Davey: Mayo row should have been nipped in bud

By Paul Keane

Dublin ladies star Lyndsey Davey reckons the row between Mayo players and management should have been settled by now and took some of the gloss off the All-Ireland final.

Davey was part of the Dublin side that beat Cork in front of over 50,000 in the final, securing back to back titles, though the Mayo row garnered at least as much national attention.

That issue has yet to be resolved and experienced forward Davey predicted that it could even ‘take a few years for the county to get things back together’ if it is not properly dealt with.

“I kind of think it should have been something that was nipped in the bud earlier on, because people weren’t really saying what happened,” said Davey.

“Speculation got into it then, and people said, ‘Well, this happened’ or ‘that happened’. Nobody knew bar the players and the management knew what happened but I think had things been released earlier and people put out their statements and nipped it in the bud that it wouldn’t have exploded as much as it has.

“I think it’s probably disappointing from the ladies perspective because even with the All-Ireland finals, everything was so positive and there was massive attendances at the games, whereas this is a bit of negative publicity.”

Davey was also part of Dublin’s attack when they beat Mayo in the 2017 final and they repeated the trick last May to deny the westerners the league title. But things fell off a cliff for Mayo weeks later when a group of players including legendary attacker Cora Staunton quit Peter Leahy’s panel.

The row has rumbled on for months and Davey said it could take some time for Mayo to get back to normality again.

“It’s just unfortunate the way things have gone because I think it could take a few years for the county to get things back together.”

Dublin, in contrast, have gone from strength to strength under Mick Bohan though the highly rated coach has been linked with the Roscommon men’s position vacated by Kevin McStay.

“The county board will definitely be trying to get him to stay on,” said Davey. “And hopefully that’s what he wants as well.”

Half-forward Davey is among 14 Dublin players nominated for a TG4 All-Star award following their successful title defence. Noelle Healy, the 2017 Senior Players’ Player of the Year, is also on that list. Runners-up Cork are next with 12 nominations including Emma Spillane who was a first-time All-Star winner in 2017.