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Mayo will struggle to replace departing coaches - Lee Keegan

Mayo's Lee Keegan believes that the county will struggle to replace the three departing backroom ...



Mayo will struggle to replace...
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Mayo will struggle to replace departing coaches - Lee Keegan

Mayo's Lee Keegan believes that the county will struggle to replace the three departing backroom staff, due to a shortage of available quality coaches.

Speaking to OTB AM, Keegan told us that he feels the three departing coaches - Donie Buckley, Peter Burke and likely Tony McEntee - will not be there for their next campaign. Keegan explained the impact that the departures will have on the panel.

"They say change is a good thing sometimes. But to lose probably three of the guys that have been with us very well over the last three years and really developed us and pushed us to the brink of All Irelands - that's tough to see.

"I think the bigger thing for us is where do you go to look for people? There isn't a huge pick out there at the moment because a lot of the top guys are already with teams or they are busy with other sports. I think that will be the biggest challenge for us to try and get a backroom team together. Obviously, Stephen [Rochford] is well aware of that and Stephen is smart enough to know that he is going to have to look hard for these people now."

However, Lee feels that the coaching roles available are ones that should be in demand.

"Mayo have been one of the top teams and it is quite appealing. There should be good interest because, in the end, we have a lot of top players and we should be very confident of coming back in January and putting in a huge year again."

"From our point of view, we're not worried about that - it is who do you look to, and where do you go to find it? It's not that easy to say we have lost three of our best guys in terms of backroom - how do you replace them, or where do you replace them?

"That will be Stephen's biggest challenge over the coming weeks. Again, from a player's point of view, we are just waiting for the notification that he has been ratified again. I can't really be saying too much about that because I don't know myself, to be brutally honest. 

Lee remained stoic in the face of calls that Mayo's chances of a Sam Maguire success are likely behind them for the moment.

"Again, we are very interested to hear what is going to happen but from a player point of view, at the time it is just very much club-focused. So we will get a call to meet up to discuss as a team where we're going and where we are going to be at from the winter onwards. Then we will get a good idea of what we are looking at for the year ahead.

"For the three guys to leave - I would have had a very good relationship with the three of them. They were three different types of guys in terms of how they look at the game and how to approach the game.

"It's sad times considering we lost to Kildare, but it's sadder to see some of the main guys go like that."

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