Captain O’Hara forced to watch from the wings

Watching from the wings


Mayo’s captain will miss the All-Ireland semi-final

Mike Finnerty

THE Mayo ladies will go into All-Ireland semi-final action against Monaghan next weekend without their inspirational captain Claire O’Hara. The stylish wing-back tore her hamstring two weeks ago and will not have recovered in time to line out next Saturday evening in Navan.
Speaking to The Mayo News last weekend, the 26 year old from Castlebar said that she was “bitterly disappointed” to miss the game having also been forced to sit out the recent quarter-final victory over Kerry. However, she admitted that Mayo were pleased with the semi-final draw.
“I think most of the players are happy to have avoided Cork,” said O’Hara. “We were willing to take them in the semi-final if we got them but they were seen as the best team left in the competition so, from that point of view, we got a good draw. Cork have proven themselves to be a level above everybody else but I think the other three teams are around the same level. None of us would really fear the other.”
Mayo renew championship combat with Monaghan just a year on from a hard-fought All-Ireland quarter-final win in Mullingar. The Farney ladies have found their groove again this summer, beating Tyrone in the Ulster final by 2-11 to 1-6 and dumping Sligo out at the quarter-final stage by 0-19 to 0-10.
“Monaghan are playing really well this year,” offered O’Hara. “We just about beat them last year in the quarter-final when we had our full team, and we know they’re a good championship team.
“I think they’ll be delighted to have drawn us,” she added. “We didn’t play particularly well against Kerry, we had a poor league season, and they would see us as having a weakened team this year. They’d see themselves as being in with a pretty good shot.
“It’s going to be a tough game for us next weekend. They have players back on board that have won All-Irelands and they’ve got some good young players too.
“The Kerry game was tough for us and we’ll have learnt a lot from it. We have a lot of room for improvement and we struggled in some areas. But, on the other hand, some of the younger girls did well and we have some players who are in the best form of their careers.”
The Mayo captain was one of only a handful of senior players that made themselves available for league duty at the beginning of the National League. Ironically, O’Hara now finds herself on the periphery of the action due to injury and has not found it easy to adapt to her new role.
“It’s tough not being able to play,” explained the Civil Engineer with ARUP. “I found it hard being on the sideline the last day, watching things happening, but not being able to do anything.
“It’s disappointing. This is my fourth time trying to come back from the same injury and it’s hard to keep motivated. You’re trying to do the physio, trying to do the rehab, but after training six nights a week all year... It’s hard to watch the girls go out and play. But our goal, our ambition, is to win and whether I play a part in that or not is a minor detail.”
So Mayo find themselves just an hour from another All-Ireland final appearance and, technically, on course for their first success at that level since 2003. After a difficult year, another shot at the title would be a welcome distraction.
“All the senior girls that came back in January wouldn’t have come back with any other objective in mind,” offered Claire O’Hara.
“We might have had a bad league but once we got everyone back together, it was with the objective of being in Croke Park on All-Ireland final day. That hasn’t changed all summer. We’ve been trying to catch up on other teams for the last few months but this is the toughest task so far.”