Main men firing, familiarity and spite: The makings of a Mayo ambush

This Sunday's Connacht final is a seismic game for Mayo manager Kevin McStay.

Kevin McStay has used 50 players since taking over as Mayo manager in 2023. Nobody has played more minutes in that time than Ryan O'Donoghue. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

The big one. Somehow, despite a fiendishly difficult group awaiting the winners and the continued devaluing of the provincial championship, this still matters. Galway and Mayo always play by their own set of rules.

Forget recent form. Only two of their last ten championship meetings have been more than a one-score game. You could only call one of those results a true shock. In 2016, five-in-a-row champions Mayo went looking for their fifteenth consecutive win in the Connacht championship. Instead, Kevin Walsh’s Galway produced the upset of the summer.

Galway hammered Mayo in MacHale Park earlier this year, but that result has long since lost its relevance. The team named to start at home on Sunday has seven changes. Shane Walsh, who shone brightly with nine points on that February day, has endured setback upon setback.

The sharpshooter missed the final league game against Kerry after a procedure on his back. He suffered a second muscle injury in a training session with the extended squad on the same weekend as their victory over Roscommon. Damien Comer’s troublesome hamstring and withdrawal during a recent challenge against Cork means he is also unlikely to feature.

Out west, the nature of the rivalry counts for more than the momentum of each team’s trajectory. Sunday is a seismic fixture for Kevin McStay. The manager faced a protracted review in the recent off-season that was unfair on all concerned. An apparent disconnect with the fanbase hasn’t been helped by several subpar performances.

The Connacht final isn’t a looming threat – it is a glorious opportunity. They urgently need a spark. A win and some silverware will supply it.

McStay knows Galway. His greatest influence was Liam O’Neill, the Galway coach who rejuvenated Mayo in the 1980s. Pádraic Joyce grew up competing for the McStay Cup, named after James McStay, Kevin’s grandfather. Kevin Senior played for Tuam Stars. McStay attended St Jarlath’s College, the famed football factory.

The coaching tickets know each other intimately too. There was a time when Mayo assistant Stephen Rochford and Galway coach Dave Morris were joint managers of Corofin. Current Mayo selector Joe Canney played on that All-Ireland club winning team. They will have witnessed up close Morris’ preference to link kickout and tackling coaching to specific areas of the pitch. Morris’ analysis company, GAA Insights, means he will know the neighbours inside out.

No surprises here. Not really, anyway. McStay has made a late pre-game change to his starting side before every single fixture this season. That is to be expected now. They will be prepped in case Galway chance their big guns with a similar stroke.

Mostly, this tie is about what we know. The uncomfortably familiar. Mayo will be asked the same well-drilled, vigorous, midfield-dominant question. They must find a new answer.

What we have here is no longer the mavericks versus the maniacs. These are two rigid and structured teams. Mayo have conceded just eight goals in ten games. Galway’s concession is only six. Forgotten in the fallout around McStay’s observations about David Clifford and the free count in the league final was his irritation at the narrative around his group.

“I saw that comment, that we topped the league on minus one, and that seemed to be a hilarious moment for those commenting on us,” he said.

“Did anyone look at who was one of the top defensive teams in the league? That was us.

“We're a good defence. We take our defence very, very seriously.” 

The trends need bucking. A lack of two-pointers and the influence of Ryan O’Donoghue. Look to the latter as a solution to the former. Consider the team that McStay has built. He has used 50 players since taking over in 2023. Nobody has played more minutes than Ryan O’Donoghue. Nobody has scored more than Ryan O’Donoghue. Nobody has assisted more than Ryan O’Donoghue.

Yet his record against Galway’s relentless Johnny McGrath is patchy at best. The 2021 All-Star was held scoreless from play three months ago. He clipped one point and one mark in the 2024 Connacht final. O’Donoghue was held scoreless from play again when Mayo cruised past Galway in last year’s league and kicked one from play in the 2023 preliminary quarter-final encounter.

A lack of orange flags is a serious concern. Galway have struck 36 two-pointers this season. Mayo’s total is 12. Could O’Donoghue unsettle McGrath and find freedom on the arc from centre-forward? This is set to be a contest that hinges on key matchups. Robert Finnerty was awarded Man of the Match for his immense showing in the Connacht semi-final.

He has notched nine points from play in the championship, all on his left. O’Donoghue has hit 1-4, all on his right. Joyce and McStay can’t afford for either one of them to misfire now.

The 12 players they have used the most are all fit and available. Beneath that, the worry is that several players who logged considerable minutes over the last two years have not played at all in 2025, for various reasons. Tommy Conroy, Conor Loftus, Paddy Durcan, Cillian O’Connor, James Carr and Padraig O’Hora left a void. Durcan is back in the 26, Conroy is on the comeback trail. Otherwise, a whole host of debutants have been blooded in a bid to make up the difference.

Then there is the edge in this old derby. There is a long list of transgressions that McStay can weaponise now. In 2016, Kevin Walsh admitted they had heard ‘the flak’ coming their way and allowed it to fester in the dressing room. Finnerty tussling his marker’s hair after scoring in last year’s meeting. Galway on the cusp of a four-in-a-row for the first time since the 1960s. A home fixture. The mood music that has this cast as a one-sided showpiece with them occupying a curious underdog status. Mayo have always marched to the beat of their own drum. What more do they need?