Mayo's best player and Footballer of the Year nominee, Lee Keegan says the team are facing into a winter of soul searching following their latest agonising defeat.
He left a message via twitter which began "sadness and regret fill me."
These kind of post All-Ireland defeat messages are usually defiant and rousing in tone but Keegan acknowledges that it will be a tough couple of months for Mayo.
Keegan's tweet contains little of the "America got Osama Bin Laden..." bullishness of Johnno O'Malley from Castlebar from three years ago. Hopefully, he won't remain deflated for too long.
His county's resilience is really being tested this winter.
A small message to all @MayoGAApic.twitter.com/DbvzJzm4My
— Lee Keegan (@leeroykeegan) October 6, 2016
Keegan-talk dominated the interval between the All-Ireland final and the replay with a parade of ex-Dublin players lining up to argue that Keegan's marking Diarmuid Connolly was more than a little touch tight. In the replay, he rocketed an early goal but thereafter spent most of the match on the line after a questionable black card.
