SHEEHAN: WESTERN CHANCES GO SOUTH

FORMER Kerry star Bryan Sheehan says he fears for Mayo’s future after they bowed out of the Championship last weekend.

The 0-21 to 0-19 qualifier defeat to Kildare in Newbridge on Saturday meant that Stephen Rochford’s (below) men –

All-ireland finalists in four of the last six seasons – made their earliest Championship exit since 2010.

And with several of their key players nearing retirement, Sheehan (above) doubts they can replenish the side quickly enough to be competitive at the back end of the Championship again in the coming seasons.

He told Paddy Power News: “I’m not sure if they can. If they had new players coming through, we’d surely have seen them by now.

“You look back the last couple of years and it’s the same faces over and over. If you’re marking the same fella forever, you’re not being challenged, you’re not being introduced to anything new or solve different types of problems.

“The lack of new blood really was their downfall. They’re going to need to do some serious rebuilding.

“A lot of their big players, like Parsons, Higgins, Moran, Boyle, Seamie O’shea, are well in their 30s. They’ll need to decide whether or not to commit to it again.”

Like Sean Cavanagh, Sheehan doubted whether Mayo could withstand yet another trek through the qualifiers once Galway knocked them out in Connacht.

He added: “With the age profile of the team, the miles that they had on the clock and how they play the game at 100 miles an hour, I just felt that if they were to go down the back-door route it would take an awful lot out of them.

“After losing, playing games away from home, a few injuries and not introducing any new players, I felt that it was going to be a huge ask. I think that told at the end.”