NEW MAYO LADIES football manager Liam McHale is putting the team through their paces ahead of the 2024 season, says star defender Saoirse Lally.
The renowned GAA coach took the reins in November, succeeding Michael Moyles on a three-year term.
“Big changes,” Lally tells The 42, with no shortage of new faces across the management team and playing squad. “It’s really exciting.
“Liam knows what he’s talking about. He has Kenneth Mortimer in the backroom team as well, one of the best defenders from Mayo before and also Dermot Flanagan. He has a couple of All-Stars. It’s definitely going well so far and it’s only going to go up from here.
“Kenneth Mortimer has a daughter on the team. He knows the players, which is really important as well. They were at a few games throughout the year, a few club games as well. They really got to know us before they were even our managers, it’s very good.”
Asked if anything in particular stands out from their tenure thus far, Lally continues:
“Their way of it is that trainings are gonna be harder than games. The trainings at the moment are really, really tough but we completely understand why. When we get into a game, hopefully, we’ll have enough loading done, we’ll have our strength up, our fitness up because of all these tough trainings from preseason. It will make that bit easier.
“He has completely changed our tactics from before. It’s really good to see someone from the outside think that we can play in a different way. It’s very different to how a lot of us are comfortable playing, we have to do things we’re not used to do in a game, but it’s been working so far in a few challenge games and in-house games as well.”
Lally, 21, is keen to pay tribute to former manager Moyles, who was “absolutely brilliant from the start right to the end” as he oversaw three All-Ireland semi-final appearances and delivered Mayo’s first piece of silverware since 2016 in last year’s Connacht title.
There have been some ins and outs on the panel. Key forward Shauna Howley and experienced defender/midfielder Clodagh McManamon are unavailable for 2024, with Nicola O’Malley and Emma Needham among the returning cohort.
There are several players stepping from last year’s Mayo minor team, while doubt remains over the involvement of the AFLW contingent of Sarah Rowe, Niamh and Grace Kelly, Rachel Kearns, Aileen Gilroy and Dayna Finn.
In a major boost, 2016 All-Star Fiona McHale is going again. The 36-year-old Carnacon clubwoman is still setting standards, winning fitness tests at the outset of her 19th inter-county season.
“She’s a brilliant leader. The things she does off the pitch, no one can describe. It’s brilliant. She really brings the younger ones together and makes them feel really welcome.”
With 15 of the panel based in, or near, Dublin, Mayo train in the capital midweek.
Westport defender Lally is in her third year of a physiotherapy degree in UCD. The 2021 All-Star nominee is balancing placement and college football on top of her inter-county commitments at the moment.
Meanwhile, all vacancies on the Mayo LGFA executive board have been filled after an urgent appeal for volunteers. “It’s really important for us,” Lally concluded.
The Green and Red open their Division 1 Lidl Ladies National Football League campaign at home to Meath on Sunday, 21 January.
