NAME: Sean de Paor DATE OF BIRTH: 24/12/70 HEIGHT: 5'10" WEIGHT: 13st 2lbs CLUB: An Ceathru Rua COUNTY: Galway HONOURS: Sigerson Cup medal 1992; 2 Connacht Under 21 Championship medal; 1 Connacht Minor Championship medal; Galway Intermediate Championship medal with An Ceathru Rua, All-Ireland Under 21 runners up medal; 2 Connacht Colleges Senior League medals INTER-COUNTY DEBUT: v Louth, NFL in February 1991 PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT: H. Dip Graduate 1992 - currently looking for a teaching post in science TOUGHEST OPPONENT: Anybody over 5'10" FAVOURITE GROUNDS: Croke Park, Pairc Ui Chaoimh and Tuam Stadium FAVOURITE POSITION: Wing back or else corner forward SPORTING AMBITION: To win an All-Ireland with Galway and then to help them stay at the top for a few years DO YOU PLAY ANY OTHER SPORTS: None seriously, but I play a bit of golf BOYHOOD HEROES: John Egan FAVOURITE PLAYERS: Meath's Bernard Flynn ANY GOOD SPORTING YARN: When UCG's and Laois' Tony Maher told me that Laois were going to beat Meath - I lost a fiver on it! BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON CAREER: My parents, mentors at St. Jarlaths College, An Cheathru Rua and Tony Regan at UCG WAYS OF IMPROVING THE GAME: Two referees, more emphasis on the league as it is a better gauge of how good at team is DISLIKES ABOUT THE GAA: Games don't always seem to start on time as referee or players come late - seemingly conservative nature of those in charge of the GAA BEST GAME SEEN: 1989 - Cork v Mayo and 1991 Down v Meath PLAYERS WITH A PROMISING FUTURE: Don Connellan (Roscommon and UCG) and Jarlath Fallon (Galway and UCG) HOPES FOR 1992: To win a Connacht senior championship medal with Galway and then, hopefully, an All-Ireland medal. Also, I would hope to win a county senior championship medal with An Cheathru Rua YOUR MOTHER IS A SISTER OF A FORMER CAVAN STAR: Yes, she is. Jimmy O'Connell, who was a former Cavan midfielder in the '60s is my uncle. He also played for Connacht in the Railway Cup series because at that time he played for Leitrim. I never actually saw him play because I was too young and my mother tells me that he was pretty good at the time GALWAY HAVE KEPT A VERY LOW PROFILE IN THE LEAD UP TO SUNDAY'S GAME AGAINST MAYO. IS THIS A DELIBERATE PLOY: No it isn't a deliberate ploy. Last year people had built us up to unreal proportions, saying that we would win the All-Ireland and win everything before us. This year it's not the same. There isn't as much talk about us. However, it's not the hype that counts, it's what happens on the day and we're expecting a trough hard game from Mayo on Sunday GALWAY BLEW HOT AND COLD IN THE RECENT NFL SERIES. YOU BEAT TYRONE AND CORK AND YET PLAYED VERY POORLY AGAINST DUBLIN IN A PLAY-OFF GAME. WERE YOU DISAPPOINTED WITH THAT DISPLAY AGAINST THE DUBS: Yes, we were disappointed with that display. We had beaten both Tyrone and Cork in our two previous games and were looking to do well against Dublin. However, things didn't go so well against Dublin. It was probably a combination of both nerves and the fact that we were playing in Croke Park which was a first for many of the team GALWAY HAVE A NUMBER OF VERY YOUNG PLAYERS ON THE PRESENT SQUAD. WHO WOULD BE THE PLAYERS TO LOOK OUT FOR: Yes, we have quite a few young players on the squad at the moment. It's quite unrealistic to be expecting big things from a few of the very young players on the squad. It depends on how we all react on the big day. Players like Tommy Wilson, Neil Finnegan, Conor McGauran, Jarlath Fallon and Kevin McDonagh have a promising future GALWAY FOOTBALL APPEARS TO HAVE GONE BACK QUITE A BIT. YOU HAVE NOT WON A CONNACHT TITLE SINCE 1987. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS SO: There is no particular reason as to why this is so. All counties go through a valley period in which they can't seem to win anything. It's just a case of sticking at it. I mean, look at Meath. For years guys like Colm O'Rourke never won anything and then suddenly, hey presto, they win everything with Meath. Galway still have a very strong footballing tradition and with a lot of underage success in recent years, it's just a matter of sticking at it. Keep the faith, as they say! YOUR VIEWS ON TEAM MANAGER JOHN TOBIN: John Tobin or 'Toby' as we call him ourselves, has been training and managing us for the last three years. As far as I'm concerned and the rest of the squad are concerned, we have learned a lot from him in the past three years. He's an imaginative and innovative manager and training is quite interesting under him. TELL US ABOUT YOUR CLUB: An Cheathru Rua is a senior football club situated in the heart of the Gaeltacht. We achieved senior status in 1987 and haven't looked back since. We have reached both the county semi final and quarter final in our four years at senior level. The club is a well-run and well-organised club with teams from under 12 to senior CARRAROE IS IN THE HEART OF WEST GALWAY. HAS THE HURLING BUG SPREAD TO THERE YET: To be fair and honest the hurling bug has not reached Carraroe yet. Hurling is not as strong as football here, although it is supported quite a fair bit. We don't have any hurling team in Carraroe, even though there have been a few attempts to set one up. Football is the main game played here ACCORDING TO REPORTS, MAYO HAVE A POOR RECORD AGAINST GALWAY IN TUAM. DOES THAT GIVE THE GALWAY PLAYERS A PSYCHOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE GOING INTO SUNDAY'S SHOWDOWN: No, it doesn't make it any easier, nor does it give us any advantage. Games between Galway and Mayo are always tough, no matter where they are played, whether it is in Castlebar, Galway, Tuam or whoever. In actual fact, whenever Galway play Mayo in Tuam they seem to have a bigger support than us there MAYO GAVE YOU QUITE A HAMMERING LAST SUMMER. HAVE GALWAY GOT OVER THAT TROUNCING YET: Actually it didn't take us that long to get over it. We knew that we didn't do ourselves justice that day in Castlebar. It was quite humiliating at the time but our run in the league brought back all the old confidence. Yes, we've definitely got over it in that we don't think about it anymore WILL YOU WIN ON SUNDAY AND AVENGE THAT SET BACK: Ask me this on Sunday at 5pm. One thing is for sure is that it's going to be a tough, hard-fought game. Mayo are always a hard team to beat. Our recent league win over them won't have any bearing at all on Sunday. As the old man once used to say - "It's all on the day!" Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 12th June 1992 Vol 2 No 59 Tweet

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