Name your Mayo team that would win Sam Maguire

The inter-county GAA season commenced in earnest on Sunday and Mayo’s legion of devoted fans will be starting their now-annual, novena, that this, finally, might be the year the county ends the seventy-three-year wait to re-capture The Sam Maguire Cup.

Retaining the league title would be a great achievement of course, but for Kevin McStay and his team, avoidance of relegation from Division One, will be the League priority. I know that seems a low-bar to set, but I think it is realistic. Plus, McStay will want to have a look at some new players in a competitive setting. The supporters, however, will be looking for clues as to how the team will perform in the real competition – the Championship.

Which players will make the breakthrough? Who will they dislodge? What will they add, and will their inclusion increase or decrease our chances of landing Sam? Every year we’ve all heard that a Mayo player, or, on a good year, maybe a few players, “deserve” an All-Ireland. We hear it especially when the player announces his retirement. “He deserved an All-Ireland,” or, “If ever a player deserved an All- Ireland, he did,” and the like.

But who are they? Who are the Mayo players who “deserved” an All-Ireland, but didn’t get one?

Well, The Mayo News is offering you the chance to nominate not one player who deserved an All-Ireland winner’s medal, but fifteen players. A whole team. We’re asking you, the readers, to select a team of fifteen, from players who played in an All-Ireland final (for Mayo, of course,) since (and including) 1989, the first time the county appeared in a final since last winning in 1951. We’re including appearances in replays, and appearance as a substitute also makes a player eligible for inclusion.

So, who do you think are the fifteen Mayo players, who should have won an All-
Ireland since 1989?

Some might say there are none; that you don’t “deserve” an All-Ireland; you go out and earn it. But that seems a bit harsh, given the efforts of so many players in that thirty-five-year period. Since 1989, the team has appeared in All-Ireland Senior Football Championship finals in 1996 (drawn game and replay), 1997, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2013, 2016 (drawn game and replay), 2017, 2020 and 2021. Three of those were one-point losses: 2013, 2016 (replay) and 2017. There’s been a long litany of hard-luck stories, and some self-inflicted misfortunes, along the road to Croker disappointment. We’ve had curses, buses, funerals, own goals, fights, controversial last-minute changes of goalkeeper, sendings off, suspensions, missed penalties, unpunished fouls, wides, injuries and so much more.

We’ve blamed referees as much as any county. Perhaps, we’ve had cause to, more than most. We were unlucky. We came up against the great Dublin team. Some say if we hadn’t, we’d have won six-in-a-row ourselves. But in the end, you have to beat the team you are facing, and we have been unable to do so, in thirteen attempts.

But in all that too, we have had some magnificent players. Players who would be automatic choices on any team, in any era. And we’ve probably had a few who were lucky to get as far as they did. In all of that, however, there are players who surely deserved an All-Ireland winner’s medal. We want you to name them.

There are a few “rules.” Firstly, you’ll have to name the players in their frequent playing positions. We won’t allow forwards being shoe-horned into the team in the half-back line, for example, simply because you have seven forwards who absolutely “deserved an All-Ireland.” Or backs in the forward-line. Or goalkeepers in outfield positions. So much so that you “simply had to include them.” Well, that won’t work! You will have to line them out in a position that they normally played in, for Mayo. We’re looking for one goalkeeper, two midfielders, and three for each of the other lines in the team – full back, halfback, half forward and full forward. Fifteen in all. Players who played for Mayo in an All-Ireland final in 1989 and subsequently. Simple!

There are a few tricky ones to consider. A few players played in the full back line one year and the half back line a different year. And players have played at midfield as well as playing in the backs or in the forwards. We’ll accept them in any position in your team, so long as they played in that position for Mayo in an All-Ireland final in the relevant years.

There’s no room here for the greatest players who never appeared in an All-Ireland final, or the greatest players that never played for the county. And we won’t entertain your claim that players were played out of position; that their best position was elsewhere on the team. That you know better than the manager at the time. And we won’t accept players who played for Mayo for years and “deserved an All-Ireland,” if they didn’t play in one. We’re limiting it to those who did; those who had the chance, and missed out.

So, get cracking and send us your team of Mayo players and manager who deserved an All-Ireland. There are a number of ways you can take part. You can fill out your selections on the form below.

We will print some of the submissions in next Tuesday's edition of The Mayo News.

The vote is closed! The team will be published in tomorrow's edition of The Mayo News (February 6).