Mayo must go back to playing heavy metal football and stop trying to be a string quartet

MAYO must go back to playing heavy metal football and stop trying to be a string quartet. That's the descriptive recommendation of former inter-county star Liam McHale, who played in four All-Ireland finals and spent two stints coaching the Green and Red.

“In the last few years we've lost the chaos out of our game and that doesn't suit us. We're definitely heavy metal, we don't do the string quartet thing well. We just throw the ball up and get on with it. That's the thing I admired most about James Horan's teams. When everyone in the country was afraid of Dublin, Aidan (O'Shea), Lee (Keegan), Colm Boyle and the boys rolled up the sleeves, gritted the teeth and said 'throw up the ball.' We need to play the way that suits us and forget about other stuff. Don't coach the aggression out of them; don't coach the flair out of them,” the former All-Star states.

In a wide-ranging interview to be carried in The Mayo News on Tuesday, McHale says he's excited about Mayo's prospects this year and a new, more adventurous style can reap rewards.

He casts his mind back to past heartbreaks and says being sent off in the replayed All-Ireland final in 1996 still gives him nightmares, while stating that Mayo left numerous All-Ireland titles behind them over the years due to a lack of composure and a killer-instinct going down the straight.

Interestingly, he urges Andy Moran to be brave and says the new manager now has the opportunity to develop a 'Bomb Squad' capable of being unleashed in the closing stages of big games.

“It will take nerve, but I think Andy needs to hold back three really good players on the bench and send them on with 15 minutes to go to finish the game for us. This new game is ideally suited to that. Send out the really athletic guys first to be hugely competitive and keep us in the game and then send in these guys to finish the job.

“Andy and the boys know we've lost so many tight games in the last ten minutes and I think they'll have a real look at doing this. It will take nerve, but they're big enough to do it,” he adds.

The Ballina man has recently stepped away from his role as Mayo Ladies manager and gives some interesting insights into his time in the bainisteoir's bib, while also speaking about his current roles coaching the exciting Ardnaree intermediate squad and the senior basketball team in Gortnor Abbey.

Read the exclusive interview in Tuesday's Mayo News.