DEMOLITION DERBY Mayo’s Fiona McHale will renew rivalries with Galway again next Sunday in the Lidl Ladies National League. Pic: Sportsfile
Feature
Mike Finnerty
FOR those who haven’t been following the fortunes of the Mayo ladies closely this season, the scenario is fairly straightforward.
They have lost four of their first five matches in the National League so, with two rounds left to play, they are in the thick of a relegation battle and need to start to picking up points quickly.
Starting with next Sunday’s home derby against high-flying Galway.
Put simply, if Mayo don’t take something from next weekend’s match, or their trip to Donegal a week later, then they will be relegated to Division 2 for the first time in more than ten years.
For a team with designs on winning national titles, who were beaten in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, it would represent a significant setback to the project.
Manager Michael Moyles admitted he was ‘frustrated’ after the recent defeat to Dublin. ‘Frustrating’ was also the word that Fiona McHale reached for when she tried to sum up her feelings about the season so far.
Mayo have come out on the wrong side of results against Cork (beaten by five points), Kerry (one point), Waterford (two points) and Dublin (four points). It’s become a familiar story.
Ironically, their only victory of an erratic campaign came when it was least expected — when they got the better of All-Ireland champions, Meath, in Navan by three points a month ago.
It’s easy to see then why this game against Galway is massive.
“It’s probably been a while since Mayo have been in this situation where we’re coming into the final stages, we’ve two games left, and we’re looking down the throat of relegation and trying to avoid it,” admits Fiona McHale.
“What’s good about it is that we’re coming away from games that we’ve performed in patches in, we haven’t had one consistent performance yet, but we’re edging towards that and we’re hoping that performance is coming down the line.
“We were really happy to get the win against Meath,” she added. “Again, it wasn’t the full sixty minute performance but we were really proud of the way the girls ground out the win. They’re the kind of things we’re looking for from this league campaign.
“But, ultimately, at the end of it you don’t want to be facing relegation or under so much pressure to stay up.
“This Galway game is massive. If we can beat Galway then we might be safe going into our last game against Donegal [who are bottom of the table].
“Whereas if we lose to Galway then we’re facing a ‘head to head’ against Donegal that you really don’t want to be facing into.
“So it’s a really big week for us.”
The All Star from Carnacon remembers well the last time that Mayo were relegated from the top-flight, she was part of the squad.
So she is hell-bent on ensuring that it doesn’t happen again on her watch.
Right now though the 35 year-old is focussing all her energies on training this week, being game-ready for next Sunday, and being the best she can be for a game against a Galway team that haven’t lost a league game yet this season.
Relegation is the last thing on her mind.
“I don’t even like talking about it,” she says. “Once you go down a division, it’s very hard to get back up. It’s a real slippery slope.
“At the moment, it’s something I don’t want to talk about because I’m really hopeful that we’ll avoid that.
“You have to have belief, and I wouldn’t be playing with Mayo if I didn’t feel we have it in us to win some national title.
“Overall, I think most players will feel that they haven’t hit the heights that they can yet and will be looking for the extra few percent over the next few games going into the championship,” she adds.
“It’s been more patchy than anything, I don’t know if anyone has performed consistently in every game.
“It’s that consistency thing again.”
McHale has no shortage of experience togging out against Galway since making her senior debut back in 2004.
In seven weeks’ time the counties will meet again in the Connacht Final. But right now next Sunday is all that matters.
“They’re one of the top teams in the league but that probably won’t count for a whole lot next Sunday,” explains Fiona. It will come down to the rivalry between us.
“During my career, Galway have got the better of us more than we’ve got the better of them, which has been disappointing.
“But it’s a good, healthy rivalry and I’m looking forward to Sunday.”
Fixture
NFL Division 1
Mayo v Galway
Sunday, March 19
Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar at 2pm
Massive game for Mayo ladies
