‘No obsession over history’: Jack Carney says no ghosts on the Mayo bus to Croke Park

Whatever chance Jack Carney might have had of avoiding questions about history and all that associated baggage probably evaporated when he sat down at a table in MacHale Park in Castlebar to discuss the All-Ireland final against Kerry, positioned underneath an array of pictures of glorious Mayo teams of the past.As if that weren’t enough, the closest pictures featured Mayo teams of the 1930s, most of them featuring the player’s namesake, Jackie Carney, winner of seven National Leagues, five Connacht titles and one All-Ireland around that time. The midfielder acknowledged the county’s tradition and culture, but denied there would be any poltergeists travelling to Croke Park on the team bus, saying that past defeats weren’t an issue and didn’t bother him or his peers of the same vintage because it wasn’t part of their experience. It’s a new footballing world, and one throwaway line illustrated that better than anything else. READ MORE“Losses are a bit more normal now,” is how he explains the team’s turnaround from a crushing Connacht semi-final defeat at home to Roscommon.[ Kerry v Mayo: TV details, throw-in time, team news for All-Ireland football final ]It’s a different perspective than what those former heroes up on the wall took into battle, but Carney freely admits that exiting the Connacht championship at that early stage opened up a different world of opportunity for this Mayo group. “The fact we now had five consecutive weeks together to really spend a lot of time in each other’s company and really understand one another allowed us to find the right mix of team we needed,” he says.Jack Carney: 'I didn’t become a two-point shooter overnight. I got there probably through repetition.' Photograph: James Crombie/INPHO He explains manager Andy Moran shared his players generously, his squad depleted during the third-level Sigerson Cup competition and the county’s under-20 endeavours. “We were missing a lot of the lads, a lot of the time ... so we didn’t train fully as a squad with everyone together until that five-week bloc.“Within the game, momentum is huge, but also in a winning streak it’s huge. We were adamant that we had to shake off that momentum when we were against it, but now that it’s with us we’re really enjoying it and trying to lean into things as much as we can.”[ Jack O’Connor: ‘Kobe McDonald is the nearest we’ve seen to David Clifford’ ]Part of the group’s identity this year has been to embrace the two-point shot, and with 53 orange flags across 14 competitive games, Mayo are exceeding the national average (2.52 two-pointers per team per game) by a considerable margin. Carney’s seven doubles from open play puts him top of the charts in that regard – Jordan Flynn has six and Ryan O’Donoghue four from play and five from frees – and the same attitude of not being deterred by a setback has been critical to that aspect of his play in 2026. “I didn’t become a two-point shooter overnight. I got there probably through repetition. A big thing for me is the trust from team-mates and from management that I have earned the right to take them,” he says. “There’s been countless occasions throughout this year I have missed the first one and missed the first two, but I know I’m entrusted and I’ve have earned the right to go after the next one.”Mayo's Jack Carney, right, and Dara McDonnell of Louth in the semi-final. Photograph: Laszlo Geczo/INPHO And will the pressure of Sunday change anything in that regard? “I suppose family and supporters would say, ‘You could be on the wall of somebody’s house or whatever’, but players don’t really think about that sort of thing when they’re in it and you really don’t because you are so busy with trying to think about what can I do to get better?“There’s a lot of history. This is an incredibly historic room with all the pictures of teams around us at the moment, but I suppose that is something for me to reflect on when I am retired. I don’t like getting caught up in thinking about how seriously some people take what I am doing, because we’re fairly chilled out.”“Even now, it’s about how better can we get. So when you are almost brainwashed into that process mindset it takes you away from that outcome and thinking about that. We’re really enjoying doing it that way and there is no obsession over history.”Not from the players anyway, whatever about the unimaginative reporters gathered around them.