Mayo GAA Discussion

On paper I think the strongest package won out and I'm happy with it. There's a lot of experience there and McStay finally gets his chance. It's going to be very interesting to see the changes he makes with personnel and the approach.

Few roles if any that McStay took on that wasn't self financed. Looking at how well stocked this management team is I presume he's got the same wealthy backer as Horan had in the place.

Can't wait for the league to start. With the All-Ireland on so early this year, it makes for a long wait until next January (I think it starts back in January).

One of the main objectives next year should be to try to keep the lads injury free, if that is possible to manage. Injuries killed any momentum that we had for the year gone by - especially when it became apparent that Tommy Conroy and Ryan O'Donoghue's injuries were long term. We were playing on borrowed time from there on. Did well to get to the quarter final stage.

Not sure how much credit McStay can be given for improving Roscommon forwards. He took over at a time that Roscommon had successful period at U21 level which included a number of decent scoring forwards.

This is the ask off McStay if he wants to win an All Ireland. He has to find forwards and develop them in the same vein as ROD and Conroy, otherwise get comfortable with deja vu. COC is not the same player he was and I hope he comes back as well as DOC, but with ROD/Conroy back in the fold, he will need guys of this quality to make that difference. Where they are - maybe they exist in the mayo development panel and are "ripe" or maybe they exist in some club like Kilmaine (one comes to mind from here). He is the manager and this is his job to find/develop these guys and this is why I say he has a huge building job. The ask is huge on him.

Colm Boyle was on OTB this morning and he mentioned about two players who have been impacted by injury that could fill some gaps. One was Mark Moran from Westport who promised a lot in the league in 2020 and hasn't been seen since. Then McBrien was mentioned. He's a full back and Boyler reckoned that he could fill that spot well to release Keegan into a more roving role.

Interesting that he also spoke about McStay favouring O'Shea as a full forward. That has been tried and could be a different emphasis put on it with perhaps more diagonal ball coming in and ROD or Tommy following.

IMO, one of the issues facing McStay is compatibility of Cillian and ROD. For me the chemistry hasn't been there between them the couple of times they played. Maybe Cillian becomes an impact player off the bench? How they can gel further I am unsure.

Which games in particular did Cillian and ROD not work together? Against Galway Ryan got 4 points from play. The previous championship game they played together was the 2020 AI final where Cillian got 9 points (4 from play) and Ryan scored 2 points. I remember them linking up very well that day actually.

I'd be half expecting he'd keep the head down. Maybe he might address clubs at the next board meeting or something along those lines or via official mayo gaa websits. Be interesting to see if he and his backroom team have a big presence at the club championship over the next few weeks. Can be find new players or breath life into the existing ones.

Still don't see why you think they don't work well together? Cillian didn't score from play vs Galway, but it was his first game in 10 months. Ryan was very good that day so Cillian clearly didn't hinder him.

The evidence of them playing alongside each other is very positive so far. Hopefully both will get a clear run of fitness next year.

Isn't he playing in the US?

Not a hope,he did his cruciate in Feb.I believe he is over in the US for the summer though.

Depending on the severity of it he might not even be back for the start of Mayos league campaign next year (I'd be hoping he would though)

Didn't hear it so going on your message .... Boyle was a great player but when I hear stuff like releasing Keegan when the man has miles up on the clock and cannot deliver to the same level he was savage at, AOS to full forward when he can't score and has lost the pace. Living in the past imo. Keegan is still solid in the full back line but moving him to the HB line is asking too much off him at this stage of his career and not been fair to him. We have Durcan and EOL who are excellent in this role and we don't need Keegan in there.

We have loads of Mark Moran's in the panel but they just don't move into the ROD/Conroy level. Why...well that is the question but I suppose it comes down to quality. Boyle is basically favoring the guys he played with and while this is "nice", it does not cut it and I hope McStay can see beyond this chatter. It will be really interesting to see what McStay does as the last two all irelands were "handy" ones for Tyrone and Kerry.

Yes you would hope Tommy can come back and continue to be on the arch he was on.He does have youth on his side and from what I hear is a determined character.All this is positive of course but there's no guarantee he'll still have the same level of pace.Confidence that the injury has actually healed is a big thing aswell,he has to trust its OK and this can take time aswell.If he got a few games under his belt early in the league I'd be hoping he might be coming into form/confidence next spring.A lot of ifs,buts and maybes though!