This evening, Mayo will bid for their first home win in Division One in almost four years as Galway come to Hastings MacHale Park.
It’s a curious thing about what is widely accepted to be the best supported team in the GAA that their home record is so poor. With the backing that the Mayo footballers enjoy, Castlebar should long be established as a fortress.
But while Mayo have contested League finals in recent years, they’ve flirted with relegation more often and it was largely down to their ability to put together a succession of home wins.
READ MORE: Tyrone GAA hero Kevin Hughes opens up on devastating impact of siblings' road deaths
Going back to 2010, they have played 57 home games in League and Championship and won just 32, a 56% winning record, which is a very modest return for a county that is regularly competing at the back end of the Championship.
Compare it to Dublin, who have won 56% of the 124 home games, the vast majority of which have been at Croke Park, that they have played in the same time span.
Admittedly, Kerry’s home record has been patchy in the League at times over the years but they haven’t lost a home game in the Championship since 1995 and have still won 71% of the games that they have played in Killarney or Tralee since 2010.
Galway’s home record is actually worse than Mayo’s as they won just 31 of 62 games in Tuam or Salthill in the same period, but they were a struggling Division Two team for much of that period and, besides, none of that will worry them in the slightest this evening given their brilliant record of late in Castlebar.
Mayo finally lost their long-held top flight status in 2020 having lost each of their three home League games, with a final day defeat to Tyrone in Castlebar sending them down after they had blitzed Galway in Tuam, typically, the previous weekend.
They won immediate promotion in the truncated 2021 League, recording two home wins from two outings against less heralded opposition, before strolling past Leitrim at MacHale Park in that year’s Championship.
After that, the ground was closed to allow for the relaying of the pitch, which then manager James Horan argued was at the root of their problems at home.
“It's a sort of a, I know it sounds strange, but a slow type of surface,” he said in 2021. “It's a little bit up and down. We played on other grounds, or say when we train in Abbottstown or play up in Croke Park, the pace of the game is completely different.
"With GPS and everything you can measure the tempo of the game, or the metres per minute or whatever it is, and at MacHale Park it's different to other top pitches."
The relaying of the pitch meant that Mayo had no home games in last year’s League, playing their seven regulation games at seven different venues and still managing to reach another final.
So, all’s good since they accessed the fresh and faster sward at MacHale Park, right? Not quite.
The new pitch was ready in time for their Championship opener against Galway last year but the result was all too familiar as Mayo slipped to a flattering one-point defeat. They did beat Monaghan there in the first round of the qualifiers but it was less than convincing.
Tonight, they return there under new management led by Kevin McStay looking to record a first home win over Galway in League or Championship since the 2014 Connacht final, with their great rivals having left victorious in each of their last four visits (three Championship, one League).
“You want to make your home ground your home, you want to make it difficult for people to come and take any points away from you,” said Mayo’s Padraig O’Hora this week.
“We'll be trying to start out on the right foot. I think we have more home games this year than we have away, of course we'll be trying to win every game but definitely trying to keep MacHale as our own and make it difficult for teams to come to.”
If they want to build an aura around the place, ending a near nine-year winless streak against their greatest rivals there this evening must be the starting point.
SAMPLE OF HOME RECORDS 2010-22
Mayo: P57 W32 L23 D2
Win %: 56
Loss %: 40
Dublin: P124 W101 L15 D8
Win %: 81
Loss %: 12
Kerry: P63 W45 L15 D3
Win %: 71
Loss %: 24
Galway: P62 W31 L21 D10
Win %: 50
Loss %: 34
READ NEXT:
Rory McIlroy speaks out on Patrick Reed tee-throwing incident
Marty Morrissey weighs in on All-Ireland final fallout as he says 'this isn't over yet'
Tyrone GAA hero Kevin Hughes opens up on devastating impact of siblings' road deaths
Cheltenham Festival hero Altior fighting for his life in hospital after severe bout of colic
Henry de Bromhead says Honeysuckle 'seems really good' ahead of Irish Champion Hurdle defence
Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email alerts
