Mayo’s current Young Footballer of the Year Diarmuid O’Connor, celebrating his latest All-Ireland medal after last week’s under-21 final victory over Cork, has said that the success has reinforced confidence in the county’s future prospects.
Already an established senior, O’Connor and many of his team-mates have now brought back both minor and under-21 All-Irelands to the county, as the wait for a senior title heads into its 65th year in which time seven finals have been lost.
"There's a lot of talk about Mayo teams in All-Ireland finals but the majority of these lads have played in two All-Ireland finals and have won two now. For myself since I've come in to the seniors, it's about trying to win All-Ireland semi-final replays. My two years there, we've lost two replays.
“I suppose it will be nice going back in to training and a few of us with All-Ireland medals. Hopefully it’ll give a bit of a boost to the senior lads and show them what we can do.”
O’Connor’s cohort have proved themselves very resilient to date, finding vital goals in last weekend’s final, as Cork threatened to get on top.
“They’re a special bunch. They don’t know when they’re beat. In the Dublin game (semi-final), we let a six- or seven- point lead slip. We just focused on the next ball: that was our motto all year – next ball, next ball; you can’t change the last ball. I didn’t really panic once we let our lead slip. I knew the lads would pull it out and they did.
He also become the latest intercounty player to speak out about the treatment on social media of Cork under-21 goalkeeper Anthony Casey, whose mistake led to Mayo's critical fourth goal.
“To be honest, I only heard about that the other day. In fairness if you’re a keeper and you make one mistake, everyone is down on you. But me playing midfield, I’d say I made four or five mistakes but it didn’t matter. It’s tough; it was just one mistake and he’s human after all.
Different challenges
“If someone asked me about it after the game, I wouldn’t have even noticed it. That’s the way it goes but I’m sure he’ll come back better and stronger after it. Cork are no different, they were training as much as we were. The amount of time and effort they put in. It’s not right any one player being targeted for one mistake he makes on a pitch, it’s not right.”
O’Connor faces different challenges next week with end-of-year exams in DCU where he’s studying PE and Maths. “I’ve to put the head down now into the books. Some of the lads have exams this week, it’s just going to be interesting to see how they got on!”
Next Monday May 9th Dublin senior hurling manager Ger Cunningham will officiate at the Faughs hurling and camogie clubs primary schools 1916 awards night in Templeogue.
St Josephs Boys NS, Presentation Girls NS and St Pius NS are all participating with over 60 projects on 1916 themes submitted.
