Keith Higgins has urged Mayo fans to enjoying watching Kobe McDonald before he moves to the AFL later this year.

The Crossmolina wonderkid scored 1-4 in a sensational debut off the bench against Monaghan last Sunday and will be a key player for Higgins’ Mayo U20 team before sitting his Leaving Cert and then linking up with St Kilda.

“Andy Moran tried to play down the hype for the last couple of months and all of a sudden, he comes on and hits 1-4 in 20 minutes!” Higgins smiled at the launch of the Dalata Hotel Group U20 Football Championship yesterday.

“What can I say about Kobe? Everyone’s known he’s a phenomenal talent for the last probably 18 months anyway. You just have to realise that the lad has literally turned 18 in December. He’s still really, really young. He was playing schools basketball and football up until December and January.

“He played the Connacht C final there two weeks ago. At that age, you have to let the lads go and play a bit of schools football and let them enjoy themselves. Andy probably had all of that in his head when he was integrating him into the seniors.

“And then obviously he comes on and makes an introduction like he did. You can kind of see even from the celebration that he’s enjoying it.”

The former dual star added: “He could go out in six months’ time to Australia, and it might not be for him, and he could come back home. He could have five or six great years out there and come back home, he’s still 24 years of age. You just don’t know.

“Without being boring or repeating the same line that Andy said, just make the most of him while we have him. We know he’s going to be going at the end of the summer, whenever it is.

"So just try to make the most of it while we have him and enjoy him while we have him, whether that’s with the seniors or the 20s.”

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