Having suffered heartbreak in the 2007 60x30 season, Mayo’s Dessie Keegan and Joe McCann seek compensation when they take on Wexford pair Cormac Smyth and Gavin Buggy in the M Donnelly All-Ireland semi-final at Garryhill, Co Carlow on Thursday.
McCann suffered a collapsed lung in the week prior to last year’s final and was forced out of the Croke Park showdown. Now the pair are out to make amends for what might have been but first they must take on a strong Wexford outfit.
'Last year was tough to take but we're back in a semi-final now and we know it’s all in our own hands,' said Keegan.
The hard-hitting backwall specialist lost in a tiebreaker to Dublin’s Eoin Kennedy is last weekend’s All-Ireland Singles semi-final but insists this lost will make him even more determined in the doubles.
'Straight after the game against Eoin was over I just said to myself, we’re going to take the doubles and walked out of the court,' said the 26-year-old.
Had Keegan made it to the singles final, he would have been forced into a very difficult scenario. The 6'1 powerhouse is the current full-back on the Ballaghaderreen senior football team and following a draw in the Mayo and Kerry Minor All-Ireland semi-final last weekend, club championship games in the county have been deferred by a week and will now take place on the same day as the All-Ireland Singles Handball final.
'The decision would not have been a hard one, as handball has always come first but it would have been interesting to see what the Mayo County Board would have done if the situation had arisen.
'Really, I shouldn’t have had to make a decision as handball is under the GAA and I would have been representing the county in an All-Ireland final, but I suppose it’s better that I didn’t have to face that situation,' he said.
McCann is also the current centre-back with Ballaghaderreen and Keegan is happy that the pair know each other’s handball inside out, having spent so much time training in recent months.
'We train about six or seven nights a week together between football and handball so we know what each other are thinking and that’s very important in the court.'
Smyth and Buggy will be a difficult opposition but having beaten the Wexford men in the Leinster Open earlier this year, and more determined than ever before, a Mayo victory looks on the cards.
'We’re expecting a good battle with the lads, but we're also expecting to win,' said Keegan.
Action gets underway at 7.30pm in Garryhill.
