A vote of no confidence in the management leaves little doubt about the feeling amongst the Mayo players at the moment.
But will they live to regret it?
Conán Doherty says: YES
If the players aren’t happy with the management then of course they should say so. And they should be listened to. But it doesn’t mean that they won’t regret it.
Player revolts – particularly in a county team – never sit too well. Especially when you consider that the panel – a new panel – is selected every single year. So, technically, there are no players on the Mayo team right now. Technically. Not until they’re picked again.
So they do have less of a right than say a club player to express dissatisfaction – five people have voted on the managers’ futures when they might not even be there next year – but, granted, it doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be heard.
There’s also an element of accountability to be looked at.
It seems that, from the outside, everything was going great. Mayo were hammering all in front of them until they came up against arguably one of the best sides of all time. Then there were murmurs of discontent, a few raised eyebrows at certain decisions and, suddenly, it looks like people are trying to wipe their hands off of the responsibility for another ‘failed’ season.
Failure nowadays is winning a provincial title and beating everyone out of sight. Everyone barring the eventual champions who they managed to hold to a draw before falling like every other team did in every single competition this year. Failure is failing to do what every other Mayo manager has failed to do since 1951.
The standards set for Connelly and Holmes were higher than anyone previous.
But, okay, we weren’t there. We have no idea what went on on a daily basis (sorry, on a Tuesday and Thursday night – that’s the only time county teams train, right?).
There might have been utter nonsense spouted. They might have made very bad decisions along the way and you can’t really praise them too much for strolling through Connacht when the team had long since made a habit of doing that.
The complaints might well be founded but who’s really going to want that job now? If losing to Dublin – Dublin for God’s sake – is met with a player revolt – as it looks from the outside – what sort of poisoned chalice are you walking into when you agree to take the Mayo gig?
Mayo were the closest to winning the All-Ireland this year than it seemed like they ever were with this generation. They haven’t even seemingly let the managers sit down and speak to them and give their take on what happened or to even give their ideas for 2016. They haven’t even given them a chance. That should always happen before any kind of a vote is taken. Of course it should.
The grass is always greener and all that but their number one candidate last year is heading to a rival county and the job suddenly just looks a little more hassle than it’s worth.
The players could regret this in the long run because they could give themselves a wasted season or two if it doesn’t work out. They could give themselves a whole new list of problems for what looks like a rash decision.
It seems that the players acted emotionally and dove straight in head-first looking for change of any sort and it seems like they’ve nearly wiped their hands off the failures of 2015.
Well, what they call failures anyway.
Conor Heneghan of JOE.ie says: NO
No matter how it came out in public, news of the Mayo players’ dissatisfaction with the current management team was always going to be a bit messy and was always going to attract an inevitable backlash.
Who do these lads think they are?
Why go blaming the management when they’d be better off pointing the finger squarely at themselves?
Given all the trials and tribulations in Mayo football in recent years – including the far from perfect process that resulted in the appointment of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes last year – do the Mayo senior team really need to be in the headlines for all the wrong reasons? Again?
Haven’t we all suffered enough?
As Neil Sedaka (I had to Google it) once wrote, however, breaking up is hard to do and if the Mayo squad felt so strongly about their lack of confidence in the management (a vote of 27-7 at a recent players’ meeting would strongly suggest that is the case) then what were they supposed to do?
Just sit there and let it lie? Do nothing about it and return to training in November or December and allow that dissatisfaction to turn to resentment and bitterness as next season progresses?
By all accounts (and believe me, there were a lot of varying accounts doing the rounds in Mayo all summer), rumblings within the Mayo camp grew as the season went on as an initial desire to allow the new management make their mark made way for resentment at some of their methods.
If the Mayo players did nothing now, chances are the atmosphere could have turned septic during a second season where learning the ropes could no longer be considered a feasible excuse. Familiarity breeds contempt after all.
There’s no doubting that the move the Mayo squad has taken is a risk.
They’ll tell you in Cork and Waterford that all often doesn’t end well when an inter-county squad takes a stand against management.
Martin Carney also raised an interesting point on RTE News yesterday evening. Having seen such a forceful example of player power, who in their right mind would want to take over Mayo now?
That, of course, is assuming that Connelly and Holmes will even stand down. The word at the moment is that they’re not intent on doing so, as is their right having been given a three-year term upon their appointment.
The future of certain players will surely be uncertain if that does happen, but even if Connelly and Holmes do remain in charge, isn’t it better that things are out in the open rather than letting them fester to the detriment of all involved?
The manner in which this situation has played out so far, however, would suggest that Connelly and Holmes could well be doomed and that, ultimately, the players will win.
This group of players is the strongest that Mayo have had since they last won an All-Ireland, there’s a serious amount of goodwill built up between them and the Mayo public and if the current management stand firm, they’re on a hiding to nothing.
Connelly and Homes are in an unenviable situation at the moment. The pair of them were legends for Mayo in their playing days and Connelly is one of the most respected men to have ever captained the Green and Red.
They’re proud footballing men and won’t want to be seen to go out with a whimper. They can claim, with some justification, that they didn’t get a fair crack of the whip.
On the surface, they did very little wrong. They brought the All-Ireland Champions to a replay in the semi-final and the manner of the Dubs’ final victory over Kerry illustrated that Mayo provided their toughest challenge all year.
They’ll know themselves, however, that if they do stay on, they have an extremely difficult, maybe even impossible task of winning back the dressing room, where the level of opposition amongst the players shows that all obviously wasn’t well beneath the surface.
If the players do get their way, I wouldn’t be in a rush to castigate them for what, essentially, is a coup.
Since 2011, they’ve been in the top four teams in the country and are the only member of that elite group not to win the ultimate prize. They’ve been beaten by the eventual All-Ireland champions in the last four seasons, once by a point (Dublin in the final in 2013) and twice after a replay (Kerry in the semi-final in 2014, Dublin in the semi-final this year).
Some will claim that they don’t know how to win an All-Ireland but given those tiny margins, they certainly know what it takes and maybe they figure that time is running out to do so.
At this level, it’s a matter of inches and if they feel that a new manager, whoever it may be, can provide those extra inches to finally get them over the line, then they’ve done enough to be entitled to that opinion.
Regrets? This Mayo team already have plenty and if this ends up blowing up in their faces then what’s another one.
If, on the other hand, it works out the way they want it, you won’t hear many Mayo people expressing regret this time next year.
