A NEW LOO FOR HORAN’ NEW DAWN

WHEN it first became apparent that James Horan was likely to return to the Mayo job, a seemingly obvious conclusion was widely drawn.

Horan would come back for a year or two at most in a bid to extract one last mighty effort from the core of the team that he built in his first spell and that lost four All-ireland finals in all.

Events of the last few weeks, however, suggest otherwise.

First of all, Horan spoke glowingly of the emerging talent in the county following his Westport side’s county quarter-final defeat to Breaffy last month.

“We’ve some very good underage players coming through,” he said. “You saw Colm Moran and a few of them that I’ve been involved with in Westport, so I’d be very excited about what’s coming through as regards the youth talent that’s in Mayo.

“If you squash that in with the experience that’s there, I just think that there’s possibly exciting times and I’d just love to help them in some way.

“If you take Westport as a microcosm of the young talent that’s coming through, we’ve played Claremorris and there’s a lot of young talent there; we played Belmullet, lots of young players there; and we played Ballaghadereen.

“So even in that, there are 10 or 12 players I would think are very close, if not ready, to be introduced to county. So all those things, I think, could be pulled together.”

Suggesting that Mayo need an infusion of fresh blood is hardly contentious.

Of the Mayo team that started Horan’s last game in charge, the 2014 All-ireland semi-final replay defeat to Kerry, nine of them also started the qualifier defeat to Kildare in June.

More tellingly, however, of the 15 that started against Kildare, 13 of them featured during the first Horan era, Paddy and James Durcan being the exceptions.

The day after Mayo’s defeat to Kerry, Dublin suffered a shock loss to Donegal. They haven’t lost a Championship game since and of the team that started their All-ireland final win over Tyrone to complete four-in-a-row, there were just six survivors from the Donegal setback.

Moreover, six of their All-ireland final team weren’t on the panel at all four years ago.

So, while their main rivals have evolved smoothly and remained successful, Mayo have repeatedly wheeled out the same core of players without ultimately getting any closer to the summit.

Even Kerry ushered in a new era this year with a host of youngsters and, while it didn’t bear fruit for them, it likely will in the future.

Pat Holmes/noel Connelly and Stephen Rochford clearly didn’t feel that the next layer of talent in Mayo was of the desired quality to shift the incumbents en masse, though Horan’s initial soundings suggest a shift in approach.

His appointment on a four-year term on Thursday night was also somewhat surprising. While these agreements often aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, the gesture at least suggests that he and the county board are committed to a more long-term project.

“All clubs (senior/intermediate/junior) within Mayo will be contacted immediately seeking suggestions of players that may have the potential technical/tactical/ physical/mental attributes required for the inter-county game,” said

Horan in a statement released by the board on

Thursday night.

The net is being cast and it could result in some uncomfortable conversations for Horan with players that he developed an especially close bond with during his first term.

But while he may be looking at the bigger picture, there will still be an expectation locally, however realistic it may be, that any development of the team should be so seamless as to allow them to be competitive at the back end of the summer once again in 2019.

Nine of the Mayo team that lost June’s qualifier started the 2014 All-ireland semi-final replay defeat to Kerry