CORA STAUNTON’S ROLE in the Mayo ladies’ team is so important that “people have tried to annoy her year in, year out”, according to former Dublin forward Lindsay Peat.
Peat was responding to Dublin manager Mick Bohan’s comments earlier this week that Staunton is guilty of “intimidating referees”.
Joining Gavan Casey and Emma Duffy on the latest episode of Close Calls with Eirsport this afternoon, Peat was quick to say that she doesn’t think Bohan meant any offense by the comments.
“She’s just such a serious player. With a lot of experience. And she knows how to play the game. And she knows how to win herself frees.”
Staunton, who has 21 years of championship football under her belt, last won the All-Ireland with Mayo in 2003. So it’s fair to say that she, along with the rest of the All-Ireland-starved Mayo team, will have a hunger heading into Sunday’s match.
Why, then, would Bohan add fuel to the fire and make Staunton angry ahead of the decider?
“If you look at professional players, people try go out and annoy Cristiano Ronaldo because he is the key. And Cora is the key – one of the keys – to this Mayo team. She’ll be the key to their success on Sunday”, said Peat.
“People have tried to annoy her year in, year out. You know, sometimes it’s worked. Sometimes it hasn’t. But the Cora this year seems very relaxed and very focused and I just hope Mick’s comments don’t backfire on Sunday and he gets the opposite effect.”
You can watch the full episode of Close Calls below:
You can catch the podcast version of the show here, or on iTunes:
The42 Podcasts / SoundCloud
