Walsh to return for Mayo ladies for crucial clash with Dublin

EVEN with the return of star forward Sinéad Walsh, Mayo are facing an almighty challenge next Sunday as they face into the first game of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship against Dublin in Parnell Park at 2.50pm.

An away trip to the All-Ireland champions is a tough assignment for any team, but particularly for a team well beaten by them in the league and still carrying the psychological scars of a disappointing provincial final defeat.

With Hannah Tyrell and Carla Rowe back in the mix for Dublin, Mayo will have it all to do when they travel to the capital on Sunday.

Mayo manager Liam McHale told The Mayo News that the Needham twins, Ciara and Tara, are both carrying knocks (hamstring and Achilles tendon, respectively) ahead of the trip to take on Mick Bohan's team.

Westport forward Fionnuala McLaughlin - undoubtedly the find of the league for Mayo - is also carrying a knock.

On the positive side, both Sinéad Walsh and Lucy Wallace are back training after an injury lay-off. 

McHale described the All-Ireland champions as ‘a fairly impressive outfit’ - something of an understatement.

Despite losing two of their seven league games, Dublin still had the highest scoring tally of any Division 1 team.

Even without Tyrell and Rowe, they could still blast 2-11 past Mayo in one half of football, when the Jackies overturned a 0-4 2-7 half-time deficit to secure an eight-point win when the sides met in Ballina back in February.

Since then, they’ve sauntered to an eleventh successive provincial title, dealing a 3-17 to 0-8 provincial final hammering to a Meath team who’ve won two of the last three All-Ireland finals.

“We’ve to be very smart, very smart. It’s a very difficult six-day block. We have Dublin next Sunday, the following Saturday we have Kildare,” said McHale.

Two teams will qualify from the three-team group, with the group-topper receiving the prize of a home quarter-final.

McHale’s women come into this game following a Connacht final defeat on a day where, by his admission, they looked ‘tired and jaded’.

“The conditioning coach, Clive Reilly, said we probably didn’t do enough on the Tuesday or Thursday, we thought we held back too much, that we had very short, sharp sessions on the Wednesday or Friday before that game. We felt in hindsight that we probably should have went a bit harder,” McHale admitted.

No matter how many he has fit on Sunday, McHale is adamant that he will start his strongest available side, rather than saving his best team for Kildare .

“We’re going well. We’re going to throw a few curveballs at them and see can we play to suit ourselves. We’re going to 100 percent have a crack at this. You can’t not give the experience to our younger players.”

FIXTURE

TG4 ALL-IRELAND SENIOR CHAMPIONSHIP GROUP 4 ROUND 1

DUBLIN V MAYO

SUNDAY, JUNE 9, PARNELL PARK AT 2.50PM