Anthony Moyles was on Wednesday’s OTB AM and spoke about how he does not feel this current Mayo side have what it takes to win an All-Ireland.
The former Meath footballer believes that Mayo must make way for their young talent coming up by getting rid of the experienced players who have fallen at the final hurdle so many times before.
“But this goes back to, and I’ve been there, when you start to get to the end of your days, everything you do has to be something brilliant for your team and yourself essentially.
“You have to get the big block, you have to get the big catch. You forget about being a cog in the wheel and I think there’s too much of that in the Mayo team at the moment,” Moyles commented.
While Moyles felt in previous years that they have been a very talented side he feels that mental weakness has prevented them from success and will continue to do so if they stick with the same players.
“I see these guys who have been there so many times and gone to the well so many times but they have ultimately failed so many times.
“I think they’ve come to a place where if you sat them down they’d say ‘no, we can’t win it. We have been in a place over the last number of years where we have been the most prepared, the fittest, the strongest, everything. And we still didn’t get there.’ So why will you think you can get there now?”
“They’re not in my top four in the country at the moment,” Moyles said.
Mayo come up against Down in Newry this Saturday in a qualifier match and Moyles is seriously concerned with James Horan’s side going into the match. Down are a better side than last year and could have the potential to topple Mayo.
“There seems to be a different atmosphere up there. There just seems to be a different feel. You’re not hearing the stories that you would have last year or the year before that there was this going on or that going on.
“The doors have closed, they’re keeping it in-house. There just seems to be a bit of a different atmosphere in the county,” Moyles explained.
The game kicks off at 7pm this Saturday and while the Westerners are favourites going into the game, Mayo fans will need no reminding of what happened in Newbridge last year.
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