WHEN MAYO’S FOOTBALL league campaign achieved lift-off, Fergal Boland did not hesitate to make his mark.
There was an impatience to make up for lost time. On a late January afternoon in Pearse Stadium, he chipped in with Mayo’s first point of their 2024 outings in Division 1. He tacked on another point before the break and then played his part in assisting Eoghan McLaughlin for Mayo’s first goal.
Boland’s third point arrived early in the second half, expertly floated between the posts as he measured his kick into the unpredictable breeze that engulfs the Salthill venue.
A three-point tally, as Mayo won on the home patch of their fiercest Connacht rivals, represented a highly satisfactory start to the season.
Six days later that feel-good factor was maintained. Deep in injury-time in Castlebar, Ryan O’Donoghue’s quick thinking saw him square a free. Boland did the rest in nailing his shot. It transpired to be the winning point, another victory for Mayo and Dublin headed back to the capital defeated.
For the 28-year-old, it has been quite a renaissance. When Mayo bowed out of the 2022 championship at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage in James Horan’s last game at the helm Boland finished the match on the pitch after being pressed into action as a second-half substitute.
When Kevin McStay took charge and assembled his squad that winter, Boland was deemed surplus to requirements.
“I wouldn’t be the sort of fella to start arguing or anything, or to cause any conflict,” Boland told the Irish Examiner in January 2023.
“It’s up to me now if I want to force my way back onto the panel, it’s as simple as that. And you just have to be completely honest with yourself. You’re just going to have to get better as a player and play well for your club and then hopefully force your way back next year or whatever.”
He did just that.
His GAA skills are not just restricted to Gaelic football, his hurling prowess has been in evidence for the Tooreen club that have been serial contenders at All-Ireland intermediate level of late.
“His desire to play football for Mayo never wavered,” says Dom Greally, a stalwart of the Tooreen club, who has been part of their intermediate management in recent times.
“Even though he was dropped last year, it’s a testament to himself that he kept him in such shape that he was able to just drift back in there and play like he’s playing.
“When he was let go, the majority of players probably would have said, that’s it and maybe go enjoy life a bit more, but he kept himself in great shape. To stay in that kind of shape at that top level of football, it’s down to himself really.”
With Tooreen, Boland found a welcome sanctuary. The club have won the last four Connacht intermediate club hurling titles. Their All-Ireland endeavours have featured three semi-final losses and an agonising final defeat in January 2023 in Croke Park against Limerick’s Monaleen.
Boland had been cut from the Mayo football setup a few months before that game, yet the light of his influence never dimmed for a club outfit, where his brother Shane is also a key figure.
“He’s as much part of the club and the team as he ever was. Probably a good example was the time that he was let go from the Mayo football panel.
“We were preparing for the Connacht club final at the time and we never knew he was let go. You wouldn’t know from his demeanor. Another lad might just take a break. It was tough for him, I’d say to be let go off the panel, but it never changed his commitment to the hurling.”
That sense of duty persisted. Plans for a recent move to Australia were on hold until Tooreen’s hurling run ended, they lost an All-Ireland semi-final against Cork’s Castlelyons in Tullamore in mid-December.
Boland’s recall to the Mayo football fold occurred around then and the life switch to the southern hemisphere transformed into a short break.
“He was planning on going for a couple of months anyway and was waiting I think for the hurling to end with Tooreen,” says Greally.
“Then he got called back into the Mayo panel and that changed again. He went out for a couple of weeks the day after that semi-final because his partner is out there, planning to be back for the All-Ireland club final, if we’d made it. He has everything planned around his sport.”
Now, football commands his focus again. Boland burst onto the scene in 2016, winning an All-Ireland U21 medal on a Mayo team where his colleagues included Matthew Ruane, Stephen Coen, Conor Loftus and Diarmuid O’Connor.
The following year he had graduated to play senior championship football under the watch of Stephen Rochford, and notched two points in the 2019 league final win over Kerry.
Hurling with Tooreen and kicking football with their sister club Aghamore, Boland’s recent exploits have heightened interest locally.
Round 3 of the league against Kerry tonight is the next assignment.
“He’s that kind of player, once he gets on the field, he just keeps going and going,” says Greally.
“It doesn’t matter how the game is going or personally for himself, he keeps working. He has a great engine. He takes a lot of belts, heavy tackles, just gets up and gets on with it. Great attitude.
“I am sure he was under a bit of pressure being brought back and you have to prove yourself again. So I was absolutely delighted for him.
“The test now is to maintain that kind of form. It won’t be lack of effort from his part anyway. He’ll give it everything.”
