Darran O’Sullivan admits he ‘regrets not buying into sports psychology’ when he was playing

"I genuinely feel that it cost us a lot of All-Irelands after."

Sports psychology certainly isn't a new thing, but its importance in GAA circles is becoming increasingly significant as more teams and players buy into it. Most famously, Dublin's era of dominance credits a lot of their successes to the mentality that the players had, and their ability to always stick to the process, never getting too emotional or impulsive. However, there has always been skepticism around this particular trade, and when some managers have tried to bringing such professionals in, a lot of groups just wouldn't take to it. Speaking on the GAA Hour, former Kerry captain Darran O'Sullivan chatted to Mayo legend, Keith Higgins, about how psychology was viewed in their early years, compared to how it is now. "I mentioned the sports psychologist Keith, and I’m not sure - it’s only since I’ve retired that I started thinking more about that side of the game with Kerry, and we never used one. 

"I remember Jack O’Connor back in my first few years, ‘06 or ‘07, whatever it was, he brought one in and your man was laughed out the door. We didn’t really buy into it and I genuinely feel that it cost us a lot of All-Irelands after."

Higgins shared O'Sullivan's initial concerns when Mayo were introduced to this process. "We would have used a few down through the years. Again, I would have been similar to you in the fact that I think most teams in the early years were nearly, not dismissive of them, but nearly wary of them. "There was no trust, I think there was plenty of them out there who always went through the same sort of exercises, to try and build that trust and that probably didn’t help either. "I know when James Horan came in in 2011, he brought in Kieran Shannon with him. He wouldn’t be known as a sports psychologist you know, he was probably better known as a journalist for the Examiner, but he did a lot of work with us on the kind of confidence side of things. https://twitter.com/TheGAAHour/status/1523671363310944256