MAYO’S JAMES HORAN is becoming increasingly used to the role social media plays in modern day Gaelic games, but he’s still wary of some of the more negative aspects associated with Twitter and Facebook.
“Mayo is a county that has the highest number of Twitter followers and facebook followers combined. So we are mad anyway.
“There is always going to be flak. Any Mayo manager that has ever been has always taken heat. But we are comfortable.”
“I find [social media] useful for the club games. I was at three games at the weekend and you can follow it score by score and make a few calls to see what a goal was like.
“I follow Ian Poulter too and Tiger and a couple of golfers. Poulter is on it a little bit too much!
“I haven’t tweeted though.”
And as for his players using social media, he knows he can trust them.
“We have a lot of seasoned pros on our team. Typically a week or ten days out from a game, Twitter activity would drop.”
Horan and Mayo are getting set for another stab at an All-Ireland title having fallen at the final hurdle in the past two years.
Having got their campaign under way with a facile win over New York last month, Horan is slightly concerned that they may not have put in as much work as he’d have liked ahead of their clash with Roscommon tomorrow.
“We have done a bit of work, probably not as much as we planned.
“It was an unusual one because we didn’t train the week we came back because of flights and travel and everything that goes with that so that it is pretty much a week gone.
“Then we had club championships so over the last four weeks, we only had two weeks.
“That is what we agreed with the county board. So probably not as much work as we would like but anything we have done has been high quality so we are hopeful with where we are.”
As for tomorrow’s opponents, the Mayo boss knows not to underrate the Rossies but admits there is a difference in class between divisions one and three.
“There is no doubt that there is a big gulf between division one and division three. There is.
“Division one, this year was played at a championship pace. Certainly, the first three games, I have never seen anything like it in the National League.
“So there is only a number of teams that can play at that tempo on a consistent basis so being exposed to that is a huge plus.
“But look, Roscommon have come through division three and won it well. They have a bit of momentum from their U21s. It didn’t go so well in the final for them but I am sure they will try and use that momentum to drive them on.”
