Kevin McStay

This is a piece about Sunday's Allianz Football League final between Galway and Mayo, an article about something that has already happened, written before ...

His rejection of Eire long forgotten, you couldn’t be happy for a fella who - in full flow - plays with the joy of a kid. All that changed in 2012, not utterly, but just enough for the southern institution to end its staunch resistance against modernity and extend a welcome to its first female members in the guise of one time Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and investor/philanthropist Darla Moore. To the opposition he is like a dose of sinusitis. This year's play-offs promise to be one for the ages. Water under Rae's Creek, you might say, as last Saturday night - if you were lucky - you may have caught the closing drama of the fourth staging of the annual Augusta National Women's Amateur on Sky Golf, which saw Rose Zhang, the world's leading amateur, survive a back nine collapse worthy of any Masters Sunday, to win a play-off against South Korea's Jenny Bae. Mr Townsend's history making turn only followed another sorry episode - the Shoal Creek controversy - when prior to the PGA Championship of the same year, Shoal founder Hall Thompson defiantly declared the club would not be pressured to accept African-American members. He is the sun. Lose - and, depending on the manner of the loss, too much air may exit the balloon. All the more reason that they came into this league tuned like a Fazioli piano while their main rivals - Galway and Kerry - slowly battled their late summer hangovers. There are a couple of reasons for this, and at the top of the pile was surely Kevin McStay's understanding that if good things are going to happen for his team, they likely have to happen fast. His is not a complete renovation of an already attractive, but dated property. I don’t know who won, but I’m fairly sure of some narratives that will endure beyond the outcome.

Kevin McStay was in a sort of football purgatory. Pleased his side had franked early-season form with a league title while simultaneously throwing his eyes ...

It’s one of these things that would have made a difference in the game but at the end of the day we didn’t kick enough over the bar and Mayo did and they won the game.” “It’s a thankless job at the end of the day. There are two linesmen there and four umpires but you tell a linesman that he’s not allowed to call in to a referee, only point out something off the ball. There is the fact that we’ve lost three finals in 12 months, which isn’t ideal, but we’ve come from Division 2 to an All-Ireland final to a league final. Mayo travelled with the trophy but with celebrations parked. We need to support referees as well and not be giving out about them all the time or giving out to them. The referee is one of the best we have in the country. And he pointed to a Johnny Heaney’s goal chance in the first half that might have been crucial. David Gough gave one last week for Monaghan against Mayo when a fella got pulled down on the 21 and this was given as a free-in for a tackle, so what was the free for? “In fairness we knew about this fixture for the last three months or whatever, so, that was always in the plan and in the way the backroom team went about preparing the team, so there was no issue about our energy or our fitness. It’s just the psychology of putting a lot into a big match like today, which was added to by the fact of who our opponents were and then jumping straight back to a game where there will be a lot of expectation. That’s just the pity of it, the timing side of it but that’s nothing anybody can do anything about.

EARLY IN HIS first season as Mayo senior football boss and already Kevin McStay has an entry for the CV, a title delivered in a national final in Croke Park ...

A great credit to his coach and to the other two keepers, Rob and Rory for keeping him honest. “And he hit three big frees, so that is a fair day’s work. He has come a long way in the last six months. “Paddy (Durcan) did great in receiving the cup and framing where we want to go this week. In fairness we knew about this fixture for the last three months or whatever, so that was always in the plan. The optics would be wrong.

FOR supporters, the announcement of the team on Friday evening was greeted generally with a healthy mix of acceptance and at the same time a small modicum ...

To them it is a demotion and something that they hope to reverse whenever the opportunity arises to impress. The fact that their only chance of surviving a 10th successive season in Division 1 depended on this result certainly acted as inspiration. The endless hours of graft and total dedication prove worthwhile when their efforts are rewarded with a place on the team. In the case of the newbies, it is a recognised part of their footballing apprenticeship. For the likes of Diarmuid O’Connor, Mayo’s repeated turbo-charged man of the match in recent weeks, allowing him the opportunity to rest his legs was prudent. A total then of 10 changes from the team that defeated Donegal a week earlier didn’t come as a complete shock.

Mayo certainly put their All-Ireland title demons behind them as they took delivery of the Allianz Football League silverware in impressive style at Croke ...

“Now it’s on to the Connacht championship in which we must play again next weekend. No wonder manager McStay was beaming from ear to ear at the finish but he was particularly keen to keep his team’s triumph in contest. And it was to remain at nip and tuck until near the end when Mayo, with the superb Ryan O’Donoghue, Jack Coyne and goalkeeper Colm Reape showing pinpoint accuracy, helped to bring their side over the line to win by 0-14 to 0-11.