McDonald return still a mystery, says Mortimer

MAYO star Conor Mortimer admits he does not know whether Ciarán McDonald will be returning to the senior football panel in 2006.

“I can’t say. I haven’t been talking to him. Nobody obviously knows what his whereabouts are. Obviously the management do, but we haven’t discussed it yet,” said Mortimer.

McDonald hasn’t returned to the inter-county fold since Mayo’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final defeat to Kerry last August. The Crossmolina man did however line out for the Irish International Rules side in the hybrid competition in Australia last October.

But there are a number of high profile names back in the camp according to Mortimer.

“It’s good to see David Brady back. We have Kevin O’Neill back as well. It’s always good to get the old faces back. They’ve obviously something to offer.”

Mayo make the journey to Tralee and a meeting with Kerry Saturday on the back of some encouraging January form.

Though January’s provincial subsidiary competitions can be notoriously unreliable barometers of a team’s form, Mayo have impressed in wins over NUIG, Sligo IT and Roscommon, largely because they have achieved those results with a team lacking much of their experienced spine.

“It has gone well, considering we haven’t had a lot of first-teamers playing in the FBD League, or at least lads who wouldn’t be regarded as first-teamers the last few years,” Mortimer admitted. “The younger fellas who have come in have done well and that puts pressure on the lads who were already there when they come back in onto the panel.

“We’ve had players who haven’t played the last couple of years and we’ve had trial games for them and they picked out whatever they could out of the county. Everyone got a chance,” said Mortimer.

“The last couple of years there’s been players out there that people have talked about but yet 50% would say they weren’t good enough and 50% would say they were. It’s hard to know. They’ll get their chance in the National League and if they get their chance in the championship, good and well.”

Mortimer warns that Saturday’s league opener against Kerry will tell a more accurate tale of where they stand and how far they still have to go.

Last year, they bounced back from the horror show that was the 2004 All-Ireland defeat to Kerry by reaching the league semi-final, even if Kerry again were one of only two teams to beat them in Division 1A.

“We’re looking to go to Kerry to win. We’re looking to win every game. You don’t necessarily go out to lose any game. We’ve been in the top league now for a few years against the likes of Kerry, Tyrone, Dublin.

“We played Armagh in a semi-final (last year) and should have beaten them. We’ve done well in the league and hopefully we can go on and make the semi-finals again this year.”