Pádraig O'Hora: It's full-on competition to keep that Mayo jersey

James McMahon James McMahon | 04-24 16:15

Another year and no doubt somebody will mention 1951. No, it's not John Ford, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara fiming The Quiet Man in Cong, it's Mayo desire to end what is now a 73-year wait to bring Sam Maguire back to the county.

It's now just part of the noise that goes with being a player in the green and red.

Mayo defender Pádraig O'Hora was asked about whether the added pressure that goes with that wait impacts the current squad.

Speaking at a SuperValu event, he said: "Can you block stuff out? Maybe you just don’t pay a whole pile of attention to it. It doesn’t bother me, to be honest. I’m more focused on the here and now, really.

"Wherever we are, we’re on our little journey here now. The ball is rolling, it’s championship football, nothing matters bar Galway in two weeks', really nothing else matters. The noise I hear outside of football is always non-football related, to be honest. I’m too busy at home, my work is all community-based. It’s all of that stuff, to be honest, I get to see a lot of the really nice stuff.

"I get to see what Mayo GAA means to the people, where the real impact on the ground is, the hope and the desire to win, the connection. All of that good stuff. That’s what I focus on outside of football, really.

It is Galway on the first weekend in May in the Connacht final at Pearse Stadium. Mayo booking their spot after a five-point win over Roscommon on Sunday last.

O'Hora came on as a sub on 66 minutes, fully fit again after picking up another ankle injury. All systems go now for the Ballina Stephenites player.

"I came back from the club injured; it just took a while. You're injured for a while, you come back and you're nearly fresher again. You have no bumps or bruises or little niggles.

"I've been in full flight now for the last couple of weeks."

O'Hora at the Croke Park launch of SuperValu's SuperValu's sponsorship of the GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and this year's #CommunityIncludesEveryone campaign

Of course, the quest now for O'Hora is to keep hold of the jersey.

And he openly admits the competition for places on Kevin McStay's starting XV is quite intense.

"I wouldn't have it any other way," said O'Hora as he looks ahead to the training sessions ahead of the Pearse Stadium battle with the Tribes.

"You will earn a jersey. I got to play 10 minutes the last day and you'll earn every bit of it. That's the way it should be in any good team, in any team that wants to be successful.

"It's just under two weeks' to the Connacht final and the competition starts again.

"You are so driven and motivated as a player you are never going to be happy unless you have the perfect day and probably then you will still give out. I played 10 minutes the last day but you want more.

"It's full-on competition. You are constantly battling; there are jerseys to be had.

"You will have handful of people that have earned their jersey unless they get hurt or something. They are locked in because they are performing well.

"Performance is on the training ground; the guys that are going well are going well on the training ground. Now we have two or three good hard sessions before the Galway game. It's time to put your hand up and you do that through hard work.

"We go 100 mile an hour all the time, knocking lumps out of each other. That's the way it has to be. This is the business end of the season and you have to fight for everything you want; you have to fight to make sure nobody takes it [the jersey] back off you.

Mayo players in a huddle prior to the win over Roscommon

"Above all, the priority is Mayo GAA, the Mayo football team. It has to be, always."

When it was put to the defender about the county's chances in this year's All-Ireland race, he was careful to not make any bold predictions, though he highlighted maximising performance as key over the next few months.

"It's very focused. I know it's boring but it is actually... the way it's done is Roscommon for the last two weeks, New York before that. People might say, 'Ah, you're gonna go out and beat New York because you're stronger.'

"We focused on New York as well as we focused on anybody. And that was it. There was no Roscommon, there was no nothing, it was New York until that game was done. And then we came home and then it was Roscommon, and there hasn't been a word or an iota of any other team bar Roscommon and we're only now starting to talk about Galway. And there won't be a word about anything else after that either, I don't think. It's very much one thing at a time. That's genuinely that's the way it is.

"Even from club and inter-county, I don't think I've ever gone out thinking I was gonna lose a game ever. You'll know you're up against it, you'll certainly know that. Or you'll know that it's going to be a battle, but you always think you're gonna win. You have to. I don't know, if anybody's going out thinking they can't win, they're wasting their time. They may as well stay in the dressing room.

"I think if we can go out and perform, that's the trick. If you can go out and give a good showing yourself, then you should be able to win any game, I think would be the way we'd look at it. I think that's the same for any team, to be honest."

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