Board changes herald bright future for Mayo ladies

MAYO’S new ladies senior boss Fr. Michael Murphy has predicted a bright era for the Westerners following a clearout at board level and the appointment of a new executive.

Mayo players and officials clashed in recent seasons and conflict hit an all-time low in 2010 when the team was withdrawn from the Connacht championship. Fr. Murphy, who has overseen All-Ireland schools titles for St Joseph’s Castlebar and Mount St. Michael Claremorris during his coaching career, stepped in for a three-week spell for the TG4 All-Ireland qualifiers but Mayo were sent crashing out in the first round by Kerry.

And last year, a team bereft of confidence suffered relegation to Division 2 of the League before losing out to Kerry once again in the championship.

But Fr. Murphy is heading up a new management team along with Jimmy Corbett, who managed Carnacon to All-Ireland club glory last year, and Kevin McHale from the Moy Davitts club. Fr. Murphy, who has replaced Galway native Jason Tanniane as team boss, has heaped praise on the new county board, led by chairman Liam Costigan, as Mayo ladies football looks to move on from previous conflict.

Fr. Murphy said: “Hopefully we have cleared things up in the county, especially with the board. There was an election and new people are in. The lovely thing about that is they are very positive and working hard. They have a very difficult job because things were left in a very bad state. But they’re positive, working away and doing well. If we can pull all the strings together as we go through the year, hopefully we’ll have a better year.”

Fr. Murphy added: “It’s been really hard on them (players) – the way they’ve been treated. Everything was blamed on them, that they were the problem in Mayo football, which wasn’t fair and wasn’t right. Out of that sense of justice as well, I’d like to see them do well and help them out.”

He recalled: “I remember being asked to come in 2010 and try to help them out. There was a report done at that time and I was very disappointed with it because I felt that it really didn’t look at what the real problem was. I was managing them, nobody even came and asked me as to what I thought.

“There’s something wrong when a county board pulls a team out of a championship because a county board’s job is to have teams in championships. I just felt there was something wrong when that was the solution proposed.”

Mayo begin their Bord Gáis Energy Division 2 campaign on Sunday with a visit to Connacht rivals Galway.