Lee Keegan Gives Harsh Reality Check To Mayo Fans Ahead Of 2026 Season

On the back of yet another disappointing year, it seems as though there will be major changes ahead for Mayo over the coming months.

The county have already dispatched of their coaching team, coming under some heavy criticism for the manner in which they removed Kevin McStay from his position as manager.

It remains to be seen who will be his replacement. There have been suggestions that Mayo will look outside the country for their next boss, although no appointment has been confirmed as of yet.

Whoever does take the job for 2026, they will have a sizeable task on their hands to get the team back to the top table of Gaelic football.

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Having experienced sustained success throughout the 2010s (albeit without winning an All-Ireland), the last few years have been very disappointing from a Mayo perspective.

They have failed to win a Connacht title since 2021, the last year that they also made a deep All-Ireland series run. Despite this, it seems as though there is an expectation within the county that the team should be in the shakeup for the Sam Maguire come the business end of each summer.

Speaking on talkSPORT Ireland, Lee Keegan gave a harsh reality check on the actual standing of Mayo within the current GAA hierarchy.

There's trust and loyalty issues, too much stuff gets out. The expectation, for me, is too much.

This is the problem. Sometimes as players we got ridiculed, obviously we didn't get over the All-Ireland and stuff. That's our fault and I take that.

But we're the only county I feel anyway, and I've said this for a long time, that air all our dirty laundry to everybody. For good or bad.

From the simple stuff to the outrageous stuff, everything just gets out...

In Mayo sometimes the expectation is way too high...

We're on about All-Irelands for the last few years. I felt very sorry for Kevin [McStay] in particular, because they're trying to put him against the group that we had for years. It's just not reality...

Kevin is a great football man and a very proud Mayo man. I thought [his exit] was just handled very badly. I think whoever is going to go in there is going to have a tough job, that's just being straight up with you.

I wish them the best, because they're going to be working with tough people. They need to be given time to integrate as well. This whole thing about All-Irelands needs to be just cut for now and start working on the short-term and see what that brings us.

Mayo certainly seem well off matching the likes of Kerry, Donegal, and Armagh in the race for Sam Maguire over the next couple of seasons. It remains to be seen if they can even keep pace with Galway, who will go on the hunt for a record equalling fifth consecutive Connacht title in 2026.

Whoever does take the job will have quite a task on their hands to meet the expectations that remain within the county.