THERE WAS A time when Conor Mortimer would have spent All-Ireland week doing the last bits of mental and physical preparation for Sunday’s final.
But when he walks down Jones’ Road this weekend, he’ll be heading for a seat in the stands rather than the Mayo dressing room.
Does it bother him? Not a bit, he says.
Mortimer was on the losing side in two All-Ireland finals, against Kerry in 2004 and again unforgettably in 2006, before his inter-county career came a juddering halt last year.
Four days before the Connacht final, frustrated by his lack of playing time and the fact that again he had been left out of the starting 15, Mortimer walked out on the Mayo squad. A statement from his family, accusing manager James Horan of ‘destroying his confidence’, appeared to be the final nail in the coffin of a player just one game shy of his 100th inter-county appearance.
He hasn’t pulled on the green and red jersey since and, after missing last year’s final against Donegal, he’ll be watching on again this weekend as Mayo look to scratch their 62-year itch by beating Dublin.
“I’m a year older and a year living my own life really,” Mortimer said yesterday at the launch of the FBD 7s in Croke Park.
“But I’ll be keeping my eye out, I always do, and keep in touch with the players.
It’s only on gameday that you’ll miss being out there. Look, like any player you need to be there at the start of the year, you need to be doing the graft to merit playing for any team. You just watch on as a supporter and you hope for the best.
At 31 a return from the inter-county wilderness still isn’t completely out of the question and while Mortimer says he’s happy to get along with life as it is, he is ruling nothing out.
“I don’t really think about it, to be honest with you.
“I’m just with my club. I suppose if you were asked you’d have to see where you were at fitness-wise.
“I’m doing what everyone else is doing – working and training away and playing with my own club. If somebody asked you, you’d have to think about it.”
From his perspective, there is no sense that he was hard done by last season or bitterness that he wasn’t called back in for a fresh start at the beginning of the new campaign.
“I wouldn’t say [I was] hard done by. It was my decision, really. Nobody made it for me at the time.
I wasn’t waiting for a phone-call at the start of the year. I was off doing my own thing. I don’t think players say to themselves ‘ah, I’m finished playing now’. You just roll on and if it comes around again good.I’m 31 now, I’m not 21 anymore. I suppose I’m putting my life in other avenues as well. That’s just the way it is.
For now he’s just a fan and fearful that Mayo’s chances are closely tied to the fitness of star forward and two-time Young Player of the Year Cillian O’Connor who is recovering from another shoulder injury.
“If he’s not playing they’re going to be under a lot of pressure,” Mortimer says but even at that, he still leans towards his native county.
“If the two teams play to their potential, I don’t see why Mayo wouldn’t win it.
“The one thing that Dublin have I suppose is that they have had tougher games coming into the final than we have had. Even in Leinster they had a couple of decent challenges, not major or anything like that, but decent.
“I think their bench, the players are adding something when they come in. Even if they are 10 points up, the likes of Rock and McManamon are looking for scores. They don’t rest easy, they keep driving on.
“I just think it’s Mayo’s year, the way it has rolled out through the year.”
