THE MAYO LADIES are approaching their All-Ireland championship campaign with a game-by-game attitude, starting with their first run-out this Saturday.
Their inclusion in the only four-team group of the senior competition means they have one more game than most counties in the upper tier. And each assignment will be a stinger for Michael Moyles’ team as they chase down an All-Ireland quarter-final spot.
Cavan, Monaghan and Armagh are all top sides in the Ulster division while the Orchard County are the reigning champions up North as well as All-Ireland semi-finalists.
Mayo didn’t survive the chop from the round-robin phase of last year’s championship after they were pipped by Armagh for the sole qualification spot that was on offer.
But with all the work that lies before them in these upcoming fixtures, Mayo forward Niamh Kelly has no time to make comparisons with their 2020 form.
“We’ll probably take each game as it comes,” Kelly responds when asked about her side’s aims in this year’s championship.
“We’ve Cavan first and they’ll be a tough game. They’ve had a young panel there for a long time, and they’re very strong this year. So, they’ll be tough.
“Armagh will be our third game, so we have Monaghan first and then we’ve Armagh. Armagh were brilliant last year, very tough game. They’ve the two Mackins and Caroline O’Hanlon there in midfield as well.
“We’re kind of just taking each game as it comes and it’s Cavan this weekend so hopefully that game goes in our favour. We’ll put the heads down and see how it goes.”
The All-Ireland championship is coming at a good time for Mayo. Their league campaign ended on a disappointing note following a heavy 4-15 to 0-10 defeat to Dublin in the league semi-final.
Mayo picked up plenty of possession in the first half but were lacking in the final product as Dublin stormed into an eight-point lead at the break which they stretched out to 17 points before the final whistle.
The margin at the end makes for grim reading but Kelly sees it as a “good learning” to bring forward for their championship games.
Additionally, Kelly was present for all of Mayo’s Division 1 games after putting in a full shift with the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League Women’s [AFLW]. Along with her sister, Grace, the pair have completed two seasons with the Perth outfit and are already signed up for a third stint Down Under.
Tipperary star Aisling McCarthy is also a key player for the Eagles.
“Yeah, it’s been brilliant, great experience,” says Kelly about their other side of her sporting life in Australia.
“We’ve had two seasons out there now so it’s five months and five months. I suppose it was nice that Grace was with me and it was nice to have another person to learn the skills with a do extra skill sessions with.
“It’s been exciting to pick up a new sport and it was great this year that TG4 broadcast a lot of games at home, so there’s a lot more people who are in tune with it and watching us.
“It’s been a great experience and it’s been lovely to train in a professional environment and have access to all the facilities and recovery and ice baths and stuff like that. You definitely learned a lot that you take away and bring into Gaelic too.
“I’ve really enjoyed it, it’s been great.”
The plan for season number three is to fly back out to Perth after the conclusion of their football season with club and county.
Pre-season training is due to commence in September but the Kellys will be departing a little bit later than that to finish up their commitments here before touching down in time for their season opener in December.
The spacing between the AFLW and the Ladies football seasons continues to stir up discussions in Ireland. For now, they’re far enough apart that the Irish contingent can fulfill their Aussie Rules obligations before returning home to pull their county jersey over them again.
But the key question remains: how much longer can players continue in this dynamic? It has long been signposted that a time will probably come when they will have to choose between the Sherrin and the O’Neill’s.
“To be honest, I think there probably will be [a time to choose] in the future,” says Kelly.
“This year, they brought it forward a little bit and there’s an extra game in the competition. There were 10 games this year as opposed to nine.
“I think there might be two to four new games next year and they’re looking at expanding new teams in the league so that’ll mean there’ll be 18 teams as opposed to 14 teams. It’ll be tough because the seasons might clash but what they’re doing this year is push it that bit forward.
“It suits us with Gaelic because it’s great to come back and not miss anything. Especially this year with Covid, we didn’t miss any league which is great. But yeah, there might come a time in the future where people might have to choose one or the other.
“I suppose that’s where things will be tough, to have to make decisions that way but it’s great this year that we get the opportunity to play both.”
The issue around choosing between the sports became a major topic last year when then-Mayo Ladies boss Peter Leahy became the first high profile manager to say that his players would have to make a decision.
All of Mayo’s representatives who were playing in the AFLW at the time are still attached to their clubs, but Kelly anticipates that perhaps another manager might issue a similar request in the future.
“Yeah definitely down the line,” says Kelly.
“I suppose every manager will approach it differently as well but I don’t really know. There might come a time where we might have to decide between one or the other, and that’s fair enough because they might end up clashing.
“It’s something I’m kind of half-thinking about in the back of my head. But it’s something that I’ll deal with if it comes. We’ll have to wait and see. It’s great at the moment, that you can fit the both in.
“We came back at the end of April, beginning of May so myself and Grace had a bit of time to train before the league started.
“You definitely need to get out and do extra skill sessions yourself. The shape of the ball is definitely a lot different and then when you’re kicking an AFL ball, you’ve to kick through it a lot more than you would at Gaelic football.
“So getting used to the flight of the Gaelic ball again definitely took a little bit of getting used to again. I suppose we had a little bit of time to brush up on that and we’d kind of built up fitness from the AFL season so, yeah, getting my skills right was the priority. And the league was good to brush up on that too.”
The Mayo camp has undergone some changes for the 2021 season. A change in management has also ushered in some new appointments in the backroom team.
Former county players Ger Cafferkey, Evan Regan and Austin O’Malley have all come on board with Cafferkey working in the area of video analysis while Regan has joined as a nutritionist, and O’Malley is coming in as a performance coach.
There’s also been some key additions in the squad as Mayo welcome back the players who previously stepped away in the midst of a player walkout in 2018. Mayo stalwart Fiona McHale is among the batch of players who have returned for 2021.
“It’s great to have Michael [Moyles] and all his backroom team in. They’re all new management in this year.
“It’s brilliant, they bring a good energy to the group as well. They all have great experience. The likes of Ger Cafferkey is there doing the video analysis, and then the likes of Austin O’Malley is a high performance coach and he’s been with the Mayo men too.
“I suppose they bring a bit of energy to the camp as well so we’re really looking forward. We know it’s going to be tough because there’s games week-in, week-out.
“So it will be tough but we’re looking forward to it.”
Niamh Kelly was on hand to mark the launch of the 2021 TG4 All-Ireland Championships.
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