‘It’s an absolutely delightful group to be a part of’ – Mulhern 

One of the many issues with the tight turnaround to the county final is the semi-finals become yesterday’s news very quickly. It means less space and time to reflect on an incredible year for Crossmolina that ended after a sensational extra-time loss to Westport.

A quarter of an hour after the final whistle, Crossmolina full-back and goalscorer Kevin Mulhern comes out to meet his family and willingly obliges to try to put some context on an incredible game and year.

“We like to provide entertainment anyway! I’m immensely proud of everyone to recover from three points down… I think legs went in the second period, Kevin Keane kicked two points and that was it, they worked the opportunities, they took them. It’s a game of football at the end of the day, it is not the end of the world, we’ve had a great year so we can look back at some very good highlights and build on that for next year again,” he said.

You can tell from talking to Mulhern just how much he has enjoyed the journey to an All-Ireland intermediate title and within touching distance of a Mayo senior final, only to be denied by Westport in a game for the ages.

“It’s two quality teams going at each other that want to play good, quick, direct football. I think the supporters enjoyed it and that’s the football we enjoy playing. It’s an absolutely delightful group to be a part of. I can’t describe how wonderful all them lads are. Everybody trusts each other to do the right thing. Look, it has got us this far, hopefully we’ll take it on another level next year again with a bit more work with them,” said the 31-year-old.

He is particularly fulsome in his praise for the five minors who started for Crossmolina on Saturday – Kobe McDonald, Dylan Flynn, Josh Moyles, Oisín Deane and Seán Óg McGuinness. It is hard not to focus on Kobe McDonald though. Ten points underlines just how spectacular his display was.

“He’s wonderful and do you know what, he’s just a great kid. He’s just a really, really nice kid. I help out with Kilmurry soccer and I remember him coming when he was like six and I was like ‘I’m not teaching you anything!’ You see a kid at that age and [he] already has it, you’re trying to challenge him then.

“He just takes everything in his stride. He loves football, he loves hanging out with the boys. I do be chatting to him there, he has some collection of jerseys and tops and I’m like ‘where are you getting all of these?’ And he’s like, ‘Ah I’m on Vinted there buying them for €5!’ That’s just the carefree lifestyle that he has. They’re just really good kids and a joy to play with. They’ll be successful with Mayo, with us and whatever they do in life, you just know they’re going to go far.” 

From the Westport interviews, it was clear that they drew motivation from the chatter about Crossmolina this year and proved how serious an outfit they are themselves.

“We’re hearing a lot of noise about Crossmolina the last few weeks, they’ve some great players, don’t get me wrong but with the extra week break it was great to get a crack at them and just kinda see where we were at as well,” said their defender Eoghan McLaughlin.

“This year, through the group stages, we never really clicked and obviously had a big second-half against Breaffy so we just wanted to put the whole puzzle together today from minute one and show what we were capable of, just throwing off the shackles and going at it. I believe we done that and obviously Crossmolina done the same thing and I’d say from a spectacle point of view it was just an unbelievable game of football, I’d say it was exciting from the sidelines. That’s the reason you want to play football is to be in big games like this and obviously perform in those big games.” 

McLaughlin was the Mayo GAA TV Man of the Match and put in a very impressive display throughout.

“This club campaign I wanted to play with a bit of freedom, express myself and obviously enjoy it as much as possible. I feel when you enjoy it as much as possible, you get the best out of yourself, for me anyway and I’ve just been doing that the last number of weeks,” he said.