Michael Darragh Macauley says there's no reason as to why he can't perform his best in today's All-Ireland club SFC final against Castlebar Mitchel's.

Ballyboden St Enda's head into the Croke Park showdown as 11/4 underdogs and will no doubt be looking to their experienced midfielder to try and defy those odds against the Mayo men.

Speaking with the Irish Examiner, Macauley says today's showdown at HQ is one he has been building towards for some time and he intends to give it his all once the ball's thrown in.

"I'm very smart with how I manage my workload," he stated. "I don't just run up mountains every morning for the craic and take photos and put them on Instragram!

"I'm smart about the way I train and the way I strength-train and how I do my cardio training and how my flexibility and movement stuff and I do a balance.

"So I'd be smart about that and I have absolutely no excuse in the wide world as to why I don't perform with my very best on Paddy's Day."

As for the opposition, Macauley admits that there's a bit of an unknown quantity about Castlebar for him compared to his past battles for Dublin against Mayo down the years.

"When we go out and play Mayo, every one of the Dublin players will know everything about all the Mayo players," he said.

"And, likewise, every Mayo player will know everything about every Dublin player. But when we go out here, it's not saying - we won't do our homework we will do our homework and they will likewise.

"But there's a big sense of the unknown as well- a big sense of let's just go out and play football, which is going to make for better football.

"There's less cat and mouse stuff, and more football being played."

Tweet

Most Read Stories