‘The players are up in arms’ - Delegates voice disquiet over Mayo senior team 

MAYO GAA county board delegates have voiced disquiet over the Mayo senior football team, with one claiming that players ‘aren’t happy’ with the current management setup. 

A review into the 2024 season between the Mayo GAA county board and the senior management team is ongoing and due to be completed in the next couple of weeks. 

A discussion around the ongoing review was initiated at Wednesday’s county board meeting by Garrymore delegate John Farragher, who claimed that players and supporters are ‘not happy’ with the current state of the Mayo senior team. 

“A lot of people are not happy, they want change,” began Farragher.

“And questionnaires sent out to players, I’m hearing players are not happy. This sends out alarm bells. What I’m saying, if you lose a dressing room…you can forget about it.

“I can tell you, I go to a lot of games and the supporters, the genuine people going through the turnstiles are not happy,” he added. 

Louisburgh delegate, John Gibbons, echoed his sentiments, saying: “People are not happy with our selectors, our coaches, people are not happy. And that’s out there and it’s out there big time.” 

Ballycroy delegate, Michael Gallagher, bemoaned the length it was taking to complete the 2024 review. 

Kevin McStay’s side exited the All-Ireland championship at the preliminary quarter-finals stage when they lost to Derry on penalties on June 28. Reviews of the Mayo Minor and U-20s’ season have already been completed.

“The way you stop rumours is you fill the void with fact, and we’re hearing nothing,” said Gallagher.

“For the last few weeks, it’s all over the county that the players are up in arms. We thought here tonight that we’d hear something and we’d hear what they’re being asked and what they’re coming back with. But now it’s going to be another three or four weeks. It’s going to go out of hand.”

Gallagher added: “If the players are upset, then we are in real bother, but they may not be, so we don’t know, and that’s the problem.” 

Responding, Mayo GAA Séamus Tuohy asked delegates to ‘trust the process’ currently in place for conducting reviews into the Mayo senior football team. 

Tuohy added that no Mayo senior player had come to him with any concerns. 

Last month, it was reported that a number of senior Mayo GAA officials were understood to be in favour of changes to Kevin McStay’s backroom team before he could be endorsed to continue as manager. 

Con Moynihan, Mayo GAA Vice-Chairman, said he had ‘no comment’ to make about this report when contacted by The Mayo News. 

Explaining the length it was taking to conduct the review, Tuohy said that a number of players and management team members were out of the country in recent weeks. 

The Breaffy man also stood back from his duties as county board chairman for several weeks during the summer due to personal reasons. 

“There was no review carried in June, July or August in any county,” added Tuohy, who said there was ‘no point in having a review with half a squad’. 

Responding to a question from Ballintubber delegate Noelle Horan, Tuohy said that there had already been meetings with senior management as part of the review process. 

Valerie Murphy, Mayo GAA Treasurer, said that the county board would also be meeting with players during the review. 

Kilmaine delegate Kevin McDonnell took the view that the review should ‘not be rushed’ and should be conducted correctly. 

McDonnell also asked that the parameters of the review be clearly outlined to delegates. 

“Opinions are like footballs, everybody has them. And a lot of people out there express opinions and they wouldn’t know football from one end to the other,” commented McDonnell. 

When asked to explain the review protocol, Touhy said there was ‘a person that has been appointed to take independent feedback’ to the county board who was ‘anonymous’ to both the county board and senior management. 

Former Mayo GAA Chairman, Mike Connelly, called on the county board officials to conduct the review ‘as a matter of urgency’ to quell rumours about the Mayo senior management.

“We could see another twist in it in a local paper and then in a national paper. But we’ve had too much of that in the past,” added the Hollymount-Carramore delegate. 

Tuohy again called on delegates to trust the review process, which he described as ‘very thorough’. 

 “We have to work on our strengths, areas that need improving and areas that are doing us no good in Mayo football. The review has asked all them questions, but I think, to be fair to management, I think it’s important we don’t wash our linen in public. We have to be conscious of that.”