At the end of another fruitless year for the Mayo senior footballers, Pearce Hanley has a little bit of hope to offer their supporters for the future. It won't be next year, or probably the one after that but at some point - if he wins an AFL Premiership - he wants to come home and attempt to win an All-Ireland with Mayo.
Last year, Hanley was ranked as the 37th best player in the AFL.
The 27-year-old was speaking to The Courier-Mail's Andrew Hamilton following his recent move from Brisbane Lions to the Gold Coast Suns.
I have a keen interest in how Mayo are going and I always get asked every year to come back and play for just one year and as good as that sounds and as good as Tadhg Kennelly’s fairytale was, I don’t think it could be as easily done as that. He had already won his premiership. I would like to win one of them before I go try to win one with Mayo.
But yes, it was devastating this year, they got to another final and had another loss. They just can’t get over that final hurdle and it is hard to watch.
Hanley had been with the Lions since 2007 when he joined the club as a 19-year-old. Despite nine years Down Under, the Ballaghaderreen man eschewed any suggestions that he is now 'part Australian'.
Not at all. Probably when I talk to my family they say I sound Australian, but talking to any Aussies and they say my accent is still as strong as ever. I definitely don’t think I’m becoming Australian, I still burn every time I go out in the sun, I’m still not down with the lingo, I don’t talk like an Australians just yet.
To further give credibility to this claim, Hanley said that he will not be taking up surfing.
I don’t like sharks. They are telling me they are not down here but there would be definitely some floating around. I will be just going waste-deep and only for recovery.’ I won’t be surfing.
Prior to his trade from the Lions to the Suns, Brisbane list manager Peter Schwab stated that he thought Hanley was suffering from 'losers' fatigue' and that this was a possible reason for him wanting to move on. Hanley says that this was disappointing to hear from his old club.
To hear that in the media was extremely disappointing, especially when I hadn’t received any contact from the club. I think that was more a guess from them [Brisbane] as to why I was going. I had my reasons and it had nothing to do with losers fatigue at all.
Picture credit: Ray McManus / SPORTSFILE
