OPINION: Will Mayo Super League changes boost competition?

The Mayo League have announced changes to the way the Super League is to be run next year.

The teams will play each other once, and then the league will be split into two groups of five based on league standings, with the teams in each group playing each other twice. This will have clubs playing a total of 17 league games over the season, as opposed to the 18 they play now.

The decision was motivated by a desire to keep teams interested and playing for something when their league-title aspirations had evaporated relatively early in the campaign.

The season just past was one of the worst in memory with forfeitures and even the withdrawal of Kiltimagh Knock United, as clubs struggled to field teams, with some extremely one-sided results and record margins recorded.  

To their credit, the Mayo League has acted swiftly with the new format, and it will be interesting to see how it works. The League has also ruled that clubs with ‘B’ teams, must register at least 18 ‘A’ players, and have reduced to three, the number of B players that can line out in any one match, for ‘A’ teams.

In previous seasons, clubs kept their ‘A’ squad to a minimum, thereby facilitating as many players as possible to play for their ‘B’ team. (‘A’ designated players cannot play for ‘B’ teams.) The LMC has also ruled that once a ‘B’ player plays five times for an ‘A’ team, that player then automatically becomes an ‘A’ player. 

A number of managers have said that this ruling will have a negative impact on ‘B’ teams. But surely it is better to impact ‘B’ teams than ‘A’ teams. 

QUESTION OF SUPPORT

Of course the main problem, these past three seasons, has been how good Castlebar Celtic and to a slightly lesser extent, Westport United, have been. Their dominance has meant that the rest of the league is a procession rather than a competitive contest. Which brings us to another issue.

It is a pity that it is Mayo FC that is being talked about as a possible entrant into the proposed Third Tier of the League of Ireland, and not Castlebar Celtic or Westport. Or both. This would solve the Super League problem too.

They would bring support as well, and while a senior Mayo FC has not been tested, indications are that it will have little spectator engagement. People will look on the FAI Connect app for their results, but are unlikely to turn up to games in any sort of numbers that might create an atmosphere.

I was at the Under-17 game on Sunday against Derry and I was expecting the parents of the players to be there at least, which surely would have made up more than the 20 or so, spectators that were present, which included babies in buggies. 

Westport has the best junior facilities in the country and their main pitch is a superb surface well suited to League of Ireland football. They don’t have a stand of course, and with all the new facilities they have installed, parking can be a problem.

Castlebar Celtic have a more mature squad, but don’t have the facilities. They have one pitch and the astro area but they do have an adjacent car park. Both would bring big support to the proposed new league, and their exit from the Super League, would make the latter more competitive.

But of course, it is not Castlebar Celtic or Westport United’s fault that they are better than the other teams in the league they currently play in. 

PLAYER APATHY
Another problem in clubs, which is being blamed on the dominance of the big two, has been player apathy. Sources in many Super League clubs often confide that they can’t get players to commit.

They are away in college or working, or there is a concert on, or they want to travel. (Not to mention lining out for their local GAA team.) And big games for the club, aren’t sufficient motivation to draw these marginal players back, making it frustrating for managers trying to keep their side competitive in the league or cup competitions. 

This player apathy might have fed into Joe Kelly’s decision to step away from the manager’s role of the Mayo representative side for the Oscar Traynor Cup competition, after two relatively successful years in the job. Kelly cited his involvement as manager with the Connacht Interprovincial team and his day job with Mayo County Council as the reasons for his departure, but I don’t buy that.

Kelly wanted to win the Oscar Traynor Cup as a manager, and nearly did, unexpectedly, in his first season in charge when they got to the final against Waterford. 

I’d say Kelly got fed up with the way the whole Mayo Oscar Traynor saga turned out last year. The withdrawal of the Ballyheane players and the circus that followed, didn’t help. Nor did the general lack of enthusiasm from some players, for the whole project.  In any aspect of life, if the people you are working with don’t have enthusiasm for the project, you have nothing.

And Kelly probably felt that his enthusiasm level wasn’t always matched by all of his desired squad.  And for leagues like Mayo, everybody needs to be facing the same direction, to achieve that elite success. 

Finally, the Mayo 2026 season is due to begin at the start of February. The season that just passed started a week later, and ended in early August. What is the need to start and finish so early? The 2025 experiment was probably to try and avoid a clash with the GAA club championship, but the penalty for doing so, (clubs playing three matches in eight days) was too high a price to pay.  

Fair play to the Mayo League for taking action to try and counter the problems thrown up in 2025, and let’s hope that the 2026 season, runs a bit longer and that the Super League is more competitive.