Why ending Kevin McStay's tenure was a chance Mayo couldn't take

The what if McStay may be their own version of Kieran McGeeney and to dismiss him now would cost the county. The what if that in a season where Armagh made everything believable the small margins of a Connor Gleeson kick, a Cormac Costello fist and a penalty shoot-out were the only things that stood in Mayo’s way of going all the way. The what if Paddy Durcan was fit. The what if there is nobody else capable of coming in and replacing him.

Mayo couldn’t take the chance and ultimately it was the one concern that trumped all others. Those of some county board executive members who maintained changes had to be made to the McStay management team. Those of some players that felt things could have been done a whole lot better.

In the areas of strength and conditioning, physiotherapy and a performance coach, Mayo’s backroom team will be altered for the new season. Whether that is enough to assuage doubts is debatable.

Sunday night’s statement confirming McStay will remain at the helm wasn’t exactly a convincing one. In 2025, he will enter the third of a four-year term but there was no mention of that original agreement in the press release nor what his coaching ticket is going to look like, even though it’s expected to exactly the same.

It read: “Mayo GAA have concluded their annual end of year review with the Mayo senior football management team and would like to confirm that Kevin McStay will continue as the manager of the Mayo Senior Football Team for 2025.

“The Mayo GAA Coiste Bainistí would like to wish the players and the management team all the very best of luck for 2025.” 

That couple of sentences concluded a review, which was unwieldy in its nature. The appointment of a person anonymous to both the county board and senior management to provide independent feedback to the board was frankly weird. The process was unfair on McStay as it was on the players, who at times seemed to be weaponised by club delegates as the review eventually reached its expected outcome.

In 2015, when Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes lost the dressing room, they did so to a group that had won the previous five Connacht SFC titles and reached three All-Irelands in four years. The current crew may still have members of that period but the stock and status of the panel isn’t what it was.

Natural wastage and loss of form have contributed to an overhaul in personnel. Of the team that started the Connacht final win over Galway three years ago, only five started this year’s defeat to the same opposition. If there was appetite for something new, they may not have had the Mayo people’s support this time around. If there was, it wasn’t enough to down tools.

The cold, hard fact is Mayo exited the championship a stage earlier than 2023 and McStay himself described the season as a disappointment. For the second season in a row, they didn’t top their Sam Maguire Cup group table even if those pools featured Kerry, who they beat in Killarney last year only to later spoil it all by losing to Cork, and Dublin, who they were seconds away from beating.

The Nestor Cup, once as familiar to Mayo as keeping the faith, has become a stranger. In their last nine seasons, they have won just two Connacht SFC titles, 2020 and ’21.

The cruel reality is they haven’t been able to put two good championship performances back-to-back in three years. That bad habit of Mayo’s precedes McStay and cropped up in 2019 when they were brought crashing down to the terra firma following the emotional high of beating Galway in a qualifier having lost to them in the three previous Connacht championships.

The anticipated appointment of a third performance coach in as many years - Nollaig O'Sullivan who supported Clare's All-Ireland winning hurlers this year has been mentioned - might indicate the management see the issue as being a mental one but from hereon in everybody’s under the gun.