‘We air our dirty laundry' – RTE pundit doesn't pull any punches in cutting verdict of Mayo GAA county board
The five-time All-Star has vented his frustrations about the many issues within the
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Mayo failed to advance from the group stages of this year's championship
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Keegan was very disappointed in Mayo GAA's statement when 'relieving' Kevin McStay of his duties at the time
Credit: @talksportireland
The Green and Red county failed to reach the knockout stages of this year's Championship after a
Kevin
Keegan has suggested that underlying issues within the county board have more to do with Mayo's lack of success than McStay.
The Westport man said: "There's trust and loyalty issues. There's too much talking. The expectation for me is too much.
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"This is the problem like you know, we sometimes as players we get ridiculed and obviously we didn't get over the All-Ireland stuff but listen that's our fault I take that.
"We are the only county I feel anyway that we air all our dirty laundry to everybody for good or bad. Like I mean from the the simplest stuff to the outrageous stuff, everything just gets out."
Keegan also feels the expectation put on the current crop of Mayo players is far too high and needs to be more realistic after recent struggles in the All-Ireland series.
Since Mayo's All-Ireland final loss to Tyrone in 2021, the Westerners have failed to pass the quarter-final stages of the Championship.
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It was a stark demise for Mayo who suffered a Connacht quarter-final defeat to Galway in 2022, before being knocked out by Kerry at the same stage in the All-Ireland series.
The following year brought another Connacht quarter-final exit, this time at the hands of Roscommon. A preliminary quarter-final win against provincial rivals Galway saw them reach the quarters yet again but a rampant Dublin team beat them by 12 points.
David Clifford's son adorably hijacks RTE interview after dad dominates All-Ireland final
A preliminary quarter-final
The seven time Connacht champion added: "We probably get talked about more than most. We were in the conversation for the quarter-finals this year when we shouldn't have.
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"I think in Mayo sometimes the expectation is way too high. I think we need to.. not lower, I mean you obviously want to win the big ones and stuff.
"We haven't won a Connacht medal in a few years now, we won a league and got to a league final. That doesn't cut it. We need to win provincials, like Galway have won four-in-a-row.
"That needs to be a realistic expectation, we are on about All-Irelands for the last few years.
MCSTAY SYMPATHY
Keegan also felt former Mayo manager Kevin McStay - who had to temporarily step away from the role due to health reasons - was hard done by by the Mayo GAA county board.
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The
RTÉ pundit sympatised: "I've felt really sorry for Kevin in particular.
"We lost a lot of big figureheads of that group that didn't get over the line (2021), we went very close. It's very unfair to ask the same of the group that's in there now
"I felt sorry for Kevin at times, I think his writing was on the wall this year because he didn't win the provincial.
"Kevin is a great football man and a very proud Mayo man I thought it was really handled badly."
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With the poor treatment of McStay and previous Mayo managers, Keegan has issued a warning to anyone thinking of taking up the vacant role.
"I think whoever is going to go in there is going to have a tough job. That's just being straight up with you. And I wish them the best because they are going to be working with tough people.
"They need to be given time to integrate as well, I think this whole thing about All-Irelands needs to be cut for now and start working on the short term and see where that brings us."
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