Six to watch - Kevin McStay to assess old heads and newcomers

New Mayo senior manager Kevin McStay and his backroom team are expected to be scattered across the county this weekend as the Mayo club football championships get underway.

As the talent search begins, and McStay, Stephen Rochford, Donie Buckley, Liam McHale and Damien Mulligan go scouting for players to make up Mayo's squad for next season, we’ve picked out three established players and three newcomers that they are likely to be watching closely.

Aidan O’Shea

The three-time All Star hasn’t played a competitive game of football since Mayo’s defeat to Kerry ten weeks ago so Breaffy will be hoping he hits the ground running against Claremorris on Sunday afternoon.

O’Shea turned 32 earlier this summer and has already got 14 seasons of senior inter-county football under his belt, so it was no surprise he took some time off to re-charge the batteries in recent months.

James Horan utilised O’Shea in a number of different roles over the last few seasons, but Kevin McStay, in his punditry capacity, has said on numerous occasions that he sees the former Mayo captain’s best position at full-forward.

It will be interesting to see where Breaffy station him this weekend.

Cillian O’Connor

The 30-year-old made his first appearance for Ballintubber in 693 days back in July in a club league match, so there’s no doubt that he will be hoping to make up for lost time this weekend.

O’Connor had been sidelined by an Achilles tendon injury for almost 10 months, and only returned to action with Mayo last season during the closing stages of their National League final defeat to Kerry.

He went on to start all four of their subsequent championship matches against Galway, Monaghan, Kildare and Kerry, scoring 1-18 (0-04 coming from play).

The championship’s