O'Shea calls for improvement

August 23, 2016

Mayo's Aidan O'Shea and Stephen Rochford celebrate after the win over Tipperary.

Aidan O'Shea says Mayo will have to be consistently good for 70 minutes to win the All-Ireland SFC final.

Stephen Rochford's men have spluttered through to a September 18th date with either Dublin or Kerry and their inspirational attacker admits they will have to improve on previous displays - including Sunday's unimpressive semi-final victory over Tipperary - to have any chance of winning the Sam Maguire Cup:

"We spoke during the week that we were in four semi-finals in the last two years, drawn two and lost two. Everyone says they were great games but we were on the wrong side of them and that's the disappointing part of it," the Mayo powerhouse told The Irish Independent.

"This time we said, regardless of performance, we just had to make sure we nudged into the next round. Our performance won't make people happy, it won't make ourselves happy but the reality is we're in an All-Ireland final and that's what we set out to do.

"Everybody knows we've been banging on the door for a few years and we have been very consistent but we haven't been able to get over the line. This year, we haven't been very consistent but if we get over the line and win the All-Ireland I'll take that 100%.

"But we'll have to be consistent in the final for 70 minutes. We flashed in and out for periods of time when it was required on Sunday, but at the same time it won't be good enough against a team that are at another level.

"We know that performance isn't good enough. We conceded a lot of scoreable frees, which was disappointing. We need to eradicate a lot of things because that performance in the final won't be good enough.

"We've won all our games since the Galway game struggling along and it's great to be winning games when you haven't been playing your best."


Most Read Stories