Clinical decision leaves Mayo in a familar state of flux

Extra.ie​

27-06-2025

After a three-month review into the 2024 campaign, Mayo County Board eventually confirmed Kevin McStay as manager for the following season late last September.
Ten days after that 2025 campaign concluded, by startling contrast, McStay is gone, and with him one of the best-stacked management teams in the country.
Stephen Rochford took Mayo closer than anyone to a first All-Ireland since 1951 in his own time in charge. Donie Buckley is among the small band of football coaches with a national profile; Joe Canney is a highly regarded figure who has emerged through the celebrated Corofin culture; and there were figures in Mayo who insisted that another selector, Damien Mulligan, would one day manage the county. Kevin McStay has been axed by the Mayo County Board. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
All are out, relieved of their duties, to echo the sentiment in a county board statement that dropped shortly before 9.30pm on Wednesday, and which carried the cold and clinical message heretofore confined to Premier League dismissal notices.
Perhaps the Mayo executive was trying to avoid the mistakes of last summer, when the months-long interregnum between the team's exit on penalties to Derry in the Championship and confirmation that McStay would be there for year three of his four-year term gave rise to rampant speculation.
Much of this was aired from the floor of a county board meeting by delegates. Gossip about player unhappiness and unease was publicly uttered. Derry goalkeeper Odhran Lynch saves a penalty from Mayo's Ryan O'Donoghue during last year's shoot-out. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie
Whether much or indeed any of it had a foundation in reality never became clear, but what the entire farrago meant was that the management team started the year at a significant disadvantage in public perception terms.
A middling Allianz League campaign didn't assuage doubts, especially when it concluded with a thorough beating from Kerry in the final.
The Connacht campaign hardly fired either, with stumbles against Sligo and Leitrim countered only by a rousing third quarter against Galway.
Drearily familiar failings cost Mayo that day, when, after levelling the match, they didn't have the attacking edge to kick on. Aidan O'Shea at the final whistle against Donegal. Pic: INPHO/James Crombie
It was eventually the same problem that did for them against Donegal in the group series game, which saw them leave the Championship almost a fortnight ago.
Turning possession into points has been the besetting failure of Mayo teams for at least a generation, and while managers can't magic up the fabled 'marquee forward', the ongoing difficulties of squeezing more points out of the possession they did win was a major problem for McStay and his coaching team.
The transformation in football this summer exacerbated Mayo's difficulties, given their inability to land two-pointers while all around them, the main contenders for Sam Maguire did so.
There was an ominous early portent of this in the League when Galway devoured them in MacHale Park, winning by 10 points, their tally bloated by seven two-pointers across the 70 minutes. Kevin McStay. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
There was a grim symbolism in Mayo's last act of the Connacht final being a two-point attempt from Matthew Ruane drifting wide.
But it wasn't the only area of the new game that Mayo struggled with at times, with their kick-out a point of weakness in the spring but which tightened up considerably as the summer progressed.
Scoring was the issue, with Ryan O'Donoghue carrying an enormous burden. It wasn't the only problem, but it was more often than not a decisive one.
It's not the only frustration McStay, a palpably decent man who considered managing his county a pinnacle achievement, should feel. Ryan O'Donoghue carried an enormous burden when it came to scoring. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
The way in which his departure was announced was shoddy, via a statement that was both unfeeling and clunky.
It has only been a matter of weeks since he had to step aside following health concerns, with Rochford taking over for the group games against Tyrone and Donegal.
The former brought a famous win in Omagh, the latter ended with dramatic late defeat.
But neither of these games are the reason Mayo footballers will watch on this weekend as the Championship enters a thrilling turn. Stephen Rochford and Kevin McStay. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Their dismal defeat at home to Cavan in the first round of the group series is what did for them, an outcome that was as abject as the performance that preceded it.
And it was that tendency to fall apart that was crucial, too: Mayo's floor was always potentially alarmingly low, just as their ceiling sometimes felt promisingly high.
And now the search begins for the next saviour, the next soul willing to take on the oppressive hopes of a people stone-mad for football. The way McStay's departure was announced was shoddy. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
There is a presumption that the county board has a man in mind, but that theory is mainly borne of the circumstances in which the last man was packed off: if they were that brutal in getting rid of McStay, goes this line of reasoning, then they surely must have someone they'd like to step up.
It's a generous analysis, and if it doesn't come to pass, then local unhappiness will only grow.
A significant number of Mayo supporters may have been demanding change, but more again will understand McStay's years of service to the cause, and the impact that Stephen Rochford has had, too.
Debate is already underway, as it should be, about who gets the gig, about whether it should be an outsider or a native, about what went wrong and what must come next.
The pursuit is endless — but events of the past 36 hours have seen the dream darken.