Big plans for Mayo News Football Podcast

On The Road
Rob Murphy

FANS of The Mayo News Football Podcast are dotted all over the world and in every corner of Ireland at this stage, but we think there are a lot more people to reach.
On Saturday evening we kick-started an expansion to the show with a new episode for every National League game. If you haven’t tuned in yet, don’t worry, and keep reading as we’re about to make the process of finding us easier than ever before.  
There was no clearly-defined lofty goal when the podcast began way back in 2009.
We saw it as an opportunity to create something that added a little extra to mayonews.ie and gave us the freedom to create our own online radio show.
Yet underneath all that, the Football Podcast comes from a goal of creating content that helps extend the conversation beyond the match, and thus adds some value to the whole process of being a Mayo fan.
Whether you’re in Garrymore or Guatemala, Lahardane or Las Vegas, we think there’s a market for more content on Mayo GAA.
Last season, more than any other, underlined this for us when we looked at the listenership figures, and it has inspired us to expand the show to include an episode after every league game for 2017.
The growing appetite for football in this county is showing no signs of slowing down. The fact that there were almost 11,000 people in MacHale Park for an early February league game underlines as much.
The new season for the podcast started last week in Dublin with a special show marking the ten-year anniversary of the Mayo GAA Blog.
John Gunnigan is a big part of our podcast now as well, and brings you his perspective from the heart of the terraces and stands around the country. So if you see two lads in the crowd chatting into a microphone, now you know it’s myself and himself!   
We had good seats in the middle of the main stand at MacHale Park on Saturday evening. We’re more likely to be on the steep Tralee terrace next week, in with the locals from the Kingdom, capturing some of the atmosphere from yet another big game for Mayo.
Mayo News columnists Billy Joe Padden and SeΡn Rice will be part of our show, as will our roving reporters Mike Finnerty, Edwin McGreal, Daniel Carey and Ger Flanagan.
Plus, we always try to pick up a few special ‘celebrity guests’ along the way!
We have listeners all over the world – Mayo people who follow the games from afar but want more than just 70 minutes of live entertainment. They want to feel part of the conversation in the pubs, shops and cafés back home. And they want some Mayo football content that can accompany their commute, daily run, or to throw on while cooking the dinner!
If you’re one of the thousands of people that have already tuned in and are subscribed to our show each week, rest assured that we’re not standing still.
Part of our mission has to be to continue to improve and we hope you’ll hear that in our shows each week. If you’re new to this and curious to find out more, check out www.mayonews.ie/listen or drop us an email to sport@mayonews.ie.

THIS week’s Mayo News Football Podcast is online since yesterday (Monday). You can listen to what our team at MacHale Park thought of Mayo’s defeat to Monaghan by logging on to mayonews.ie/listen or download it from iTunes.