OPINION: Mayo McStay statement blunder fuels rumour mill

Clarity is important in all walks of life, and I don’t think we’ve had much of that from Mayo GAA over the past few days.

The statement issued on Wednesday night regarding Kevin McStay and his management team certainly wasn’t the right way to do business and was botched, to be honest.

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It won’t do the county board’s reputation any good, considering all that’s gone on recently, and now they have to go and find themselves a new management team for a job that doesn’t look as appealing as it did a couple of years ago.

In fairness, it’s hard to know what happened behind the scenes. Did the county board talk to Kevin McStay? Did they not?

That’s why clarity and a properly worded statement are so important. Kevin McStay has been involved in Mayo GAA all his life and has made a big contribution. He made a big contribution to Roscommon GAA too, so I’d be horrified to think he might not have been treated respectfully.

However, the statement issued by Mayo GAA is so clunky that it clarifies very little.

Therefore, there’s loads of fuel for the rumour mill and it has been spinning at top speed since Wednesday night. Of course, over the last few years, it has been spinning continuously in relation to administration and governance in Mayo GAA and this will definitely not help things. Because the statement was unclear, all sorts of rumours are now being spread throughout the county that don't do anyone any favours.

The awful wording of that statement may impact Mayo's ability to find another high-quality manager to take this job when they look at the disappointing way they changed the management set-up this week.

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INEVITABLE

The second thing we have to consider is the decision itself. I felt it was inevitable that Kevin would move on. He had been there three years, and the way the league final and then the Cavan game went, I felt there was a staleness in the way the squad was playing for the management team.

There is a case to be made for taking more time before arriving at last Wednesday night’s decision, but you run the risk of, of making things even more difficult for players.

We already had some evidence of a possible lack of harmony with the fact that Cillian O'Connor didn't go back to the squad this season. I wonder how he feels about the way the season has evolved,  when you consider the renaissance of players with a similar profile to himself, maybe not the youngest, not the quickest anymore.

Look at what Michael Murphy has been able to do and Paul Geaney when he’s fit. I’m sure Cillian could have had a big impact on this championship, and maybe his absence showed a lack of harmony in the group.

PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE

There are some people who would accuse Mayo of having little patience when it comes to managers of our senior team. I live in Armagh, where Kieran McGeeney has been in charge for a long time, and I happened to work in Kildare when he was manager there too, so I’m fairly well-positioned to comment on the feelings generated around his tenures.

The way Armagh have developed under Kieran has taken a long time, and it was a long road in Kildare too, but there has always been an absolute buy-in from those around hi,m even through all the difficult years.

The public and some clubs often had a different view, but the key difference is that the players and the administrators that work with him, day in, day out, were totally committed to what he was doing.

I’m not sure there’s the same patience in Mayo. Of course, when there’s a manager there for a number of years, they have to be able to back it up. If they can't point to titles and trophies, they have to be able to point to player development. That's something that McGeeney could point to in Armagh over those early years.

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REWARDS

Now, he’s reaping the benefits of the work he's done with players like Roy Groogan, Aidan Forker and even (Stefan) ‘Soupy’ Campbell, who've been there with him a long time.

And he has now given a good start to the inter-county careers of some of those younger players like Oisín Conaty, Conor Turbot, Ross McQuillan and Ben Creely who are really stepping up and establishing themselves as inter-county players.

Even without the trophies, McGeeney could point to real improvements in players' level. I'm not sure that this Mayo management team can do the same with the current Mayo squad.

There hasn’t been good player development, and there haven’t been Connacht titles. Management will point to the fact that they were extremely unlucky because there were two Connacht titles that should have been won. Then, there was the recent Donegal game where they could have got something out of and progressed.

Throw in last year’s game against Dublin too. If they had won two or three of those, they would have found themselves in very different circumstances.

However, it's a results-based business and Mayo haven't made the quarterfinals the last two years, which would have been a minimum requirement.

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BIGGER PICTURE

It may have been the case that Kevin McStay was just unlucky. Maybe the talent level that Mayo had ten years ago is not the same as what we have now.

That's the big issue in Mayo football. We haven't been knocking the lights out in terms of our underage success. Our clubs are nowhere near as strong as they used to be in inter-county club competitions.

All evidence points to standards in Mayo dropping, and therefore, the level of the senior inter-county team would understandably move in a similar direction. Maybe it's just unfortunate for Kevin that he's been the manager during that decline, something he had no hand in.

Sometimes, the level of players you have at your disposal is determined by your underage structures and coaching. At the minute, the quality of player that's available to the senior inter-county manager is not at the level it needs to be if we're going to go back and be a contender.

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CHANGE IN THE RULES

The playing rules have changed dramatically during Kevin’s tenure, and it was quite clear that Mayo just don't have the players that are suited to this new game.

We don't have the players with kicking ability, we don't have the inside forwards, and we probably aren’t a contender. That's why we need to look at the bigger picture, as opposed to just thinking a new manager is going to come in and sort all those issues. 

In conclusion, I wish Kevin and the management team well. They will be disappointed and will look back at opportunities to win Connacht titles that weren’t taken. Some of that is down to luck, some of that is down to their decisions. At the end of the day, success is judged on titles won, and from that point of view, the past three years haven’t been a success.