Defeat by Cavan could be Heaney’s swansong

WHEN Mayo full-back David Heaney joined the county side he shared a dressing-room with the likes of Dermot Flanagan, Pat Fallon, Ray Dempsey and John Casey.

It was late 1996 and he was just 19 years of age, a raw recruit, who knew little of big wins or even bigger disappointments.

Now, nine years on, Heaney is contemplating the future of Mayo football from a different vantage point. He knows that time is running out for him and many others and senses that this evening’s qualifier against Cavan is a make-or-break occasion.