Ryan O'Donoghue keen to move on from controversial incident with Seán Kelly

As University of Galway team-mates, the ice has probably long since thawed on the incident before the start of the second half in last June’s Mayo-Galway All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final when O’Donoghue appeared to trip Kelly.

Fri, 05 Jan, 2024 - 00:00

John Fogarty

Since December 19, Ryan O’Donoghue and Seán Kelly have known they would have to smile and make nice for the camera.

That was the date when they were both confirmed as attendees at Electric Ireland’s launch of the higher education championships yesterday.

The Galway captain had been a doubt for the game with an injured ankle. That’s not to say it isn’t a thorny issue for the Mayo forward.

“That’s well in the past,” he responds with a stilted politeness. Speaking a couple of weeks ago, Kelly indicated he wasn’t an innocent party and wished the moment had never been caught on TV.

“In fairness, I didn't get caught doing whatever I did. I'm not going to be pointing any fingers or blaming anyone.”

O’Donoghue came in for heavy criticism on “The Sunday Game” and other quarters but avoided a retrospective suspension from the Central Competitions Control Committee as they did not have full footage of the pair’s exchange.

Looking back, the Belmullet man knew he had to let the storm pass.

“You just kind of have to switch off, don’t you? You just have to switch off from all social media. That was in the past, whatever happens on the pitch stays on the pitch and that was dealt with at the time and everyone has moved on from it now.”

Mayo won two of the counties’ four 2023 meetings, their one defeat coming in last season’s pre-season competition. And yet beating Galway seems to take so much out of them.

Last year’s Division 1 final victory was followed by defeat to Roscommon in Connacht the following weekend. The weekend following last year’s preliminary quarter-final, Dublin sent Mayo packing from the championship.

And that’s not to mention what Kerry did to them 13 days after they beat Galway to qualify for the Super 8 in 2019. O’Donoghue nods at the facts but isn’t certain Mayo suffer from a post-Galway hangover.

“Galway are obviously a great side, they are a Division 1 team and I’m sure if it was any other Division 1 team, like, I’m not sure if it’s just because it’s Galway that we end up losing the next game, but Galway are a great side and we are playing them again in the first round of the league.

“Obviously last year was a draw and there was a last-minute equaliser for a draw, so there’s never more than a point or two between us and I’m sure it will be the same again this year. To answer your question, we have to look at ourselves against our other opponents as the reasons why we didn’t win that rather than playing Galway the week before.”

That preliminary quarter-final was the last of four meetings between Mayo and Galway in 2023. Between this month’s FBD Connacht League, their Allianz Football League and the provincial and All-Ireland championship, they might clash six times this year.

Is it a case of too much or never being enough?

“There has to be balance but that’s just the way it is now, that’s the fixture list, that’s what the GAA have set out and at this moment in time, this season it’s not going to change.”

It's London in Bekan this Sunday anyway. In contrast to previous years when O’Donoghue believes “five out of the six” Mayo forwards could be predicted, the 25-year-old is excited by the competition upfront.

“I don’t really know what Stephen (Rochford) and Kevin (McStay) are thinking at the moment.”