A former Mayo minor coach outlines why the county senior team has punched above its weight in recent years, writes SEAN MORAN, GAA Correspondent

THE FIRST of the weekend’s All-Ireland football quarter-finals is also the first senior championship meeting of Mayo and Down. The counties have, however, met in two All-Ireland minor finals in recent years, with the Ulster county winning both, in 1999 and 2005.

Both have since contested senior finals without winning but Down have accumulated five All-Irelands since Mayo won their most recent in 1951. More starkly, since winning the minor All-Ireland in 1985, Mayo have lost five senior and six minor finals.

James Horan has taken the current team to successive Connacht titles but despite some competitive displays, including eliminating reigning champions Cork at this stage last year, few would believe Mayo to be on the verge of ultimate success.

JP Kean captained the county to the 1971 minor All-Ireland and managed the teams that reached successive finals at the turn of the century. He dismisses the idea that there is a mental barrier at Croke Park for teams from the county. “People are always talking about psychological hang-ups at Croke Park but having managed teams to All-Ireland finals in 1999 and 2000 I don’t believe that psychology is the problem.

“I’ve said this within the county – that until we start working with top-quality coaches at under-eight and under-10 we’ll struggle to produce the standard of players we need to win big matches.

“My experience of watching Mayo in the past 15 years or so is that we’re coming up short in relation to skills and abilities and not because of the psychology of big occasions.

“We need very good coaches. I remember when I was applying to take over the minors, a member of the interviewing panel on the other side of the desk said: ‘why don’t you pick more big players?’ I replied if they were good enough I’d pick them.”

Kean also has major concerns about how young players are treated within the GAA in general and specifically in his own county.

“Gavin Duffy, the rugby international, was on the 1999 minor team and went to Harlequins in London shortly afterwards. I spoke to Gavin after he moved to England and learned how he was being managed because I have a huge issue with the way in which young players are treated – or mistreated.

“When they’re playing a load of sports no one’s saying ‘wait a minute, there’s too much going on here’. Gavin told me that in Harlequins the club would identify how often he could play during the year. The difference between that and the Mayo Under-21s was that Harlequins saw Gavin as an asset that needed to be protected instead of a resource to be used to the nth degree – a disposable commodity. It made him feel valuable.

“There’s no great understanding or appreciation of the physical – or emotional – wellbeing of young players. When I had Alan Dillon as a minor he was playing for seven different teams.”

He is instinctively sympathetic to the objectives of the GAA’s Burn-out Committee, which proposed an amalgamation of the minor and under-21 grades – a proposal that was rejected but which Kean feels would have reduced the pressures on minor footballers. “On balance I’d reconsider the age level for minor. I know minor has a colossal tradition and as someone who captained a minor All-Ireland winning team I have a huge grá for the age group but the Leaving Certificate has become such an immense event in young people’s lives.

“I remember one of the minor teams was scheduled to play in early May and there was an application to postpone it for another week or two and I objected because half of the team were within a couple of weeks of sitting their Leaving. In the end it was pushed through because the interests of players weren’t considered a priority.

“It’s my opinion and I’ve fought for it for 25 years and been involved for 40 years. There’s no great respect for under-age players – or any players although I think that’s improved nowadays.”

Kean argues that Mayo have effectively punched above their weight in recent years but that this has obscured the extent to which improving the technical abilities of players would have a tangible knock-on benefit for senior teams.

“It was asked in the mid-1990s, ‘what could be so wrong with the system when we were reaching All-Irelands’? Of course it didn’t prove anything except that John O’Mahony was so organised and had exceptional coaching and mentoring skills and that John Maughan had been innovative in the way he approached things, particularly in relation to physical preparation. They succeeded in spite of rather than because of the system.

“Skills matter and it’s now more than 60 years since we won an All-Ireland. We’re always looking for the heel against the head. Coaching is needed because we’re short four or five players who could make the difference.”