Mayo’s sports psychologist Dr Rachel Sheehan says the new All-Ireland senior football champions were never weighed down by history.

Dr Sheehan linked up with Andy Moran’s squad at the beginning of this year, meeting up with players and management twice a week after having previously worked with the Dublin and Galway hurlers.

Speaking on RTE’s Behind The Story Podcast this week, the Limerick native said that Mayo’s painful history of past All-Ireland final defeats was not something which was discussed with the current squad.

"Only a very small cohort maybe carried some of that baggage," she said. "For the most part, it’s a new team, it’s a new year and even for myself I know that stuff (Mayo’s final history) but that’s not engrained in my background either.

"At the start of the year you come in with a blank slate and the only time we really look back is at the previous week or the previous match in order to reflect and look forward for the next week, the next match.

"We certainly didn’t start this year by reflecting on five years’ past, on 10 years’ past or 75 years’ past. It’s something that might have come up once or twice, but it definitely wasn’t active in any of our conversations this year."

On the team’s historic victory itself, she added: "It was beyond anything I could have imagined, and I'll certainly be reflecting on it plenty as the days and weeks pass. I don’t think I’ll ever have a day like it again.”

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