Mayo's Cillian O'Connor is already looking forward to the 2015 season.
The winter break provides a perfect opportunity for intercounty players to recharge their batteries, but the 2011 / 2012 Young Footballer of the Year, whose club championship season only ended nine days ago, is chomping at the bit to get back out on the pitch:
"It's strange, you think you need eight weeks off but after two or three you're actually itching to go again," the Ballintubber clubman is quoted in The Irish Independent.
"The fact is the average age of the squad is quite low. I don't think there'll be any retirements. I still think the hunger and the enthusiasm is there, but we'll see how we react."
O'Connor is looking forward to working with new co-managers Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes, who have succeeded James Horan at the Connacht champions' helm:
"James and his team set the standards for us in the last few years and they are very high. The players have to take responsibility now and help to drive the thing on.
"Pat and Noel have worked with the majority of the squad. I think Andy [Moran] and myself are the only two who they didn't manage when we were U21. The boys rate them very highly. They were very successful and won four Connacht U21s and the 2006 All-Ireland. So they have a massive pedigree."
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