COLUMN: Step back and give Andy Moran space to build Mayo's future

WHEN will we ever learn? Can we not step back, take a breath and let everyone get on with their job.

Time after time, year after year the GAA people of Mayo fail to hold the line – instead, little things are discussed, digested and denounced in the public eye when much more important issues are let flutter in the wind.

Take Andy Moran, for example. The man was appointed as manager of the Mayo senior team on August 14.

He hasn't even had a collective training session yet, but already his decisions are being discussed at meetings of the county board.

By all accounts, Moran contacted a number of players before the start of the championship and told them they weren't in his immediate plans. I'm not sure if that's true or not – but let's go with the supposition that it is.

It might not have been the best time to make such a move, particularly when a ball hadn't been kicked in anger in the club championship.

Maybe, Moran should have waited to see how the club games panned out or maybe he wanted to lay down a marker and let everyone know there was a new sheriff in town – but whatever his reasoning – the decision was his and his alone.

However, the meddling has already started. Eoghan McLaughlin's name was brought up at last week's county board meeting amid queries about why the Westport man was let go from the Mayo panel before the club games began.

Now, there are a few issues clouding things here. By all accounts, McLaughlin wasn't the only player let go, and the door wasn't closed on anyone. Moran was setting up an initial training group and nothing was set in stone.

The fact that McLaughlin was one of the best players in the club championship added to the chatter around the issue and that came to a head at the county board meeting.

It was a good lesson for Moran. If he didn't know it already, he will now be acutely aware that every step he takes may become the stuff of public commentary.

This creates an awkward working environment for the new management team, but hopefully all the soft chatter will cease after this mad episode.

In my view the new boss shouldn't have dropped any player before the club championship, if he did indeed do so. However, Moran is the boss. He makes the calls. He makes the choices and whether you like it or not, that's the way it is.

Andy Moran was given the job of managing the Mayo senior team. It is a tough, complex and challenging task. Give the man a bit of time and space and let him get on with it.

KOBE WAS RIGHT

We knew it was happening, but prayed that it wouldn't come to fruition. However, when I checked my phone a little before 6am yesterday morning the news was there staring back at me.

Kobe McDonald had signed for St Kilda in Melbourne and he was headed for Australia.

His loss to Crossmolina and Mayo football will be monumental. In recent years we have watched from afar as Pearse Hanley and Oisin Mullin excelled in the land beyond the seas and now, Kobe will follow in their footsteps.

In my time watching football in Mayo I have never come across a more talented individual. The Crossmolina teenager has given all of us huge hope for the future and dreams of seeing him in the Green and Red on the greatest stage of all were hard to ignore.

However, his talent will now shine in the land of sun and sea where he will live the life of a professional sportsman and he would have been silly to turn that opportunity down.

Kobe will be immersed in a professional set-up where every aspect of sporting development will be looked after instead of trying to balance college or an apprenticeship while playing third level football as well as U-20 and senior for both Crossmolina and Mayo.

He won't have to worry about getting physio, recovery time, whether Mayo have a place to train and the myriad of things that occupy thinking time for every footballer in the county.

It was hard for the young man to turn down the prospect of living as a professional footballer and Mayo's huge loss is St Kilda's gain.

Many more talented footballers will follow Kobe, Oisin, Pearse and all the others in the coming years unless the GAA take a radical look at creating a viable lifestyle for their top players.

The love of the jersey cannot compete with a 24/7 professional lifestyle. The sooner we address that glaring issue the better.

MONEY TALKS

I'm looking forward to seeing the county board's plan to finance Mayo GAA's proposed centre of excellence in Bohola. Raising funds is never easy, so coming up with €15 million without lumbering the clubs with more debt will take some doing.

However, we've been assured that everything will run like clockwork, so we're awaiting the plan with bated breath.