Kevin McStay the frontrunner as Mayo’s hunt goes on
After weeks of speculation, the process of appointing the next Mayo manager gathered real pace at an undisclosed venue yesterday. The four candidates — Kevin McStay, Ray Dempsey, Mike Solan and Declan Shaw — were each due to give a 20-minute presentation followed by an interview.
There are seven people on the appointments committee but the candidates sat before a five-person interview board, which was put in place as part of the Mayo GAA operations manual, which came into effect in 2021. The process is designed to have greater transparency, especially when the appointments procedure in Mayo in the past has often resembled a circus.
When McStay first expressed his interest in the job at the end of 2014, he was treated with contempt by senior board officers, whose then chairman, Paddy McNicholas, told him he was not the preferred choice, despite proposed interviews not having yet taken place.
The optics looked worse again when Noel Connelly, who was appointed joint-manager with Pat Holmes, was the brother of vice chairman Mike Connelly. By the end of the year, Connelly was chairman and McNicholas was forced to resign over his handling of the appointment.
When Stephen Rochford stepped down after being harshly treated at the end of 2018, everyone knew that one person was the board’s preferred choice because two county board officers called to the wrong house to offer him the job.
Mayo want to find the best candidate but the present procedure is also designed to protect the board from themselves. The make-up of the appointments committee is supposed to consist of the chairperson, secretary, treasurer and coaching officer of the county board, along with an HR expert, a former player and ‘an other’.
Two of the four county board personnel — secretary Dermot Butler and coaching officer Declan O’Reilly — have already had to excuse themselves from the committee because of a conflict of interest. They were replaced by the assistant secretary, Ronan Kirrane, and south board chairman, Mike King.
It is understood that King and Kirrane were not on the interview board. The appointments committee tried to maintain a secrecy around its makeup, but the HR expert is Seán Silke, the Galway All-Ireland winning hurler from 1980. The ‘an other’ is Pat O’Donnell, a former MD of Allergan pharmaceuticals in Westport, who is also on the Cáirde Mhaigheo fundraising committee.
Getting a former player proved to be an extremely difficult task because the four candidates have so many connections throughout the county. The person who finally agreed to come on board played with the county in the early 2000s.
A competency-based interview process is designed to assess abilities and previous experience and the candidates involved are loaded with those qualities.
Dempsey, who guided Mayo to the 2008 and 2009 All-Ireland minor finals, is aiming to lead his club Knockmore to three Mayo senior titles in a row this year. Shaw guided Castlebar Mitchels to three senior titles in a row as joint manager alongside O’Reilly between 2015-17, before becoming manager in 2018 and 2019. Solan, who worked with Andy Moran in Leitrim this year, managed the Mayo U-21s to the 2016 All-Ireland and was in the running for the senior job in 2018 before withdrawing. McStay is the only one with senior inter-county managerial experience having managed Roscommon between 2016-18, winning a Connacht title in 2017. When McStay first announced his backroom team, it looked like a done-deal, because of the quality of people involved; Rochford, Damien Mulligan, Donie Buckley and Liam McHale.
The remaining candidates knew they had to load their set-up with big-hitters and the pursuit effectively ignited an arms race. Dempsey has recruited Oisin McConville (Armagh), Declan O’Keeffe (former Kerry player), James Burke (involved with James Horan), Enda Gilvarry and Keith Higgins.
Shaw has former Dublin player and Tipperary coach Paddy Christie, Richie Feeney, Sligo’s Dessie Sloyan and Cormac Rowland on board while Solan’s team comprises Aidan O’Rourke (Armagh), Eamonn O’Hara (Sligo), Mark Ronaldson and Alan Murphy.
At face value, McStay looks the frontrunner. Yet Dempsey can’t be ruled out and Solan has an outside chance. Shaw is a highly credible candidate too but he would have a much better chance if it was less of an arms race.
Having so many excellent candidates has surprised a lot of people in the county, while the quality of people willing to get involved in the race has also strengthened the belief that Mayo still have the talent to win an All-Ireland.
Butler said last Monday that the successful candidate should be announced next week, which could be as early as the next couple of days, subject to county board approval.
The anticipation is already building.
White smoke emerging for McStay.
Spillane, O’Rourke and McStay gone in almost one fell swoop.
Fantastic news for Sunday Game viewers around the globe.
Woolie Parkinson’s time is now
Tim O’Leary will be bulling (which means we all win really)
Four years baby
The best of luck with it Kevin - we’re all going to miss your presence on TSG. 
Be some Craic if McStay manages to work the miracle
He has the charisma to do it.
All stating the obvious but that looks like a dream team management ticket for Mayo. How many times have they been just 1% off, maybe they’ll finally do it now.
Definitely good enough to lose 2 more
Jimmy Sloyan not a fan, good enough for me.
Jayo must bring Whelan to Monaghan with him.
Hopefully