Mayo players’ jubilant 2016 celebrations not forgotten, warns Niall Sludden

Mayo might believe this Saturday that they have more motivation than Tyrone but Sludden seems fuelled by what happened at the final whistle five years ago

Niall Sludden. Picture: INPHO/Lorcan Doherty

The jubilant scenes among Mayo players after beating Tyrone in the 2016 All-Ireland quarter-final haven’t been forgotten, says Niall Sludden.

Coming in as favourites on the back of a provincial title, Mickey Harte’s side were narrowly defeated by a Mayo team who had stumbled through the qualifiers to reach the last eight.

Mayo might believe this Saturday that they have more motivation than Tyrone, seeing as they dumped them out of Division 1 last October, but Sludden seems fuelled by what happened at the final whistle five years ago.

“My first year on the panel,” he recalls. “Coming in after an Ulster final, a first Ulster final win for myself, coming off a buzz. Going into the game, I was very much raw and thinking: ‘We’ve got a great chance of taking Mayo out’. I just remember it being a really physical game, and Mayo just having our number that day.

“I do remember chances at the end for us, and we didn’t take them. I don’t think there was much in it, but I do remember at the end, Mayo really celebrating hard, and it hurt. It hurt a lot. It hurt the team as well. But it just showed how much it meant to them too.”

The fact Mayo will be cheered on by many neutrals won’t be as much as a motivation, he insists.

“That doesn’t matter to us. We just concentrate on ourselves. If people want to support us they can, if they don’t, that’s just sport and life. No doubt there’s the whole romance about Mayo, they never go away, but we have to focus on our job, and that’s to beat Mayo. We want to bring Sam back to Tyrone again.”

If the 2018 All-Ireland final reverse against Dublin taught Sludden anything, it was that a promising opening can disappear in a flash. “I was just like: ‘This is a very good start now. Just keep it going’. For myself, I just remember being out over the touchline, and [Stephen] Cluxton found [Jack] McCaffrey, and next thing McCaffrey was up the wing and they got a point.

“And the kickouts after that, there was two goals. Bang — we were down four or five points. I think we’ve taken a lot of learning from that game, hopefully, and can put it into practice. At that point you were thinking: ‘That’s a good start’, but you can never rest on your laurels.”

Sludden was in All-Star form up to that game when he was replaced in the 46th minute after being outplayed by Eoin Murchan.

“It didn’t happen that day, and it didn’t happen personally for me that day.”

The Dromore star is a revitalised man this summer after a difficult couple of seasons and contemplating leaving the panel earlier this year. “I got a chance in the first championship game, took my chance, and enjoyed being back in the team. I feel it’s coming together.

“In the National League, I didn’t play too much, had a few appearances off the bench here and there and you were questioning, looking at games in the club league, and thinking: ‘Maybe I should be going there, maybe I should be giving more to my club at this age. I want to be playing more.’

“I think it was an easy enough decision to make. Obviously, I love Dromore as well, but I love being part of the [Tyrone] set-up, I’ve been part of it for a long time. I felt the freshness with Feargal [Logan] and all.

“I’m enjoying my football. And I don’t know what it was, sometimes you try too hard, sometimes some other things. We’re humans at the end of the day, and things happen in our lives. Maybe sometimes you do try too hard.

“But I feel good. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity as well. But I know at training, it’s so competitive, and you can’t take your eye off the ball or you’ll be sitting on the bench or you’ll be off the panel.

“So I’m starting to get to the twilight of my career, so you really have to make the most of it.”