McStay battles with head and heart to call Connacht opener

It’s tough being a TV commentator when your former team is involved, the thin line you must tread.

He wasn’t saying so of course, not in so many words, but former Mayo corner forward Kevin McStay faces that prospect when his county takes on Galway in the Connacht SFC this Sunday.

They’re in a different league at the moment, of course. Mayo are one of the top teams in the country for the past several seasons while Galway are struggling in Division 2 — far from the dizzy heights of the end of the ’90s and early ’00s.

It puts Kevin on a tightrope, doing his damnedest not to disrespect Galway and not to talk up Mayo.

“Mayo to win by six or seven points, that’s what everybody is saying,” he said.

That’s the objective pundit talking. Then comes the Mayoman.

“But of course, as I was saying to some of my Galway friends during the week, there isn’t a hope of that happening because many’s the time I went in playing Galway thinking we were three or four points better and got beaten by three or four points. I always see the Galway-Mayo game as nearly a toss-up and whoever is at home, then I give them the nod.”

Well, Galway are at home so – Galway to win then? Not quite.

“Galway are at home but I think Mayo are a little bit ahead of them, but then the injuries bring it back a little bit more even. I was looking at a few numbers last night. The last six finals, and I know this isn’t a final but it’s the major game of the Connacht championship, there was only a point or two points in it.

“But Mayo are going for three-in-a-row and I think they’ll latch onto that. It’s a good number for them, they usually do well coming out of the province if they win it for a couple of years in-a-row, it’s usually a springboard for them. I think they’re in the driver’s seat.”

The fact is, given their recent records this one isn’t even close, and no-one is better informed than Kevin himself.

“Mayo have been in the final or semi-final of the last two championships, the last two leagues so they’re really an established team, solid top four. Galway’s last big day out was losing to Antrim in the championship in the qualifiers. Their league was up-down. They just couldn’t get out of their division. When you can’t get out of the lower divisions you’re not winning enough matches and you’re probably not good enough to get out of it. The perceived gap is big. I don’t know why it is that big when you look at the history of Galway-Mayo but it’s probably based particularly on the league.”