Donal Vaughan says Mayo's training camp in Belmullet brought things home to them.

The Connacht champions headed to the remote northern outpost of their own county for this year's pre-championship training camp and Ballinrobe clubman Vaughan reckons it was a real eye-opener for James Horan's charges:

"We have been in Miami, we've been in Portugal last year, in a training camp up the country, in Johnstown House and different places, but the way we were treated in Belmullet...," the centre back muses in The Irish Independent.

"I don't know was it the fact that we were keeping it in our own county, it was Mayo people that were looking after us in the hotel, but the one thing that really struck me was how we were treated down there.

"It just brought it home to us who we are representing. There are fishermen down there and they took us out on a boat trip one day, basically powerboats out on the sea.

"They never have their boats in the water at this time of the year, but when they heard we were going down, they decided to get the boats ready just so they could take us out for two hours so we could enjoy ourselves. The day we went out was really wild but they still took us out. It was some craic.

"The fishermen presented us with lobster. James got to break the lobster - it is a bit of a ritual, an honour if you can break the lobster.

"We had a great night there in Teach John Joe's, but the whole Belmullet thing was the way people went out of their way to help us. They really struck a chord with the players.

"Sometimes you get wrapped up in the whole training side of things and you might actually forget, somewhere like Belmullet they mightn't see us too much down there.

"They are every bit as much Mayo fans as people in Castlebar, and probably more so. It means more to them - it is identity.

"Maybe the next time we go out and play for Mayo, we'll be thinking of these people, you are actually representing them as much as the people in Ballinrobe." Tweet

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