Conor Mortimer believes Mayo’s failure to pick up points from their opening two league games makes Sunday’s Castlebar clash with Tyrone a must-win fixture for Kevin McStay’s side.
Mayo currently occupy one of the two relegation spots in Division One following defeats to Dublin and Galway. The manner of the chastening loss to Galway – a 10-point defeat at home – was particularly concerning for Mayo fans.
But McStay’s outfit have a chance to kickstart their season when Tyrone arrive to MacHale Park on Sunday.
“We’ve probably heard this in each of the last three years, in the off seasons in Mayo there have been ructions and there has been this and that with management, all this kind of stuff,” says Mortimer.
“And yet when it comes to the real innings of the football, we perform when we need to perform.
“But, look, when you have a bit of bad press in the off season and your league [campaign] doesn’t start well, obviously there’s a bit of disgruntlement in the crowd.
“It all adds up until you get a victory. I think it’s critical that we get a result [against Tyrone]. If you lose your first three games, that brings undue pressure.
“I think that game against Galway last week would be a bit worrying, particularly in the second half. It certainly puts a lot of pressure on the Tyrone game for Mayo, that’s a must-win game I’d say, even only three games into the league.”
Mortimer also reckons Mayo’s preferred playing style of running from deep will have to be tailored and adapted if they are to be a force under the new rules.
But the outlook isn’t all doom and gloom. The 2006 All Star forward does not see a dominant force in the race for Sam Maguire this season – which gives hope to several counties in what appears to be an evenly-balanced leading pack.
“If you’re going off the first couple of games, are Mayo contenders for the All-Ireland? No,” says Mortimer.
“But we haven’t really lost any of our starting squad over the last two or three years, and we obviously have the likes of Aidan O’Shea and Paddy Durcan to come back in over the next five or six weeks.
“The positive for Mayo at the moment is that when you look at the likes of Dublin, Kerry, Donegal – I think Mayo when it comes to it would fancy themselves against any of those teams.
“And I think it’s fair to say that the All-Ireland is fairly wide open. Their early season form probably hasn’t been shooting-the-lights-out stuff or anything. But aside from Galway, who look really impressive, I think they just need to get their ‘A’ game on for the Tyrone match and then start showing us a little bit of form.
“If you were to ask me now, ‘Are Mayo likely to win the All-Ireland?’ I wouldn’t be able to say yes. But have they the potential there to be competing at the latter stages of the championship, I’d say yeah.”
Away from the county scene, Mortimer has been watching with disappointment the demise of Parnells GAA club.
He spent eight years in the capital with the Coolock-based outfit – both as a player and managing their club gym. Parnells recently entered liquidation and the club is now to relaunch as Pobal Parnell.
“Look, there are many internal reasons for what happened,” says Mortimer. “Obviously it was the dream move at the time in terms of facilities, you are going to be working there and playing with them.
“As a whole it is very disappointing [to see what has happened]. I’ve been there a few times in the last couple of years and it is sad to see, it’s not a derelict building by any stretch but there is nothing there, there is nobody there.
“From when I was there the bar and restaurant was busy every day, the gym was busy every day, the pitches were full of kids every day so it is sad to see.”
Mortimer believes changes in terms of the operational responsibilities for the club were a factor in its unravelling.
“It wasn’t just a club bar, you’d a club gym, a club function room and a lot of activities in the area, funerals, weddings, events,” he said.
“And the reality of it is not everybody can manage this type of business, that’s effectively what it turned into at the time and that’s unfortunately how it ended up where it is. I was eight years there and never had a bad minute, I enjoyed working there and playing with the club.
“It’s a tough area but I played soccer with Kilmore Celtic for a couple of years too and once you embed yourself in the locality it makes things a lot smoother when you’re there. I still have good relationships with a lot of people over there.”
Conor Mortimer, a Sigerson Cup winner with DCU, was speaking ahead of Wednesday’s Electric Ireland Sigerson Cup final between DCU and UCD at the Connacht GAA Centre of Excellence in Bekan, 7.30pm.
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