Pictured is Mayo footballer and autism advocate Padraig O’Hora at SuperValu’s launch of the GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and its #CommunityIncludesEveryone campaign. Sponsors of the Championship for a fifteenth consecutive season, SuperValu were joined by Gaelic Games role models and advocates from across the country in Croke Park today to highlight the role of GAA communities in making Ireland a more diverse, inclusive and welcoming country for all.
By John Harrington
For the second year in a row Padraig O’Hora finds himself fighting to win a place in the Mayo defence after missing the start of the season through injury.
He’s feeling fresh and hungry, but knows he has a battle on his hands to force his way into a team that conceded just nine points from play in the Connacht semi-final win over Roscommon.
Determination is a quality the Ballina man has in spades, so you wouldn’t be shocked to hear he’s relishing the challenge.
“Wouldn't have it any other way,” he says. “You will earn a jersey. I got to play 10, 15 minutes the last day like, you'll earn every bit of it. That is the way it should be in any good team, any team that wants to be successful, if there's no internal competition you're under a bit of pressure
“Look, you're so driven and motivated as a player that you're never going to be happy. Unless you have the perfect day, even then you're probably still giving out about something. Like I said, I played 10, 15 minutes the last day, you want more. You want more. That has to be who you are.
“It's full-on competition. You're constantly battling, there's jerseys to be had. Obviously if lads are going well and everything is good, you have a handful of people... they've earned their jersey.
“Unless they get hurt or something, they're locked in, because they're performing well. And to be honest, performance is on the training ground. The guys that are going really, really well are going really, really well in training too.”
Mayo have had a couple of full-on training games since the win over Roscommon in preparation for Sunday’s Connacht SFC Final against Galway.
You’d almost feel sorry for whatever forwards O’Hora marked in those games, because you can be sure he was taking no prisoners in an attempt to prove to Kevin McStay he deserves a start this weekend.
“Absolutely, but, look, you're not going out to hurt somebody,” says O’Hora. “I'm not ear-marking somebody before training and saying, you know what, see that James Carr, I'm gonna get rid of that fella and they might have a look at me as corner forward. I don't think that day will ever come!
“You're going out, you're going hard. The 50/50 ball, you'll go through whoever you need to go through to get there. That's the way it is. I really want that jersey and I know every other man wants it and it makes you better.
“I'm doing a disservice to everybody in that dressing room if I don't give 100% of myself and 100% of myself needs to go for every ball. If there's men in your way, you're going through them and that's the way it will be, certainly. That's the way it is at the moment there. You just go as hard as you can all the time.”
Padraig O'Hora of Mayo before the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship semi-final match between Roscommon and Mayo at Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile.
He’s putting his best foot forward, he but he’s keenly aware that must be done in step with the rest of the team.
Every player minds their own patch to a certain extent, but there must be a realisation there’s a bigger field to harrow.
“Look, it's a balancing act,” says O’Hora. “First and foremost, what we always have to do is think team, team, team. So like, what's the priority? The priority is Mayo.
“The priority is not Padraig O'Hora. The priority is Mayo GAA, the Mayo football team. It has to be. Always. So when it comes to tactics, when it comes to doing your job, that's what you have to do.
“You go into training and he says, 'I want you to do X.' But I think going up kicking two points might be the way to get somebody to notice me, that's not how you play football. That's not how you be part of Mayo. You go, you do your job, Mayo comes first. But by God, you will fight as hard as you can to stake your claim for a jersey.”
From now until Mayo’s season ends, O’Hora is fully dialled in. Sacrifices will have to be made in other areas of his life, but the way he sees it you have little choice but to approach it in that single-minded fashion.
“Football is all-consuming when you’re in it, when you’re in the thick of it. From the last few weeks, it’s been building, and now it’s really on, it’s really on. My partner even knows that - I’d say she is rueing the next few weeks!
“The workload balance is starting to tip…it’s never 50/50 anyway, she’s always doing a bit more than I am, but it’s going to start sliding a little bit more. But you need to do that. We’ve all been in parts of our life where that happens you: college, exams, whatever. Your focus and attention has to switch over here now.
“For me, my focus has to be GAA, it has to be Mayo now, football, football, football. They need to get the best of me when I walk in the doors so that we can get the best out of ourselves.
“That’s the same for everybody who’s involved, management included. They’re doing their absolute utmost to make Mayo successful. You know what, when the year comes to an end, then all my attention can come away from there and get poured back into the house where it belongs, with family and kids.
“I don’t care what anybody says, it takes away from that, everything does. If you have a really hectic work schedule, it takes away from home. They pay a little bit of a price for me to play football, and I’m fully aware of that. When I get the time back, I try my best. I may not be the best at it but I certainly try to pour that time back into them.”
Padraig O’Hora of Mayo congratulates Damien Comer of Galway after the game in the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship Quarter-Final match between Mayo and Galway at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar, Mayo. Photo by Ray Ryan/Sportsfile.
The one thing you can say for sure about Sunday’s Connacht Final against Galway is that you really can’t be sure how it will go.
Matches between these two rivals tend to take on a life of their own regardless of what has gone before.
“Absolutely,” says O’Hora. “Look, you want to win all the time. You certainly want to win when you're in a Connacht final. I've been part of the team twice we've won, the last two have gone to Galway and as Kevin [McStay] alluded to, him as a manager, he hasn't won one at all.
“What goes on before games, I don't think is too relevant. I certainly don't look at it. I don't know does anybody else. It's all retrospective. It's easy to make a narrative and say, 'Mayo done X and Galway done Y,' sure that means this is what's going to happen.
“Nobody has a clue what's going to happen. That's the beauty of it, that's why people go to the games. That's why we love football, and that's why we love sport, because nobody has a clue. If you knew, sure, we'd all be coming to ya for it!”