Late Christmas present for Mayo GAA fans with Mullin staying put
TYNAN'S TAKE: By Stuart Tynan
The returns of Cillian O’Connor and Jason Doherty from injury are a huge boost but there is no doubting the biggest story as far as the Mayo senior team goes ahead of the National League starting at the end of this month.
That broke late last Sunday evening as Mayo GAA announced that Oisin Mullin will not be going to join AFL side Geelong and will remain playing with Mayo for least another year.
Like many others, it was disappointing, but not surprising, to hear the news of Mullin heading to Australia was confirmed. For a man of his athletic talents, he was going to be on their radar at some stage and it was a case of wishing him all the best when the time finally arrived.
But the situation dragged on and on. And on again. Even though he reportedly signed a deal in November, there was still no sign that he was on the way to Australia in early January.
Speculation grew that he was set to stay when Mayo GAA didn’t give any clear indication that he was leaving after the FBD League match against Galway.
In time, we’ll learn the reasons as to why Mullin chose to stay. Maybe someone has a magic lamp and wished for him to stay, as well as wished to win the big €19 million jackpot. As they have one wish remaining, might I recommend they wish for another thing to take residence in Mayo this year after being away for over 70 years.
If you could, that’d be great.
HISTORY IN THE MAKING?
History beckons for two Mayo GAA clubs this weekend with the prize of an All-Ireland final at stake.
Tooreen will hope third time is the charm as they take on Naas in the All-Ireland intermediate hurling semi-final. Over the past new number of years, they have got a couple of monkeys of their back in not just winning a maiden Connaught intermediate title in 2017 but doing it again in 2020 to prove that it was not a one-off.
I was lucky to be at a media event over the weekend at Adrian Freeman Memorial Park for Tooreen’s upcoming semi-final and what struck me is how relaxed and confident they are. As mentioned, they have been here before and have a bigger pool of talent to choose from following the injection of some young talent into their squad.
Meanwhile Castlebar Mitchels look to reach their own maiden final as they take on Desmonds in Josie Munnelly Park today (Saturday). They have sailed through the championship so far but undoubted face their toughest test to date this weekend.
The very best of luck to both sides.
*You can read Stuart's full column every Tuesday in our print edition.