HE THINKS hard, if not long, about the question, then Andy Moran dismisses any fears this latest All-Ireland final defeat might drive Mayo further away from ever winning one, at least in his lifetime.

“I believe we’re going to win more than one, to be honest,” says Moran. “If we win one, we’ll keep going. This is a great group of lads, and I wouldn’t be surprised in two weeks’ time if these lads are back training. That’s the sort of group they are.”

This is coming from the Mayo captain and 2011 All Star who missed Sunday’s final after a cruciate injury to his right knee, sustained in the quarter-final win over Down: he won’t be back playing until next April, yet couldn’t help feeling had he been playing on Sunday things just might have been different.

“It was tough, thinking, ‘Jesus, I could have done that better, or they should have done that differently’. You’re encouraging the lads, but you’re looking at things you could have helped out with. The three inside lads worked themselves into the ground, they were excellent and you always think you can offer something. If I didn’t I wouldn’t be coming back next year. I think I could have made a difference, but that’s football.”

Yet Moran is wholly optimistic about the future of Mayo football:

“The fight until the end is a thing this team has, and it gives us something to build on next year. The average age is 23, Alan Dillon is the oldest player, and he’s 28.

“This is the start of the career for a lot of lads. People were telling us Donegal were the fittest team in the country, people were telling us they were the best third quarter team in the country, but those aren’t the real stats. We lost. Did we lose to a better team over 70 minutes? We probably did. For the last 60 minutes how good a team were we? I’d say we were as good a team as they were.”