Reclaiming Connacht crown ‘huge’ motivation for Mayo
Last year’s All-Ireland finalists will be red-hot favourites to advance to a provincial semi-final with champions Galway in Salthill.
Expectation in the county has been dampened following the loss of their Connacht title and an indifferent league campaign, but O’Connor insists the players will not be distracted by such statistics.
“The motivation probably has to come from ourselves and what’s at stake. It’s not completely reliant on the opposition; we have to say we are motivated to get our best performance possible no matter who we are playing.
“It’s the fact of what’s at stake — it’s championship football in the height of summer in Castlebar. I wouldn’t have any problem getting motivated no matter what team it was.”
O’Connor said the shock defeat to Galway last year left them with new motivations heading into the 2017 championship, and recapturing the Connacht title is a big target.
“It’s huge, absolutely huge. It’s not that different from when we came into the campaign as reigning champions. In those years we had a huge drive to win it again and I wouldn’t say it’s any different this year. The Connacht championship is there to be won, there’s nobody’s name on it yet and the same as ever our group are really hungry to get it.
“Losing to Galway was very disappointing. I can remember the game very clearly and the feeling after it very clearly.”
Defender Brendan Harrison is an injury doubt as Mayo embark on their latest championship quest and O’Connor said that having the likes of Aidan O’Shea back to full fitness is a huge boost.
“The Donegal game was a perfect game for someone like that to come back into because the pace was so frantic and it was so fast. As well as the influence he had on the game, and the boost he gave us, it was brilliant for him as well. Even for his own progress that he got 30 minutes, or close enough to it, of quality nearly championship pace football is good,” added the Ballintubber clubman.
Meanwhile, former Mayo footballer, and current Roscommon selector Liam McHale, said they will head into the championship boosted by the return of several players who missed most of their disappointing league campaign which saw them relegated.
Roscommon will be the last team in the country to enter the 2017 championship when they face either Leitrim or London on June 18, but will be boosted by the return of some key players.
It remains to be seen if Diarmuid Murtagh, Cathal Compton, and Ultan Harney are back to full fitness by then but McHale said having them on board would be a huge boost.
“We feel if we had them fit going into the championship it would really strengthen our hand. There would be a lot of competition for places up front, and when you have competition then guys improve a lot faster so that’s what we are hoping for.”
The experienced Ian Kilbride will return next week from duty with the Defence Forces in the Lebanon, but Cathal Cregg along with Ronan and Conor Daly have not returned to the squad. McHale said that Roscommon, who went into the championship last year on a high after promotion, have regrouped following the league and he is confident of a big campaign from them.
“It’s a younger team and we feel they would have learned a lot. The enthusiasm is very, very good, despite the rough league campaign. We are delighted that we were able to give them four weeks out of last six, and we still have five weeks to prepare.
“We feel that we will be going into the Leitrim/London game really really fresh,” added McHale
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