It’s been known for a while that the ongoing pitch redevelopment works at MacHale Park would mean that we’d be unable to play our home games in next year’s National League at a venue within the county.
The NFL fixtures for 2022 have yet to be finalised. Counties have, however, been given details of the draft fixtures for next year’s League and previous experience would suggest that these will be confirmed before too long.
Assuming this draft schedule remain unchanged then our Division One campaign will get going on Sunday, 30th January with a ‘home’ match against Donegal. According to this piece in the Mayo News by Michael Gallagher, that Round 1 fixture is set to be played at Sligo’s Markievicz Park.
The draft fixtures show that we’ve got three ‘home’ matches in the League next year – as well as the Donegal game, these are the matches against Armagh and Kildare – with away ties against Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone and Monaghan. The venues for the Armagh and Kildare matches haven’t been nailed down yet but, according to that piece linked above, possible options in this regard include Croke Park, Hyde Park and Páirc Seán MacDiarmada.
Once the League fixtures – including details of our home-from-home venues – are confirmed, the lay of the land facing supporters in the early part of 2022 will have taken shape. After last year’s Covid-induced hiatus, there’s an air of novelty at the thought of a new year of football and our enforced absence from home for next year’s League campaign is sure to add to that.
Yes ………..looking forward to 2022 now. Shame about Castlebar not being playable as it would do us all good to be in that pitch together I think…….anyway hopefully we can get going in the league and develop the team further
I expect Mayo will opt for Croke Parke for the Kildare game and Hyde Parke for the Armagh game. Pairc Sean MacDiarmada can get very heavy and cuts up easily in the winter months!
Great fun if they opted for croker for all the games and send Dublin to Parnell Park