Happy day for Mayo’s Corkman Donal Vaughan

Home away from home


Mayo’s Cork-born defender was pleased with the result

Reaction
Mike Finnerty

THERE was something just a little different about last Sunday’s match, Mayo’s first against Cork at Pairc Uí Chaoimh for 25 years. Beforehand, some Mayo supporters strolled along The Marina and soaked up the 22 degree sunshine. Others killed their spare time by sunbathing on the grass outside the famous old stadium. And the rest shot the breeze and wondered aloud if Mayo would take care of business.
A few hours later and all had been revealed. A game of two halves had ended with a decisive Mayo victory and many of their supporters ambled out on to the pitch to begin the analysis. The consensus? That Cork will be a different proposition in the league final.
That was the way Donal Vaughan, Mayo’s Cork-born wing-back, was seeing it too.  “We’re looking forward to two weeks time but Cork will be a completely different team that day,” he told The Mayo News. “Still, any time you get to play at Croke Park is great. The more times you can play there the better.”
The 21 years-old may be only in his second season with the county senior squad but he is learning on the job quickly and offered a measured assessment of the day’s events.
“It was like a championship game,” he said. “At half-time we knew we had to up our performance in the second half. We weren’t winning enough breaks around the middle and we were a bit lacksadaisical really.
“It’s the same as in any game, you have to win midfield, win the individual battles, and get the ball into the forwardline. Thankfully we have top-class forwards and they were able to pop them over.
“We heard that Dublin were beating Tyrone [at half-time] but we knew it was up to us to get into a league final. We couldn’t be relying on anybody else. And if we’re going to win it, it’ll be ourselves that’ll win it.”
The soaring temperatures last weekend were reminscent of Mayo’s championship match at Gaelic Park, New York last year. On a broiling, energy-sapping afternoon, the issue of getting liquids to the players, and not allowing water-carriers on the field, was something that Donal Vaughan was keen to focus on.
“I wouldn’t really agree with the new water rule,” he explained. “Every time you want to get a drink you have to walk over to the sideline to get it. It’s very awkward and I’d like to know if the fellas who make those decisions would leave a jug of water outside the door and get it when they want it,” he dead-panned.
On a lighter note, the young Ballinrobe businessman (who is working in the family shoe shop these days) was delighted to have secured some bragging rights over his relations from Kanturk.
His parents and many of his extended family were in the crowd while others were listening to events unfold via the internet. Only the Mayo contingent were happy with the result but the man himself summed up his current status succinctly.
“They say you should always be proud of where you come from, and I am. But if you ever hear the saying, ‘Cork by birth, Mayo by the grace of God’. That’s the way I’d look at it,” he smiled.