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James Horan on why he is confident Mayo will bounce back stronger

Former Mayo manager James Horan is confident that the county will come back stronger after the pa...



James Horan on why he is confi...
Football

James Horan on why he is confident Mayo will bounce back stronger

Former Mayo manager James Horan is confident that the county will come back stronger after the pain of another All-Ireland final defeat.

Mayo lost to Dublin in Saturday's replay as the 65-year quest for Sam goes into another season and the lost finals count rises to eight.

Highlighting Mayo's resilience as well as a successful underage crop that could make the progression to senior soon, Horan told Off The Ball that a few more tweaks and they could finally do it.

"An under-21 All-Ireland-winning team isn't going to win you the senior All-Ireland straight away. I'm not saying that at all. But look at the age of profile of the team, look at the leaders that they have, the resilience that they've shown," he said.

"Throw in a couple more, try a few more different things and they'll be knocking round there or thereabouts again. Absolutely nothing surer." 

Mayo's Lee Keegan is shown a black card ©INPHO/Donall Farmer

Horan also discussed the kicking range of goalkeeper Rob Hennelly, whose elevation in place of David Clarke was a huge talking point during and after the replay as it ultimately didn't work out.

"Rob would be an extremely good kicker of the ball and he has a huge range in his kicks to be fair," he said.

Ex-Kerry star Mike Quirke also joined the show and he spoke passionately about the need to do something about the black card after its application proved controversial in the replay.

"It's descended into Russian Roulette at this stage. It's either a bullet or blank coming out of the gun at this stage," he said of the hit and miss nature of the black card's use before giving his take on how it should be used in future.

"I thought the fairest way to do this whole black card thing is to make it for that one where a guy is bearing down on goals and it's a stonewall, clear 'I'm taking you down to prevent a goalscoring opportunity'. Any of the rest of the cynical fouls, you hit them with the Australian Rules 50 metre penalty. You advance the ball 50 metres. That's going to lead to a score." 

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