Never giving up, never giving in: How Rob Hennelly has bounced back from adversity

Elite sport is cold, brutal and ruthless but nobody is more exposed to its perils than the goalkeeper. The scars of Mayo's 2016 All-Ireland defeat to Dublin took a long time to heal, but they did. And the wound revealed Hennelly’s true character.

Fri, 10 Sep, 2021 - 06:30

Christy O’Connor

At the end of normal time of the All-Ireland semi-final, just after Robbie Hennelly had nailed the equalising ’45, the TV cameras flashed to the ecstatic Mayo supporters in the stand, one of whom was a visibly animated Andy Moran, who was jumping up and down like an Energizer Bunny.

Emotion was at fever pitch by that stage. Every Mayo supporter was juiced up on a narcotic of elation and excitement. The win in extra-time drove them all into a state of nirvana, but a few days later on Off the Ball’s ‘Football Pod with Paddy and Andy’, Moran articulated the depth of that feeling towards Hennelly, and why his score sparked such a guttural reaction.