Mayo’s Darren McHale hoping to make his mark with new rules

HAS there ever been a better time to be a forward?

We didn’t put it quite as bluntly to Darren McHale, a player who made his Mayo senior debut in 2016 and has scored 4-25 in 38 appearances (including 17 starts).

He might not start for Mayo on any given day, but the Knockmore man is more than likely to feature - and has done so in all but one of their 2025 league games.

But with Paul Towey, Fergal Boland (who’ve both outscored McHale in this league) and, shortly, Tommy Conroy, nipping at his heels, where does Darren McHale see himself in a Mayo forward line that hands half the bullets to Ryan O’Donoghue to fire?

“I don’t worry too much about my own role, to be honest,” he told The Mayo News. “Once the management trust me to give me whatever opportunity that is, I just try and take that to the best of my ability. I don’t worry about labels or anything like that.”

READ: Kevin McStay names Mayo team to face Sligo in Connacht championship opener

What about these new rules then? It’s in the very pocket that Darren McHale attacks around the ‘D’ where teams can land the big body blows in the three-men-up era.

The 30-year-old says the enhancements have been ‘very positive’ and a ‘breath of fresh air’ before we ask him how he tries to exploit them.

“There’s just that bit more space. It’s probably the biggest thing with the four back and three up there is that bit more space, and attacks are coming that bit faster due to that. Obviously, the different things that have sped things up with the kickout having to go further, with the solo-and-go and all that. Space is the biggest thing.”

However, life as a Mayo footballer certainly does not revolve around the Gospel according to Jim Gavin, according to Darren McHale.

“They kind of come in informally throughout the session. It wouldn’t be dedicated time,” he says.

“We did a workshop with a referee around them at the beginning of the year, so we have done a lot of work on them, but it wouldn’t feature specifically teaching a rule. You incorporate them into drills and see how you go from there.”

Speaking two days before the Division 1 league final, McHale says the league had been ‘positive, overall’. He suggests that Mayo’s second half-resurgence in the Armagh game, the second win in a five-game unbeaten run, was not a ‘Eureka moment’ or the product of any Al Pacino-inspired dressing room oration, but mostly down to getting more training into the legs.

FACING THE YATES MEN

THE gloom of the early league rounds is now over. A league final is behind them and Sligo are coming to Castlebar five days from now (Tuesday).

READ: Mayo v Sligo: Time, TV, and tickets ahead of championship opener

“We are under no illusions, we know how much of a challenge that’s going to be against Sligo. It’s going to be very difficult,” said McHale.

“They’re a team, I feel, have been on upward trajectory in terms of their U-20 success and their Minor success in recent years and obviously the success of Coolera-Strandhill. They have some excellent players and we’ll really be looking forward to taking on that challenge. It’s a game we know has been coming. Both teams know it has been coming for a long time; we are only guaranteed one game in the Connacht championship so we look forward to taking that on.”

SPLIT SEASON

THE much talked-about relentlessness of the fixture schedule is not something that bothers McHale, who works as a primary school teacher in Ballina.

“To be honest, players love playing games so we don’t worry too much about the schedule,” he said. “You trust that you’ve your work done and you’re well able to keep the body going. If we weren’t playing games then we’d be training hard. They mimic each other.”