Edwin McGreal
MAYO manager John O’Mahony believes that attitude will be the key to deciding how his team perform in next Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC qualifier against Cavan in Castlebar.
“Saturday is about Mayo’s performance,“ he told The Mayo News last night. “You can look at Cavan too much, there’s no point in looking at them if you don’t go out and perform yourself. If the attitude isn’t right you will come up short. That’s the clear challenge.”
Another significant challenge will be the seven-week gap that has elapsed since the Connacht Championship defeat to Galway. O’Mahony believes his squad have done everything they can to be ready.
“The lads have worked hard and we have done the best we can,” he said. “But we won’t know until the ball is thrown in where we are at. We’ve given lads the chance to prove themselves and that was the purpose of an A v B game we had on Saturday last too, to give players their final chance to prove what they can do.”
The Mayo manager enjoyed success in the qualifier system six years ago with Galway, when he led the team to the All-Ireland title. He believes that a change in mindset was the single biggest factor in turning that season around.
“What changed in 2001 was attitude,” he revealed. “Everyone took responsibility for their own area. We made what were seen as radical changes and everyone put their shoulder to the wheel. The only way out is to work extremely hard.”
On the injury front, Keith Higgins is definitely out with a broken bone in his hand while O’Mahony rates Ciarán McDonald as being ‘probably out’ with a hamstring injury.
“Ciarán is getting treatment and doing a bit of jogging but the problem is time. It was two weeks ago that he picked up that injury and recovering from a hamstring (pull) in that space of time is not really possible. The game is probably coming a bit too soon.”
Enda Devenney is also a major doubt with a viral infection while David Kilcullen is hoping to recover from a knock picked up in training last week. However, Austin O’Malley and Aidan Campbell have recovered from injury and are in contention for starting places.
“I’m looking forward to it,” O’Mahony said when asked about next Saturday’s match. “The situation in the past was that when you lost championship you were out and you weren’t able to put it right for a year.
“Defeat is always a traumatic event for any GAA player but whichever team comes out from that the best will be key. Now what we have is a chance to show that what happened in Pearse Stadium was not a true reflection of our ability.”
