O’Mahony: Time is right to step down
The melody was Jeff Buckley’s version of ‘Hallelujah’, an appropriately mournful tale of love that has soured and gone stale and which had originally been written and performed by the great Leonard Cohen.
O’Mahony’s love affair with Mayo never soured, not despite its many ups and downs, but the staleness was apparent long before Glen Ryan’s Longford confirmed a parting of the ways.
The alarm bells first rang after a limp performance against Cork in the National League final at the end of April and the meek Connacht championship exit to Sligo three weeks ago merely confirmed everyone’s worst suspicions.
Mayo were listing and about to go under.
The door to the dressing room remained locked for what seemed like an eternity on Saturday night. When it opened, the county’s players filed out sombrely, their eyes fixed firmly on the concrete beneath their feet.
Tears flowed freely.
Alan Dillon rubbed his reddened eyes with his shirt as he walked past and he was far from alone. When O’Mahony appeared, his words confirmed what everyone already knew.
“I just told the players there that I am stepping down as manager of Mayo.
“I put in four years to it.
“I do think that these lads will have their day in the sun. I have said that constantly.
“It is not an easy thing to say on an evening that you lose a first-round qualifier to a perceived weaker team like Longford but I am absolutely convinced of that.
“Nothing changes there.
“It is for somebody else now but there is a lot of talent in that dressing room and somewhere along the line they will get it out but it is not for me to guide them from here on in.”
It was a dignified exit but his hurt bubbled to the surface once or twice, most notably when taking issue with what he deemed personal criticisms of the squad in recent times.
It was all a far cry from the November day in 2006 when O’Mahony’s appointment as manager was hailed as the final piece in the jigsaw that could bring Sam Maguire back to the county.
It may have been deep into the off-season but O’Mahony and Mayo have always been big news in their own right. Together, they promised to be box-office. Instead, they have cohabited off-Broadway.
He took over two months after the county had lost heavily to Kerry in a second All-Ireland final in just three years and it must be said that he intimated at the time that an injection of new blood would be of prime importance in their quest for September glory.
Mayo had won an All-Ireland U21 title earlier that year and reached a minor decider in 2005 and many of the older brigade had simply stumbled against one glass ceiling too many.
Fine servants, men such as Ciarán McDonald, James Nallen and Peadar Gardiner, have all faded into the past under O’Mahony’s watch. The future rests with youngsters like Alan Freeman and Aidan O’Shea.
Of the 20 players who featured against Kerry in that All-Ireland final four years ago, only 11 were on the panel two days ago. Five started. The odds are that more again will be absent when duty calls next January.
So, too, will O’Mahony who came within a whisker of claiming the ultimate honour for his county in 1989 but whose second spell in charge failed to scale anything like those same heights.
O’Mahony’s Mayo claimed one solitary Connacht title during his second spell in charge. Regrets? He will have more than a few but there is an inescapable sense that he will find relief away from the touchline too.
Rightly or wrongly, there was always the perception that O’Mahony simply couldn’t afford to turn down the manager’s position when he was hoping to run for the Dáil just over six months later.
When he was elected, he was landed with a workload that few would envy and he did little to dispel the notion that he was merely doing his duty when he took the helm in 2006.
“I took over because I was asked to do it very much. My term was about building a bridge between one team and another. I think time will prove that bridge has been built but a bridge has to get to the other side and we didn’t get to the other side in my term.
“That’s for somebody else and there is plenty of good management material around the county.
“We have exported enough good managers down through the years so it is not all doom and gloom for Mayo football. I just feel that I have done everything I can.
“I have always been available to Mayo when I was asked, even through the 90s when I wasn’t needed at that stage.
“I have always responded. I responded four years ago and I will always do that. I will continue to support these lads, both individually and collectively.”
