This Sunday sees Mayo and Kerry meet for the right to taste another Croke Park Sunday in September, and one of those set to be central to the battle is Mayo defender Lee Keegan.
Keegan spoke with Off the Ball ahead of Sunday’s game and told Joe Molloy his Mayo side are anxiously anticipating Sunday's game. “We’re ready to explode against Kerry.
“We’ve probably reached our peak now in terms of the bigger games," he said.
If Mayo reach the All-Ireland final this year it will be their third in a row, and despite the lack so far of the big prize this is undoubtedly a very good time for Mayo football, and Keegan told us he’s keen to make the most of it while it lasts.
“These are the kind of things you have to enjoy because these kind of years don’t go on and on. I suppose we’re just living in the bubble at the moment and we just have to enjoy it,” Keegan said.
The big question about Mayo, seemingly every year recently, is about history. And, more specifically, does the weight of Mayo history weigh on this generation of Mayo’s footballers? For Keegan, the strongest emotion isn’t fear of history, but a desire to make the most of the present.
“I’m very young so I don’t live in the history of what happened, I just live in the present.”
“The phrase I always use is there’s 230 teams who’d like to be in our position. We’re very fortunate that we’re playing in our fourth All-Ireland semi so what’s not to enjoy about it?
“People say it’s mentally scarring but it’s not really, you know? At the end of the day we all have the same focus, we want to be the best team we can possibly be ... and that’s the way I’m looking at it ... I just take it game by game, year by year,” Keegan said.
Listen below to the full interview with Lee Keegan or download on iTunes
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