, Michael Hall and Caolan Crowe have all done well and will be confident of making the panel.

The selection for the middle of the field will be very interesting. You have the two O’Sheas, Aidan and Seamus, Barry Moran, Jason Gibbons, Tom Parsons, Donal Vaughan and Alex Corduff. While the management have the option of adding the likes of Vaughan to the backs and Aidan O’Shea and Barry Moran to the forwards, it is hard to see all seven making the panel.

Up front there are several options open to the management. With all of last year’s forwards available, they will get stiff opposition for their places from the likes of Adam Gallagher, Danny Kirby, Neil Douglas and Mark Ronaldson.

With the start of the Connaught Under 21 championship only weeks away, I am sure the management will be keeping a close eye on a number of players, such as David Kenny, James Stretton, Kevin Lynch, Cian Burke, Sean Regan, Matthew Ruane, Val Roughneen, T.J. Byrne and James Durcan. They have all been playing well and have shown enough to suggest they are capable of playing at the highest level.