JAMES HORAN INSISTED it is not the time ‘to make rash promises or decisions’ after Mayo’s championship exit today at the hands of Kerry.
Horan’s four-year term officially drew to a close as this loss represented the side’s last act of the 2022 season.
He has made no decision on whether he will look to remain in the Mayo hotseat, describing this year as ‘tough’ for the 2020 and 2021 All-Ireland finalists.
“There is no real looking forward now, we just had a chat in there, it’s never a time to make rash promises or decisions or statements after the end of a season like that, so everybody will take a bit of time.
“Everyone will take (time) to reflect, for sure. Yeah, look it, it has been a tough year. I was just saying out there that if you were designing a year it would be the absolute inverse of what we had.
“From no pitches to play leagues into no training pitches to no trainings, we had to cancel trainings, the amount of injuries, it was one of those raggle-taggle kind of seasons but to the credit of the players they kept going and kept battling. We were down a lot of games and it would be very easy just for you to call it a night but (they) didn’t, kept going, so huge credit to the lads involved.
“We were always battling but that is part of it. We didn’t get the breaks for sure but that’s not a road worth any good for anyone going down that. Today we were in that game for a long time, ran out of juice maybe in the end but still thought we were in with a good shout there but look it’s ended with disappointment for us.”
Speculation will now fall on the future of Mayo’s long-serving players with Horan asked about two of their veteran stars in Lee Keegan and Kevin McLoughlin.
“It’s hard to know that is for everyone to decide, the way the two guys are playing they still have a huge amount to offer and they are brilliant ambassadors for the game in
Mayo so it is completely their decision, they’ll take time. Kevin with twins has his hands full out there for sure so he’ll take time to think through it.”
Horan had clear cause for regret over the shooting of his side in the second half.
“I think we got four from 16 shots in the second half. We’d an awful lot of attacks, we just didn’t get the return from the possession that we had. I think that knocked us a little bit and gave them strength. That was where they got ahead into a comfortable lead and they managed it from there.
“We were probably missing our three highest scorers today, that certainly makes a difference in Tommy Ryan (O’Donoghue) and Darren McHale We’d a lot into the goalie’s hands against Kildare and a lot today. Some of that is technique, some of it is the speed you are taking the shot at, all that sort of stuff so its an an area the guys will look at, we’ll look at.
“Tommy is a big loss, and Michael Plunkett. Michael Plunkett was probably our best player throughout the league this year, so he was a huge loss. So we were unfortunate with some of our injuries for sure but you saw Dublin yesterday and Kerry today were missing a few as well, so it’s the way it goes.”
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