Mayo's Andy Moran admitted he may well have taken a point where Ciaran Treacy secured a match-winning goal in today's National Football League final.
Leading Kerry by one-point as Treacy bore down on goal, the late substitute calmly slotted the ball beyond Shane Ryan and assured success for James Horan's side.
"If that was an older player going through on goal," Moran stated in conversation with Oisin Langan for Off the Ball, "would he tap it over the bar?"
"I'd probably argue I'd have flicked it over the bar and that would've put us two up, [but the goal] put us four up and that killed the game."
Indicative of a fresh impetus brought to Mayo's game by an injection of young, talented footballers, Moran, one of the panel's more senior members, revealed that they had been feeling the pressure coming from below.
"Young players' mentalities are different," Moran stated.
"You play the percentages when you're that bit older ... where these fellas just come in and let it off, let it free and off they go."
Crucially, while today's win has been a long-time coming for Moran, he is looking for it to act as a springboard for the year ahead.
"If I didn't experience this, I'd never have known it," explained Moran in light of winning a National title in Croke Park, "and listen, we need to build now for the Summer and go for the big one."
Watch Andy Moran's full post-match comments below.
'I'd have flicked it over the bar and that would've put us two up'
Andy Moran spoke to @oisinlangan about the fearlessness of youth, and what today's win really meant to him... #KERRYvMAYO pic.twitter.com/C9roMqOWC5— Off The Ball (@offtheball) March 31, 2019
