Mayo GAA under fire over vacuum created by review saga
The last few weeks haven’t felt like Mayo GAA's best bit of business.
That's according to a leading national commentators on the sport, Colm Keys.
Writing today in the Irish Independent, for which he is Gaelic Games correspondent, Keys argued the perception has been in the last few weeks that Mayo senior football team manager Kevin McStay has somehow been on the hook for his job for a third year in recent weeks.
"That’s unlikely to have been the reality but it has certainly been a perception only hardened by the communication distributed to clubs on Sunday night and by general email to media.
"News that McStay “will continue” as manager in 2025 inevitably presented a veneer of doubt at some stage that such an outcome was going to transpire.
"A review has been ongoing for some time and apparently concluded only over the weekend, some 13 weeks after their championship exit.
"In that vacuum there has been speculation about backroom change, player responses to a survey that formed part of a review and adverse comments at the most recent county board meeting where some delegates claimed that players were “up in arms,” according to one, and unhappy with coaching according to another.
"Even a weekend meeting between players and management had a ‘summit’ feel to it.
"If there was a push for backroom change from either members of the executive or the dressing-room itself then it has come up short.
"McStay clearly wasn’t going to budge on that one.
"Sunday’s statement didn’t reference Stephen Rochford, Donie Buckley, Damien Mulligan or Joe Canney but by not doing so the assumption is that they remain in place.
"But it has all felt a little clumsy and even needless.
"Perhaps the review could have moved quicker but then, over the summer, the protagonists can have other commitments and not everyone is available all of the time.
"County boards are entitled to conduct reviews, of course. But they should be swift and decisive too, otherwise delays lead to speculation that can have a destabilising effect.
"In this case that may well be the outcome. The green light given to the management hasn’t felt like the most ringing endorsement.
"Had the direction from the review been for McStay to change his backroom team, it’s quite likely he wouldn’t have acceded to it.
"Looking for a manager at this late stage, or even new coaches that would measure up for a team so close to the top and with the ambition Mayo has, would not be easy.
"Just look around and see the difficulties that Derry have had replacing Mickey Harte or even Jack O’Connor had in setting out his new-look team.
"Pádraic Joyce is on the hunt for a replacement for Cian O’Neill but if his first couple of choices are not inclined, where does that go then?
"Mayo could well have been on that journey too.
"The statement cleared McStay for 2025 only but the fact is he took the job for four years and 2025 will be year three.
"Still, you wouldn’t expect that if progress in the form of a Connacht title and even an All-Ireland semi-final wasn’t made next year, three years it will be.
"But events, or perhaps the lack of them, over the last few weeks suggest that clock is ticking.
"If there is a bright side it should be remembered that Kieran McGeeney felt the glare of a similar spotlight in Armagh last summer before he too made it out on the other side.
"And, like Armagh, if Mayo can inject some additional pace into their team and add a little more adventure they’ll be right in the mix again.
"But the last few weeks haven’t felt like their best bit of business."
He added that any assessment of Mayo’s 2024 championship season will land at a conclusion as to just how close they were, without ever being close enough.