A LOOK at the wider Gaelic Games landscape in Mayo this week presents an underwhelming vista - unless you’re a hurling fan.

The past two weekends have seen the senior men’s and women’s football team slump to demoralising defeats in big games, and with both squads experiencing high levels of opt-outs and low levels of optimism, it’s difficult to hold out hope for the prospects of either side in the remainder of their respective championships. 

In camogie, despite a promising showing in recent years, Mayo was unable to attract a senior manager or field a team at senior level, though work continues apace at underage level.

READ: Explosive fallout from revelation of stream of emails to Mayo GAA

SPECIAL DAY

THE hopes of the county for a bit of joy this season now therefore rest primarily on the shoulders of the men’s senior hurling team, who are relishing the challenge, and this Saturday in Croke Park will take on Roscommon in the Nickey Rackard Cup Final with the prospect of promotion back to Christy Ring hurling also on the table.

Throw-in is at 1pm, the first of a hurling triple-header to also include the Lory Meagher and Christy Ring finals and let’s hope that at least the Mayo expats in the capital will head to HQ to support them in their endeavours.

I was there the last time Mayo won the competition in 2021, and it was one of those really special days in Croke Park that will live long in the memory, so well worth making the effort. The game will also be broadcast live on TG4.

Mayo will be keen to put last year’s final loss to Donegal to bed by beating the neighbours. Roscommon, however, will have other ideas, and will be seeking revenge for their last outing against Mayo just a few weeks ago in April, when they lost by seven points. 

READ: Captain Kenny aiming for Croker glory for Mayo hurlers

IMPRESSIVE

AS per usual, the hurlers have gone quietly about their business, under the stewardship of Ray Larkin, and their performance in this competition follows their promotion to Division 2 of the League earlier this year.

A cursory glance at the GAA pages of all our local media, however, reveals some indifference; aside from brief announcements you would barely know there was a national final taking place at the weekend.

No interviews with players or managers, no feature pieces. It feels like a missed opportunity, but it is early in the week, so there is cause for optimism yet and we have interviews with Ray Larkin and David Kenny in these pages. (See page 8)

The hurlers’ achievement is all the more impressive when you compare and contrast the investment in the sport. The money spent on the Mayo senior football team dwarfs the amount spent on the Mayo senior hurling team, with significantly lower spend on the hurling backroom team, management expenses, catering and meals.

And of course, attendance at games is not what it could be, despite the games being generally entertaining and high-scoring – Mayo scored 1-32 against Sligo in their last home game.

Mayo is not rich with hurling clubs – at the moment, I can think of eight clubs, not all of whom are currently fielding at senior level, but I am open to correction on this - so they are drawing from a slowly expanding, but small pool of players. 

SHINE A LIGHT

CREDIT must go to the Mayo GAA PRO and team; both club and county hurling content is prominent on the website and social media channels and results are consistently highlighted.

So given the good news story that currently exists, surely, as a sports-mad county, we can do a bit more to shine a light on the efforts of these clubs and the county side to promote and develop the game.

Getting an interview with a Mayo senior footballer these days is a rare occurrence, but one doubts the same restrictions would apply to our hurlers.

The team themselves held a Meet and Greet at Tooreen on Sunday, with a puck around, offering young fans an opportunity to get jerseys and hurls signed – a level of accessibility that is sadly a thing of the past in football. 

SUPPORT

LOOKING at the bigger picture, there appears to be a small but significant groundswell of support for the hurling not just in Mayo, and across the province as a whole – three Connacht counties competing in the Nickey Rackard competition is significant – and there is an ambition for further development.

This is reflected in the recently launch of the Connacht GAA Hurling Development Plan, spearheaded by Hurling Director Damien Curley.

The plan centres around four different areas, namely maintaining and supporting existing clubs, developing new clubs (the ambition is to ensure that players have an opportunity to play hurling within 20 minutes of their local GAA club), delivering talent academies at underage level, and supporting the development of hurling through additional staffing, coaching and resourcing. 

Best of luck to Ray and the lads on Saturday, and amidst the glumness that abides elsewhere, let’s hope they give us cause for celebration this weekend – it would be thoroughly deserved.