Mayo ladies footballers in must-win All-Ireland clash v Cork

It's all-or-nothing for the Mayo Ladies when the Cork team bus rolls into MacHale Park on Saturday. The victors will remain in the competition, the vanquished will head for a relegation death-match. 

Liam McHale and his management team aren’t naive and know that results this season haven’t been good enough.

READ MORE: Mayo LGFA club league semi-final results from the weekend

The visit of the Rebels represents a massive chance to ensure the Green and Red won’t be playing intermediate football next season to accompany their Division Two league fare.

Mayo can glean some positives from their opening round match in Kerry. Realistically, it was always going to be a daunting task against a team of that calibre, but Mayo certainly didn’t embarrass themselves in the  0-13 to 1-4 defeat in Tralee.

That’s yesterday’s news, though. On Saturday, the last crack at quarter-final qualification will be the order of the day. Cork are a decent outfit, and they’ll be one of the sides going up to the top flight of the National League next season.
One of the women highlighted in Liam McHale’s copybook in the run-up to Saturday’s match will be Katie Quirke.

The Bride Rovers woman is a superstar in her own right, scooping an All-Star in 2024. She’s shown no signs of slowing down this season, notching 2-16 across the three provincial Championship games alone.

She’s done well against any of the top sides she’s come up against, evidenced by her six-point haul against Kerry in the Munster championship and 1-3 in the Division Two final against Galway.

READ MORE: Mayo’s rising minor stars gear up for Kerry All-Ireland semi-final

She is a leading light for her side, and it’s hard to look past the live-wire attacker when talking about Cork.

Speaking of talismanic forwards who do the brunt of the scoring, look no further than Sinead Walsh. We’ve run out of words to describe Walsh, so we’ll let her monster tally of 8-40 do the talking for her. Mayo would be lost without her.

One subject that needs to be touched on also is the ability of Knockmore’s Clodagh Keane to cause serious headaches to even the best full-back lines. McHale sprung the towering forward from the bench against both Galway and Kerry this season, and when the ball was played long and high to her, it caused chaos.

If Mayo can utilise the unstoppable force of Walsh and the aerial prowess of Keane, and add some tweaks here and there, they’ll be thinking they can secure their spot in the quarter-finals and, more importantly, steer their season away from catastrophe.

VERDICT: MAYO