David Jennings
WHEN the draw for this year’s Connacht championship was unveiled, many Mayo supporters may have started looking ahead to a provincial decider.
But Mayo captain Andy Moran doesn’t believe that type of complacency will seep into the players ahead of their semi-final date with Leitrim on June 24.
Speaking to The Mayo News last night, after Leitrim had beaten London in Sunday’s Connacht SFC quarter-final by a point, Moran said memories of the 2006 championship will keep Mayo focussed in the weeks ahead.
“You saw with us last year how important it is to have a game to blow away the cobwebs and Leitrim will benefit greatly from that win over London,” said the Ballagh’ attacker.
“We haven’t played Leitrim in the championship since 2006 and they really shook us that day. We were lucky to come away from Carrick-on-Shannon with the win and we won’t be taking anything for granted.”
Mayo continued their preparation for their championship opener with a comfortable challenge match game win over Westmeath in Ballaghaderreen last Sunday.
It’s always unwise to read too much into uncompetitive outings but there was a noticeable change in Andy Moran’s tone of voice when he spoke about Mayo’s performance last weekend.
“We were working on a lot of new things and an awful lot of them worked,” he explained.
“We scored five goals, which is a good return no matter who you’re playing, and Jason (Doherty) got three of those which will give him plenty of confidence. I thought we were moving really well and I think everyone was delighted with how it went.”
Captaining his county while playing on the pitch he grew up on in Ballaghaderreen was an experience that Moran savoured on Sunday.
“I doubt there are too many fellas in Ireland that got to captain their county when playing a game on their club pitch. It was nice of the clubs to allow it to happen and I was very honoured to be honest. It was a memorable experience.”
The only slight negative from the walloping of Westmeath was an injury that Kevin McLoughlin picked up but Moran doesn’t think it’s too serious.
“Kevin unfortunately had to come off but it was only really a precaution after he picked up a knock and I’d imagine he’ll be fine.”
Moran himself has been struggling with a back problem picked up in training a few weeks ago but he’s recovered well from that knock and made an instant impression when introduced as a half-time substitute for Ballaghaderreen in their senior league win over Breaffy last Saturday evening.
Although Mayo are being talked up as potential All-Ireland candidates by various pundits following their promising league campaign, Andy Moran doesn’t believe they deserve to be held in such high regard.
He feels they have a lot of improving to do before they can be compared to Kerry or Dublin.
“I don’t think we are in the top four yet. You have Dublin, who were very impressive against Louth and are the All-Ireland champions, and then there’s Cork and Kerry.
“You have Kildare and Donegal too and those teams have been proving themselves over the last couple of years. I’m not quite sure whether we are up with them just yet.
“We need to get to the next level and hopefully this will be the year.”
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