Rob Hennelly probably got the most abuse of any player ever in a Mayo shirt and instead of walking away he showed us the measure of the man and bounced back stronger. His league final performance among others and his 45 under pressure vs the Dubs were a thing of beauty.

To put him into an All Ireland replay was the craziest decision ever made in Gaelic football and the poor lad was not ready either match fit or mentally as it was sprung on him from nowhere. The management should have took the brunt of the anger at that decision not Robbie. Unfortunately for Robbie the man who made that decision is back in Mayo management beyond beggars belief and Robbie has not gone out on his own terms because of this I believe. Enjoy your retirement Robbie. Shame about the raw deal he got in Mayo football but he joins the long list of many that got the same!

@PK totally agree with you there.

Best of luck to you a great servant enjoy retirement.

Happy Retirement Rob . Fantastic dedication for so many years ,
Opportunity for new keeper to join the squad .

Happy retirement Rob. Another one of the great team members that brought us on such a journey. I will never forget those days. Thanks.

Happy retirement, Rob. Words hard to find when the last of that great generation start to leave the inter county scene. Thanks for all the great memories!

Thanks a million to Rob for 15 years of great service. The 45 in the win over Dublin in 2021 will be forever one of my very best memories as a Mayo fan. Also his role in the 2013 team, a year where I think we were as close as we have been to the best team in Ireland. Best of luck to him for the future.

Best wishes to Rob in retirement he gave great service to Mayo over the years and conducted himself with dignity in the face of adversity. I totally agree with PK's comments. I hope there is a change of management in 2026

A great servant to Mayo football and best of luck to him in retirement. I first took note of him in the All Ireland minor replay v Tyrone in Longford. In what was a really good game he made one absolutely outstanding save. Played a major role as we began our great decade in 2011. I remember a very calm confident display for a young lad in The Hyde v Roscommon in that Connacht final. Made a few excellent saves v Dublin in 2013 final but tends to be remembered more for the concession of the goal to Brogan than his great saves. Unfortunately that in a way tended to sum up his career. Was parachuted in to the 2016 replayed final and had a day to forget. That was a bold move by Stephen Rochford which didn’t pay off and for which he got much criticism.( The following year Rochford put AOS full back v Donaghy and it did work.) His competition for the No 1 spot with David Clarke probably made both keepers better and Clarke was outstanding and was probably favoured by a majority of Mayo supporters. Nonetheless Hennelly was outstanding for us in the 2019 league final v Kerry and will be most fondly remembered for kicking a great equaliser v Dublin in semi final of 2021. One other memory I have of him is his last kick in normal time v Kerry in replay in Limerick in 2014. I was standing on the terraces behind the goals and I was sure it was over the bar but then the aforementioned Donaghy stuck up his bigs paws and grabbed it. Robbie showed incredible resilience to keep going for so long despite some bad days. We were lucky to have him. Best wishes on retirement.

Agree 100% with PK!

I remember the first time I really stood up and took notice of Rob. It was in 2008 in the Connaught minor final. Mayo were 3/4 points up with 5 minutes to go but Roscommon Were beginning to turn the tide and suddenly got a penalty. Rob pulled of an excellent save and mayo went on to win the game. He was incredible for that minor team. Since then Rob has been an excellent servant to Mayo football. It’s not easy when you have two high quality keepers like Clarke and Rob and no doubt each drove the other on but it probably added extra pressure at times for both. No denying 2016 was a tough year for Rob but the fault of that lies 100% at Rochfords feet. But for all the unjust criticism Rob got over the years, he never shied away from the challenge. All the best in retirement Rob.

New pod up on Patreon, in which Mike chats retirement with Rob Hennelly.

Best of luck in retirement Robbie.

@PK - can't disagree with that.

With Robbie retired & Byrne stepping away, does that make Vahey the defacto number 2? He's relatively inexperienced, so you'd imagine we'll bring in another goalie to add to the squad.

A great servant to Mayo and one who we will be missed.

On a personal level it’s probably the right choice for him as like Cillian he was two seasons in the panel travelling from Dublin and never really got an opportunity under the current set up.

It’s a pity he got injured in 2022 as he was in great form and one of the best keepers going at the time.

@to win just once.
That one in Limerick would give you nightmares. It looked for all the world as though it was going over. Another game we left behind us. I still say those 2 Kerry games in 2014 were the best I ever saw. Maybe the 2017 final would rival it.
Great days and a shame we didn't get over the line.

Our day will come though.

I’d be with you there, Mind the House - even though we didn’t make it to the promised land either time those are days I’d never give back. We were so damn close then.

Rob comes across incredibly well in that piece, as he always has in his years in or around the squad. Starting, 2nd or 3rd choice, he always gave 100% and seemed the type of teammate you'd love to have in a dressing room with you.

An incredible servant, who had some absolutely incredible moments, and hopefully has half the joy and fun in retirement he helped provide us as a player.

.... Have to say, outside of Rob himself being a joy to listen to, the details in that chat were rough.

So many jaw dropping mistakes that lead to '16, that somehow Rob is taking 100% on his own shoulders. When the picture painted sounds like it was on so many others. No time switching from B to A setup in the 2 weeks training in a year when he hadn't had must 1st team minutes & no impactful (& vital) work on confidence/psychology following the '15 defeat or leading into the '16 situation that was at absolute boiling point for pressure. Management threw him under a number of buses there.

It's one thing not to have a trained psychologist in the backroom team, it's a very different thing to ignore obvious areas of concern or ensuring a lad is in the right frame of mind coming into a game. Man-management 101 stuff. I'd be livid in Rob's shoes.

@Mayo Focus: Yeah. All teams usually (can't think of a single exception) have 3 in the official panel to cover injuries & often have a 4th in the background extended panel covering A vs B games and working on their own development (in recent years we've had young Peter Basquille from Castlebar in that kind of role, local and with a big potential future ahead of him).

Struggling to see beyond Luke Jennings coming in myself, assuming he's interested. He's already in Sigerson training mode, so wouldn't be far off the pre-season work missed out on & club form in recent years has been outstanding.

@TsuDhoNim, it would be interesting to see if McStay goes back to Basquille as to the best of my knowledge he is involved with Mayo FC. I believe that was the reason why he rarely featured for Castlebar Mitchels A or B in the league in 2024.

Willie Joe & Mind The House here here!
For me, that 2nd half of the Kerry drawn game was absolutely magnificent. A man down & we battered them until the inevitable brain fart to throw it away! :(

the replay was like nothing I've ever experienced. An absolutely mad game. It had everything.
2017 Final was a fantastic performance from the lads. We had the winning of it that day but couldn't''t have done much more

If I remember right Mayo had Hennelly warming up in the drawn final as we were having problems with our own kickouts.
It could have been a winning change in the last few minutes.
Who would be a goalie.

I have a huge grá for Rob. He gave us some great memories and I'll cherish them forever. I supported the decision at the time (the time being about 4:30 outside Quinn's before the '16 replay, when the rumour mill was generating enough energy to power all of Dublin) to replace Clarkey with Rob, and I have to say I was in a minority. Guess it's fair to say that one didn't work out, but there were a hell of a lot of others that did.

On those Kerry games, I'm a bit of an agnostic. Terrific second half in the drawn game down to 14, but again left it behind. Limerick was mad stuff Ted - we really did some crazy things. Though I have come to like the Gaelic Grounds a lot, my view that day was terrible which didn't help. Those Kerry bastards knew that Limerick was worth about three or four points to them; supporters in the Palace were thrilled to hear of the venue for the replay. They knew!

My memories of Hennelly are rooted in the 2008 minor team. They went on such a mesmerising run and he stood out as a really good keeper in that team

As described above by TsoDhoNim, I’m amazed at the way the decision to start Hennelly in 2016 replay was made

I actually didn’t have a huge issue with the logic at the time as Hennelly, in 2016, was an experienced keeper. Listening to Hennelly, it’s crazy. I imagine they wanted to keep the change up their sleeve but to not have drilled down on approach for 1-2 weeks leading into that game is criminal. Surely he was being brought in to offer a different kickout so what was that? What was plan b or c if Dublin cut out the 1st option in 2016. Doesn’t sound like it was rehearsed

Finally I always have sympathy for Hennelly on some of the mistakes in finals held against him. In 2013, he made a mistake 100% coming for that ball and not getting there but what was the full back doing tying down Brogan? Where was the pressure on Flynn kicking the ball in? In 2021, for McShanes goal I’ve also heard criticism in some quarters. Again i’d hugely question the poisoning of our full back that day who resides further afield now!

I don't get the view where the decision to play Hennelly instead of Clarke is somehow a "mad" decision. Even back then, in the bowls of the Cusack Stand when word filtered through I couldn't see where all the trauma was coming from. Dublin had continously done a job on Clarkes kick outs and were winning more of our kick outs than we were. People seem to forget just how bad Clarkes kick outs were! They hung in the air, with back spin on them, almost hovering and always favouring an opponent, because all they had to do was break it down. Clarkes kick outs were virtually impossible to fetch if under pressure. Hennellys were more "arrow-like", flew through the air quicker and on a different trajectory, making it easier for the intended target to win possession. Plus, Cillians success rate out around the 50m line was poor enough but that range was no bother to Hennelly, so that was another tight margin in Hennellys favour. In super-tight games, your success % on your own kick out and accuracy from frees can make all the diffference. And those Dublin game super, super tight. It was a brave call with rationale behind it and "could" have made all the difference. The fact that Hennelly fucked up under an uncontested high ball is not on management. What are they supposed to do there? Go out and catch it for him?

It's funny how almost every player gets hero-status once they retire. Fair play to him for committing for 13 years and he certainly provided us with some great moments, one truly outstanding league performance in Croke Park on a cold Saturday night springs to mind. We got a hammering that night but he saved 5 or 6 certain goals, all one-on-ones and he was the last line of defense. But let's ease up on things a little, no one held a gun to his head to play for Mayo.

@Pebblesmeller: "The fact that Hennelly fucked up under an uncontested high ball is not on management. What are they supposed to do there? Go out and catch it for him?"

The fact that he did it with incredibly brittle confidence after the '15 game that hadn't been addressed in the year since, the fact he did it under heavy anxiety after a late switch in with so few minutes and no training time in A setup in the fortnight prior, the fact he did it in a game where kickouts were being beaten by the best press the game has ever seen with no practised planned kickouts trained in the build-up specifically to beat that press, the fact that any of these things hadn't been discussed with him to help build his confidence, settle his nerves or lower his anxiety and the fact that they'd never spoken to him about he'd feel stepping in (to the point where he's regretting not telling them he wasn't fit for it his nerves were so shot from the '15 game) is entirely down to (a lack of) man-management.

People often bemoan the introduction of Sports Psychologists into the game (as they do with nearly any changes from tradition)... but sometimes they're there for a good reason. They shouldn't be needed, managers & coaches should be having those private chats and know where a lad's confidence is brittle or bordering on arrogant to nudge them in the right direction, but when things slip through the cracks like this it can be devastating.

Pebblesmeller,
Your post might not be popular but it's 100% correct
Clarkes kickouts were shocking ,
Only option was to drop him ... that's not throwing anyone under the bus