Mayo Oscar Traynor team embarks on new campaign

Whether Noel Gallagher attached any meaning to the words of ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’, Mayo’s Oscar Traynor Cup team manager, Joe Kelly, is certainly heeding them.

Under his stewardship, Mayo came from literally nowhere to reach the final of an inter-league competition which had lain dormant since the pandemic.

Players, management, administrators and Mayo soccer people alike had no expectations when the Mayo Football League entered the resurrected Oscar Traynor Cup last autumn.

Therefore, a first Oscar Traynor Cup final appearance since 1981 - the day Mayo lost to a Leinster Senior League side starring Paul McGrath - was neither hoped for nor expected. That didn’t make the 4-2 defeat to Waterford any less disappointing.

“We were probably the better team during the 90 minutes,” says Joe Kelly, reflecting on that sunny April Sunday in Milebush. “We did an awful lot right, we just didn’t take our chances. That was really what it was down to.”

For the longest time, the Oscar Traynor Cup was an annoyance to administrators and an irrelevance to all but the most ardent Mayo soccer folk. The talent was there, but getting buy-in from players proved quite difficult.

This year, things were different - and don’t take our word for it. “There’s just a different vibe in this year’s squad. There’s no cliques and it feels more like a club team than anything else.” The words of Ioseph O’Reilly, Mayo’s Connacht-title winning captain and a veteran of several Oscar Traynor squads.

He’s a proud Castlebar Celtic player under Stevie Gavin, but just as proud a Mayo player under Joe Kelly. When The Mayo News profiled O’Reilly and his teammates ahead of this year’s Oscar Traynor Cup final, the word ‘togetherness’ was mentioned five times. Other players expressed identical sentiments with different words.

“The whole thing of clubs has to go out the window. I think that might have been a problem down through the years,” Kelly tells The Mayo News.

“We made sure we got out bonding together away from the training pitch. We also had really fun sessions so lads would get to know each other and they had to mix. That was an important part of last year in getting that chemistry together.”

As you’d imagine, many of last year’s squad remain in situ. While leaner numbers-wise, they are arguably a better squad talent-wise.

Westport United’s Cillian White has gone travelling while Benny Lavelle (Ballina Town), Dan Duffy (Kiltimagh-Knock United), Owen McNamara (Conn Rangers), Lorcan Conroy (Manulla), Gary Cunningham (Westport United) and Raff Cretaro are no longer involved.

Ballyheane’s Cillian Redmond, one of the top defenders in Mayo, remains sidelined with a cruciate injury while Ballina Town midfielder Dylan McKee is also nursing a knock.

In their place have arrived several high-profile additions; including ex-League of Ireland goalkeeper Micháel Slingermann and Castlebar Celtic midfielder Johnny Cocozza.

Celtic’s new signing Niall Brennan, who captained Sligo-Leitrim last year, has changed sides and will likely start for Joe Kelly’s side, who’ve also added free-scoring Glenhest Rovers striker Connor McCarthy (31 goals in 19 games, while you’re asking).

Reading between the lines, it’s clear that the newbies and veterans needed very little persuading to tog for Mayo.

“All summer long, players that aren’t part of the current squad that wanted to be in the squad, were asking me when are there trials, when are we going back training again,” says Kelly, who spent the summer scouting out new additions at club games around Mayo.

“I was just blown away by the amount of correspondence by players and managers and clubs asking will there be trials and stuff like that. You think to yourself, ‘Wow’.”

Long gone is the day when Kelly was handed the Mayo job simply because he ‘expressed an interest’, to quote Mayo Football League Chairman, Séamus Hughes.

Today, he commands a team which disbands club allegiances the second they pull on the Mayo jersey. But with the increased profile has come an increased expectation.

Attendances at their provincial games were in the double digits. The Oscar Traynor Cup final, however, drew one of the biggest crowds Milebush had seen all year. They’ve set a high bar for 2025, but Joe Kelly insists Mayo are looking no further than Connacht.

Once again, Sligo-Leitrim stand at the first hurdle. Just a goal separated them in their last clash. Ditto when Mayo beat them to reach their first Oscar Traynor Cup final in 43 years. The rest, as they say, is history.

“Our target is going to be very much the same…the target will be a provincial title,” he says. How far will Mayo go in this year’s Oscar Traynor Cup? Sunday’s trip to Sligo will give us a very good idea. Mayo will be captained by Castlebar Celtic’s Jordan Loftus with Ballyheane’s Ben Edeh vice-captain.

The squad announced by Joe Kelly is:

Ben Edeh (Ballyheane), Nathan Reilly Doyle (Ballyheane), Stefan Hester (Castlebar Celtic), James Robinson (Westport United), Micheal Schlingermann (Kiltimagh Knock United), Ioseph O’Reilly (Castlebar Celtic), Jordan Loftus (Castlebar Celtic), Oran Groarke (Castlebar Celtic), Cathal Coyne (Castlebar Celtic), John Cocozza (Castlebar Celtic), Mark Cunningham (Castlebar Celtic), Niall Brennan (Castlebar Celtic), Jason Hunt (Castlebar Celtic), Adam Gallagher (Conn Rangers), Owen McHale (Iorras Aontaithe), Connor McCarthy (Glenhest Rovers), Jack O’Connor (Kiltimagh Knock United), Cormac Caulfield (Kiltimagh Knock United), Andrew Shally (Manulla), Harrison Quinn (Westport United), Cillian McGlade (Westport United), Adam Nugent (Westport United), Darren Browne (Westport United), Kevin Kitterick (Westport United)

FIXTURE:

MAYO V SLIGO-LEITRIM DSL

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6, RAY MACSHARRY PARK, AT 2PM

READ: Mayo make history to reach Oscar Traynor Cup final