WE may be halfway through our summer — but in Mayo it’s already winter.
The weather may have been hit or miss so far but for the 12 teams left in the All-Ireland SFC, the mercury is rising.
Another disappointing Championship, brings Moore ‘what ifs’ after Ciarán Moore’s score for Donegal after the hooter sent them crashing out of the Championship.
And the off-season in Mayo never passes without some sort of circus.
The debrief after their fruitless 2023 and 2024 campaigns saw in-depth reviews go on for months, much to the frustration of their demanding supporters.
The nature of Sunday’s loss at Dr Hyde Park last Sunday — when Fergal Boland equalised for the Connacht men with 20 seconds remaining before his side lost the resulting kickout and Moore pounced — was one contributory factor.
But the Cavan defeat in the opening round left them with a mountain to climb from the off.
That three-point loss at MacHale Park was one of their worst performances in recent times and it will take a while to wipe the slate clean.
Galway romped to a fourth provincial title at the expense of their great rivals too, again in Mayo’s own back yard.
That was always going to be a tough pill to swallow but surely a loss like that can fire you up?
However, the worst part of this sorry tale is that Mayo appeared to down tools against Cavan.
Kevin McStay suffered a health scare after that game and was forced to stand aside as boss.
It means the county are heading into months of uncertainty. It remains to be seen if McStay will remain on for a fourth campaign after coach and former boss Stephen Rochford temporarily took the reins last month.
Rochford led them to the 2016 and 2017 All-Ireland finals where they agonisingly fell short against Dublin.
Still, the Crossmolina clubman got a tune from them this term as they stunned Tyrone in the second round before Sunday’s one-point loss to Donegal saw them finish bottom of Group 1.
He may be sick of the torment that comes with the job and there are questions over some stars’ futures.
Will Aidan O’Shea go again? He turns 35 at the end of the month and has soldiered with his county through thick and thin since 2009.
Diarmuid O’Connor’s shoulder injury following a bruising tackle from Galway’s Cillian Ó Curraoin in an NFL clash in February was a major spanner in the works and as a result, the Ballintubber ace never got a clean run.
And what about his brother Cillian? The Championship’s all-time leading scorer took a year out from inter-county football in 2025.
Mayo missed him too, relying far too much on Ryan O’Donoghue for scores.
Paddy Durcan was on the back foot all year as well after tearing his ACL last summer.
He returned to his brilliant best against the Red Hands but the panel no longer has the depth to cope with losing a player of his calibre.
January seems like a million miles away, but amid another sunny spell across the country, the dark clouds are again on the horizon in Mayo.
