NG OF SILVERWARE
In terms of the youthful age of the team, the captain joked that there are a few who are a ‘little bit more’ than 18.
“Look, I suppose for the older lads probably it should not really affect us too much. We have been around a long time.
“There are a good few lads who are just in their teens or whatever so we just need to see how they are going on the day, if they are nervous or anxious about the game then just try and have a chat with them and keeps the head level,” the captain said.
Going back to the start of Easkey’s year, Mullen admitted they never really dreamt of being in the final in Croke Park.
“To be honest I wouldn’t have thought that at all. Trying to focus on just winning the Junior championship in Sligo and try and get up to Intermediate, that was the focus like. But I suppose once we got through that then you are looking ahead and look we got a couple of great wins and we are where we are now,” Mullen added.
The captain said he doesn’t think despite the great performances along the way to Croke Park that Easkey have yet shown their very best and there is more in the tank he believes.
“We haven’t really put in a complete performance yet.
“We have been playing well at times and then at other times we have kind of fallen away a bit and had to ride our luck a bit a few times so hopefully on Saturday we can get in a more complete performance as of yet we haven’t really done that. I suppose you could be going a long time before you get a complete performance in football match you know. Every team is going to have spells and we know that the other team we are going playing the next day are a serious outfit so we could be under the cosh for long periods but try and keep in with them and not let them get too far ahead and you know we always have a chance,” Mullen admitted.
His father was captain of Easkey the last time the club won the Senior championship in 1966 so GAA clearly runs in the Mullen household. “That team got to 3 county finals in a row and Dad was a club legend I suppose. People would tell me about him and I never seen him playing but everyone talks about what a great footballer he was.
“He doesn’t talk about the teams he played on too much he would be a reserved man when it comes to that but he loves to get to the games as well and always supportive of what we are doing,” he explained.
The Easkey captain paid immense tribute to the club’s fans who have been with them every step of this remarkable journey so far.
“The fans now have been unreal all year since Dessie got a good buzz going you know.
“Once we got the couple of relegations or whatever things were at a low ebb but we got back all our players that had probably been pulled away for awhile and got training and got a good buzz going and now the last day the fans were amazing out there.
“I saw people there at games that I have not seen in years. It is kind of hard to comprehend at the minute you try and focus on the game or whatever but all the people that came to games, made their way home from wherever they were foreign and everything to see the game it is amazing,” he added.