Jordan Flynn's Mayo career was transformed by 2018 Croke Park controversy

After receiving an 18-week ban for shoving the referee in the 2018 All-Ireland U20 final, Jordan Flynn partied hard but he came out of that period with a renewed desire to play for Mayo

The possibility of lining out with his brother Kobe McDonald convinced Jordan Flynn to continue playing with Mayo this year. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

All-Ireland final defeats, a broken leg, a red card and a hefty suspension. Trips to Croke Park have often been stressful occasions for Jordan Flynn.

Now an All-Ireland winner with club and county in the space of the last 18 months, his relationship with the famous old ground has suddenly changed. Now it is his field of dreams.

The Mayo forward was just three when, after attending his native Crossmolina's All-Ireland senior club final win over Nemo Rangers, he was struck by a car and broke his leg.

Medics wondered at the time if it would heal properly and develop normally. It did, in the end, but only after weekly visits to the hospital in Sligo for the next year.

It was inside Croke Park that the damage was done in 2018, although this time more so to his reputation as, after being sent off late in Mayo's All-Ireland U-20 final loss to Kildare, he shoved referee Niall Cullen and received an 18-week suspension.

There were subsequent All-Ireland senior final defeats with Mayo, in 2020 and 2021, but it is back to that 2018 incident that Flynn's mind is drawn in the wake of Sunday's Sam Maguire Cup success.

"I probably took a lot of heat after that and it was obviously well deserved," said Flynn. "I suppose now getting to look back on everything, (winning) a League, a Connacht and an All-Ireland now as well, getting to look back on that moment and say I could have went one of two ways.

"I could have stayed away from football. In a strange way, I suppose it probably helped me a bit because at the time I was gone, I'd done a lot of partying, a lot of fun stuff and after it was finished, I was like, 'I don't really want to do any more of that. I'd like to give it a right crack'."

After receiving the suspension in 2018, Crossmolina were relegated from the senior championship.

"Having Tommy (Conroy) and Ryan (O'Donoghue) on the Mayo team that day, you do feel like you let a few people down," said Flynn. "There was my family side as well, there was a lot of stuff, (about) my character, and how they raised me and things like that were called into question. That's not something that you want to delve too much into.

"The great thing about playing football is that everyone supports you when things go well. People probably don't see the effect that it can have when things go wrong. People are very quick to Tweet or write or comment on things when they don't really know people too well.

"When you're sitting at home after something like that, and you're reading comments and things like that, you do let them creep in. So it also taught me how to approach things like that.

"Now I don't read anything. Whether it's a good game or a bad game, whether we won or lost on Sunday. It's great now we've won, people say good things. But if we had lost, people would be saying whatever they want to say.

"You take it with a pinch of salt because you know what you go through as a group and as individuals. That was another learning. So I look back on it with fond memories and also, I would say, with no so fond memories as well. It definitely was a turning point for me as well."

Flynn was part of the Crossmolina team that won the All-Ireland intermediate club title at Croke Park early last year. At the time, he described it as 'one of the best days of my life'. Sunday may have surpassed it although it wasn't always certain he'd be around this year as he considered not returning.

"When you're playing football for that long, it kind of becomes very taxing," he explained. "Obviously you're enjoying playing football and I would never have stepped away because of the football side of it. It was more from the side of, like, I'm getting married at the end of this year and there's things you are missing out on. I have a lot of friends that I wouldn't see as often as I'd like.

"They are going to concerts or group holidays or whatever. My partner, Jessie, is great and keeps me grounded. But there's also some things that I feel she misses out on because of where I am."

One of the things that convinced Flynn to stay was the prospect of playing alongside his brother, Kobe McDonald. At full time last Sunday, with Kerry defeated, the pair embraced and crumpled to the turf. Later on, they lifted the Sam Maguire Cup together.

"I think we were just saying to each other, 'It's over now - it's done!'" recalled Flynn. "You talk about it, and you talk about what you could do, and what it would be like, but to actually do it then and kind of get to experience it is a different story."