Our Top 100 Mayo club footballers

WHO WILL BE NUMBER 1? Over the next few weeks we’ll be revealing the top players in the Mayo Senior, Intermediate and Junior Club championships. Pic: Sportsfile

Edwin McGreal

AMONG the many things we have learned in recent weeks is that Mayo people’s appetite for Gaelic football is ferocious.
With no on-field action, the craving for football in this county has not dimmed – if anything it has gone to a new level!
We’ve committed to bringing you the very best possible sports coverage in recent weeks to help fill the void by the lack of games.
We’ve had a range of interviews with different Mayo sporting stars week on week, and to continue our commitment to giving you, our readers, the best sports coverage we will be running the results of a very exciting poll in the coming weeks.
For the past few weeks we have been busy working on our inaugural ‘Mayo News Top 100 Club Footballers’!
We all have our opinions on football and footballers, and we decided now was an opportune time to run the rule over the best club footballers in the county.
But it is not us mere mortals in The Mayo News offices who are making the selections; in order to make this poll as thorough and fair as possible, we’ve recruited a judge from every club in the county.
Yes, you heard that right, every single football club in Mayo, all 47 of them.
Each judge will pick the top footballers at their own grades – senior, intermediate and junior – to reveal our Top 100 Club Footballers.
The reaction by our judges has been exceptional. All agreed to take part without hesitation. They have really bought into the concept with wonderful enthusiasm.
While we felt it was only fair that judges could pick from their own clubs – who will know an under-rated gem better than someone who observes him week in, week out – we have to say judges have been remarkably non-partisan and insightful in their selections.
We cannot say we’re surprised as our judges are real football people, people who know the club football scene inside out.
Between them our judges have won, as players, over 25 Mayo Senior championship medals titles, seven Mayo Intermediate championships, and nine Mayo Junior titles.
Our judges also include two former Mayo senior captains, All-Ireland winning managers at Minor and Under-21 level, and countless years of experience as players, managers and observers of club football in Mayo.
Among their number are a dozen current managers and 13 current players.
Put simply, what they don’t know about club football in Mayo isn’t worth knowing.
Starting next Tuesday we will reveal The Mayo News’s Top 20 Junior Club Footballers. We have seen the final results and the list underlines just how much talent is on show at all levels of football in Mayo.
It will whet your appetite for a return to football as well, whenever that might be!
In the meantime, pick up a copy of The Mayo News each week for the next month as we reveal our Top 100 Club Footballers.