Paddy Durcan of Mayo watches the warm-up before the Connacht GAA Football Senior Championship final match between Galway and Mayo at Pearse Stadium in Galway. (Photo By Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile via Getty Images)"Well, it’s a significantly lesser chance now because of Paddy and his influence,” Keegan said. “There’s a couple of reasons.
“If we’re tight or tied down, we know that far too often we don’t score hugely and then you’re relying on the likes of Paddy Durcan or Eoghan McLaughlin to creep up and kick a point or two, and Paddy, if you look at his scoring ratio at the moment, it’s off the charts in terms of what he’s hitting.
“So you’re nearly relying on Paddy to be that figure, and the best example I’d give is when they played Dublin this year in the League. When all was kind of faltering around them in the first half, in particular, Paddy was the one guy who just threw off the shackles and said, ‘You know what, I’m going to go for it.’
“And the way the game ended against Galway in the Connacht final, our six defenders there, you kind of looked around and without Paddy, they looked a little bit leaderless to an extent. Paddy is their captain; he’s the guy who makes things happen.”
Mayo plays Roscommon at Dr. Hyde Park next week.
