DEAN ROCK WASN’T long retired in early 2024 when he was snapped up for a national newspaper column.
He focused on Mayo for one of his first pieces. He had attended their National League game against Dublin and was struck by a sense of deja vu.
Rock filled his pockets with All-Ireland medals at Mayo’s expense throughout the 2010s and reflected on how the westerners’ lack of punch and presence up front had always held them back.
Even after beating Dublin in that Division 1 League game in 2024, he said “there remains a feeling (that) there’s still something missing up front” for Mayo and “very little has changed with them”.
It’s a frustrating refrain that Mayo supporters must be tired of hearing, that they produce great defenders but not enough really talented attackers.
Jim McGuinness made the same argument when he was on punditry duties for Sky Sports back in 2017.
Asked that summer if Mayo had the forwards to finally land Sam, McGuinness shook his head.
For me they don’t, and that is the Achilles heel of the team over the last couple of years,” said McGuinness. “They have really good players all over the pitch, and really good forwards, but the type of player I am talking about is a cut above even his peers. It’s a ‘Gooch’ Cooper, a Peter Canavan, a Michael Murphy. I don’t see that player.”
The previous year, in 2016, after Colm and Ryan Basquel powered Ballyboden St Enda’s to All-Ireland club success at Croke Park, more than a few people suggested they could do a job for Mayo.
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The Basquels’ parents, Noel and Bernie, are both from Mayo and with Dublin already flush with marquee forwards, some people began to put two and two together.
That one never materialised, and last Sunday afternoon in Aughrim, Rock found himself beckoning Basquel from the bench to warm up for the Dubs against Wicklow in the Leinster SFC.
Rock is Dublin’s interim manager now, while Ger Brennan is suspended, and Basquel, an All-Star and All-Ireland winner in 2023, was about to make his first appearance of the year for Dublin. It didn’t go well. About 10 minutes after coming on, he had to come off again. A hamstring tweak is the word though Rock wasn’t giving much away on that one.
Either way, it’s a big problem for Dublin who find themselves needing Basquel more than ever, certainly more than they did back in 2017 when they left Paul Flynn, Diarmuid Connolly, Kevin McManamon and Bernard Brogan on the bench and still beat Mayo in that season’s All-Ireland final.
Almost a decade on, just as the last of Dublin’s golden era performers are making for the exit gate, Mayo look to be finally coming good with a troupe of brilliant young forwards.
We’re not even going to spend much time talking about Kobe McDonald, who has already commanded enough column inches in his short time as a Mayo senior to make his famously media shy father, Ciarán, blush. And anyway, even if the Crossmolina phenom continues to light things up for Mayo senior and U-20 teams, he’s away shortly to Australia.
Talent
The really exciting thing for Mayo is that there’s more attacking talent than just McDonald. Mayo used 36 different players in the National League, the most of any Division 1 county, so we got a look at them all.
The Sigerson Cup was illuminating too with Mayo players making up half of UL’s attack as they streaked to a first ever title.
Four Mayo players – Cian McHale, Frank Irwin, Conal Dawson and Sean Morahan – scored in the Croke Park final win over UCC.
Morahan is a defender but the other three, and McHale in particular, are stellar attacking talents.
On a God awful evening in Abbottstown, when the driving rain made a mush of our match notes, Dawson nailed a late two-point free that helped force UL’s semi-final game against Queens to extra time. He went on to start against Kerry in the League for Mayo. McHale piled on the misery for opponents Queens in the extra 20 minutes of that Sigerson encounter and finished with 1-8.
McHale made his Championship debut for Mayo against London last Saturday week in Ruislip and scored six points. Hugh O’Loughlin, a UL colleague, debuted against London too.
Darragh Beirne, who started five NFL games for Mayo and scored goals against Galway and Dublin, was held back from the trip to London for U20 duties against Galway, just as McDonald was, and the duo duly scored 2-9 between them. McDonald’s first goal was a worldy, if you haven’t seen it already. They’re through to the Connacht U20 final and look like decent value for not just back-to-back provincial titles but a shot at the All-Ireland.
All of which must give Andy Moran a really good feeling when he considers how the next few years might pan out for him as Mayo senior manager.
He still has veterans Aidan O’Shea and Cillian O’Connor too, two players who experienced all those near misses in the 2010s when a top-heavy defence and light attack was blamed for them missing out on the Holy Grail. O’Shea is in the form of his career and O’Connor has returned from a sabbatical for one last throw of the dice. There’s Ryan O’Donoghue as well, their top scorer in the League, as he was in the win over London when he clipped 0-11. Throw in Tommy Conroy and you have a pretty stellar cast.
Warning lights are flashing, of course. And not just because so many of Moran’s young guns fall into the category of potential, as opposed to proven. The Mayo manager will probably be talking to a few old buddies this weekend from his native Ballaghaderreen, just inside the Roscommon border, who will remind him that their county also enjoyed a recent explosion of attacking talent.
For a while there, the Rossies had the two Murtaghs, the two Smiths, Daire Cregg, Ben O’Carroll and Conor Cox all in the same squad, arguably up there with the best sets of forwards in the country, but they still couldn’t quite turn all that potential into big prizes.
That’s the challenge now for Mayo, to capitalise on the gifts they’ve been given at the top of the field.
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Are Mayo ready to take a giant leap forward?
DEAN ROCK WASN’T long retired in early 2024 when he was snapped up for a national newspaper column.
He focused on Mayo for one of his first pieces. He had attended their National League game against Dublin and was struck by a sense of deja vu.
Rock filled his pockets with All-Ireland medals at Mayo’s expense throughout the 2010s and reflected on how the westerners’ lack of punch and presence up front had always held them back.
Even after beating Dublin in that Division 1 League game in 2024, he said “there remains a feeling (that) there’s still something missing up front” for Mayo and “very little has changed with them”.
It’s a frustrating refrain that Mayo supporters must be tired of hearing, that they produce great defenders but not enough really talented attackers.
Jim McGuinness made the same argument when he was on punditry duties for Sky Sports back in 2017.
Asked that summer if Mayo had the forwards to finally land Sam, McGuinness shook his head.
The previous year, in 2016, after Colm and Ryan Basquel powered Ballyboden St Enda’s to All-Ireland club success at Croke Park, more than a few people suggested they could do a job for Mayo.
The Basquels’ parents, Noel and Bernie, are both from Mayo and with Dublin already flush with marquee forwards, some people began to put two and two together.
That one never materialised, and last Sunday afternoon in Aughrim, Rock found himself beckoning Basquel from the bench to warm up for the Dubs against Wicklow in the Leinster SFC.
Rock is Dublin’s interim manager now, while Ger Brennan is suspended, and Basquel, an All-Star and All-Ireland winner in 2023, was about to make his first appearance of the year for Dublin. It didn’t go well. About 10 minutes after coming on, he had to come off again. A hamstring tweak is the word though Rock wasn’t giving much away on that one.
Either way, it’s a big problem for Dublin who find themselves needing Basquel more than ever, certainly more than they did back in 2017 when they left Paul Flynn, Diarmuid Connolly, Kevin McManamon and Bernard Brogan on the bench and still beat Mayo in that season’s All-Ireland final.
Almost a decade on, just as the last of Dublin’s golden era performers are making for the exit gate, Mayo look to be finally coming good with a troupe of brilliant young forwards.
We’re not even going to spend much time talking about Kobe McDonald, who has already commanded enough column inches in his short time as a Mayo senior to make his famously media shy father, Ciarán, blush. And anyway, even if the Crossmolina phenom continues to light things up for Mayo senior and U-20 teams, he’s away shortly to Australia.
Talent
The really exciting thing for Mayo is that there’s more attacking talent than just McDonald. Mayo used 36 different players in the National League, the most of any Division 1 county, so we got a look at them all.
The Sigerson Cup was illuminating too with Mayo players making up half of UL’s attack as they streaked to a first ever title.
Four Mayo players – Cian McHale, Frank Irwin, Conal Dawson and Sean Morahan – scored in the Croke Park final win over UCC.
Morahan is a defender but the other three, and McHale in particular, are stellar attacking talents.
On a God awful evening in Abbottstown, when the driving rain made a mush of our match notes, Dawson nailed a late two-point free that helped force UL’s semi-final game against Queens to extra time. He went on to start against Kerry in the League for Mayo. McHale piled on the misery for opponents Queens in the extra 20 minutes of that Sigerson encounter and finished with 1-8.
McHale made his Championship debut for Mayo against London last Saturday week in Ruislip and scored six points. Hugh O’Loughlin, a UL colleague, debuted against London too.
Darragh Beirne, who started five NFL games for Mayo and scored goals against Galway and Dublin, was held back from the trip to London for U20 duties against Galway, just as McDonald was, and the duo duly scored 2-9 between them. McDonald’s first goal was a worldy, if you haven’t seen it already. They’re through to the Connacht U20 final and look like decent value for not just back-to-back provincial titles but a shot at the All-Ireland.
All of which must give Andy Moran a really good feeling when he considers how the next few years might pan out for him as Mayo senior manager.
He still has veterans Aidan O’Shea and Cillian O’Connor too, two players who experienced all those near misses in the 2010s when a top-heavy defence and light attack was blamed for them missing out on the Holy Grail. O’Shea is in the form of his career and O’Connor has returned from a sabbatical for one last throw of the dice. There’s Ryan O’Donoghue as well, their top scorer in the League, as he was in the win over London when he clipped 0-11. Throw in Tommy Conroy and you have a pretty stellar cast.
Warning lights are flashing, of course. And not just because so many of Moran’s young guns fall into the category of potential, as opposed to proven. The Mayo manager will probably be talking to a few old buddies this weekend from his native Ballaghaderreen, just inside the Roscommon border, who will remind him that their county also enjoyed a recent explosion of attacking talent.
For a while there, the Rossies had the two Murtaghs, the two Smiths, Daire Cregg, Ben O’Carroll and Conor Cox all in the same squad, arguably up there with the best sets of forwards in the country, but they still couldn’t quite turn all that potential into big prizes.
That’s the challenge now for Mayo, to capitalise on the gifts they’ve been given at the top of the field.
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