There is no ‘House Private’ sign going up on the door of Mayo GAA’s HQ quite yet.
The county may have suffered a heavy loss to Cork at the weekend in the opening round of the league, but there is no-one writing the mass cards just yet for their 2016 hopes.
Unfortunately for Mayo supporters, who live forever in hope, their injury ravaged team face a tough task in Castlebar to try and get back on the winning trail against the All-Ireland champions Dublin this Sunday.
Newly crowned AIB Connacht club player of 2015/16 Barry Moran is one of up to a dozen players missing from Stephen Rochford’s squad at present. The giant midfielder is currently gearing up for an All-Ireland club semi-final later this month for his side Castlebar Mitchels against Crossmaglen Rangers and this week was one of 11 players honoured as one of ‘The Toughest’ club players in the country.
Despite being away from the inter-county scene, Moran is hopeful an early shock my revive fans left ill after last week’s drubbing on Leeside.
“We have the Dubs coming on Saturday and obviously we’ll be looking for a big performance and a big kick out of ourselves. But it is early days as well. Stephen and Tony and the lads are only in, they’re building on that, so I wouldn’t really be panicking
“From the outside looking in, I wouldn’t be too worried with the loss to Cork in the sense that you know, as long as you identify you’ve a lot of work to do and you go and do it, it could be the best thing that happens yet.”
Mayo’s fitness last Sunday in the loss to Cork seemed to indicate the county had only just resumed training. Moran admits that the county are behind where they would normally be due to the late of the appointment of Rochford and backroom team. Fitness especially in the early round of the league can often be the crucial difference between a win and a loss as Moran explains.
“We were probably a couple of weeks later getting back than everyone else, so there’s obviously a bit of catching-up to be done on the pitch regarding fitness and that.
“Then, the late appointment of the lads to the management team put us back as well. So we understand ourselves, the panel that’s there, that we’re probably a couple of weeks off where we were in previous years.”
Having lost their opening game, Mayo are hoping to enter the February break with a least some points on the board. Moran however feels that the league really is only worth discussing from round three onwards and this weekend is not as crucial as being made out.
“There’s a three-week break after the Dublin game, whatever way that goes, and then you’ll catch up a lot in three weeks and then you’re really into where you’ve to pick up points and start going from there.”
