Colin Sheridan: McStay hits the right honeymoon notes but he'll ultimately be hostage to history

First impressions are important, even in a journey that McStay himself knows will either end in Valhalla (an All-Ireland win) or Abaddon (everything else).

Thu, 15 Sep, 2022 - 06:30

Colin Sheridan

As beginnings go, Kevin McStay’s reign as Ceasar of Mayo football got off to a positive start on Monday night as he addressed the press in his first formal outing since his ratification as manager.

Unlike his opposite number in Buckingham Palace, there were no malfunctioning fountain pens, no public scolding of serfs, no protesting of embarrassing family members. No, if this was a game of football, it would be catergorised as a win. Not quite a royal coronation, more of a maiden victory over hurdles.

McStay, the one-time All-Star footballer, army officer, newspaper columninst, Sunday Game analyst and All-Ireland Club-winning manager, displayed one valuable trait more than any other — the ability to read a room. It was the most appropriate one for the occasion in question. If nothing else, the right thing happening at the right time — so often a complication for Mayo — augurs well for his tenure.

There will, of course, be much bigger tests ahead, but navigating the murky waters of “first message communication” is something that cannot be taken for granted in any high-profile inter-county position. It’s over four months until Mayo play their first competitive game of the 2023 season — in old money, the All-Ireland final would not be happening until this coming Sunday — so, the only meat for Mayo people and other interested parties to chew on until then will be McStays words and body language.

It seems unfair, but that’s why first impressions are important. In an environment so easily smothered in the smog of doom and gloom, projecting authentic positivity is a progressive first step in a journey that McStay himself knows will either end in Valhalla (an All-Ireland win) or Abaddon (everything else).

On Monday night, McStay was flanked by coach Stephan Rochford, a man all too familiar with the pressures his new boss is about to face. History has been kind to Rochford in the context of his three years as Mayo manager. Much maligned for his gameday decision to bench goalkeeper David Clarke in favour of Robert Hennelly (it was, after all, not just any game day, but an All Ireland final replay which his team would eventually lose by a point), it was perhaps not until after his departure that his abilities as a coach especially were fully appreciated in Mayo. He will be hoping that his last few years in Donegal, which coincided with a slide towards irrelevance for the county, were anomalous. His willingness to accept a supporting actor’s role from McStay points to a hunger to correct the record, and a willingness to play any part necessary in going one step further than he did as manager.

An interesting addition to McStay’s backroom team was revealed too on Monday, as psychologist Niamh Fitzpatrick looks set to reprise the role she executed under Rochford. Fitzpatrick is synonymous with Wexford’s All-Ireland hurling triumph in 1996, when as a young, inexperienced (not to mention female) sports psychologist, she accepted Liam Griffin’s invitation to become part of, and ultimately shape, history in the county. Fitzpatrick was a hugely popular part of Rochford’s backroom team in 2016. It’s an easy joke to make, but in a county so impervious to psychoanalysis, you’d expect the now very experienced Fitzpatrick to revel in the challenge that awaits her.

In the end, however, just like this most positive of beginnings, it will all end with the new commander-in-chief, Kevin McStay. In a world awash with people only willing to admit to not being interested in things (“despite the speculation linking me to blah blah, I wish to rule myself out of contention for blah blah” etc), the Ballina man has been an outlier in openly admitting genuine interest in something he has clearly coveted for nearly three decades. Such open declarations of ambition often sit uncomfortably with people from the west of Ireland, where we usually see self-confidence as a virtue best buried under a heavy quilt of pathos and self-deprecation. It may go some way to explaining why McStay, despite his ubiquity in Gaelic footballing life through national media and management elsewhere, has been cast as somewhat of an enigma back west.

He reiterated last Monday night this was the only job that would bring him back to management, the only job that would see him sacrifice time with his family. In this regard, he is no reluctant fundamentalist, but a willing hostage to history. He wryly asked for some clemency in enjoying the glow of his honeymoon period a little longer.

Those who know the highs and lows of any marriage, will surely grant him that.