COMMENT: Mayo Oscar Traynor absences raise uncomfortable questions

Sunday's Oscar Traynor encounter between Roscommon and Mayo, in Lecarrow, had nothing at stake.

Both sides were already out of the competition, and the match was played more out of obligation than enthusiasm.

It was to be expected then, that both management teams would take the opportunity to blood new players. For Mayo, David McHale and Lee Traynor (Conn Rangers), Ryan Connolly (Ballyglass), Seán Hughes (Ballinrobe Town) and Shaun Dempsey (Manulla) all made their debuts.

Connolly has played for Derby County, Ayr United, Galway United, Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers and Finn Harps, as well as his native Ballyglass. I was surprised he hadn’t lined out for the county before. 

All debutants acquitted themselves well. McHale was stretched a few times early on, with the three-at-the- back formation that manager, Alan Henry, favoured on Sunday, but recovered well. Connolly isn’t fully fit, but still performed well and took his goal really well.

Hughes, Traynor and Dempsey came in as substitutes and didn’t look out of place. So, all good. All with valuable game time behind them for future campaigns. 

However, all would not appear to be as it seemed on the surface. 

After the game, we learned that a number of the squad were not available to play for Mayo on the day.

One was injured and another had told the squad that he would be unavailable from an early stage. But it appears a few “didn’t fancy it” and declined to travel.

They may well all have had good reason which they communicated to management well in advance of the match, and I am sure all that will come to light when the Mayo League investigates their absence.

It is, after all, a very serious matter not to make yourself available for the county team.  

So serious in fact, that you could be banned from the county set-up for two years. 

That was the treatment handed out to Michael Fahy, Ben Edeh and Nathan Reilly Doyle, earlier this year, when they “brought the game into disrepute” by being unavailable for Mayo selection in the row between Ballyheane and the Mayo League.

The “disrepute” umbrella was used in the absence of a clear rule compelling players to “fancy it.” The row started over the rescheduling of a postponed Super League fixture for a Thursday night, and, sources in Ballyheane have indicated, could end, in court.

So, if the League finds that some players “didn’t fancy it” and declined the invitation to represent the county in the prestigious competition, which dates back to 1963, surely they too, must be suspended for two years, in line with the precedent set earlier this year in the Ballyheane case.

You can’t ban some players and not others, for the same offence. 

It would be shame if players were banned, in the same way as it was a shame that the ‘Ballyheane Three’ were banned from this and next year’s competition.

But the League can’t turn a blind eye to it either, or their disciplinary credibility will be in shreds.