O'SHEA KNEW NEARY WAS A COUNTY MAN

AIDAN O'Shea always expected Breaffy club mate Davitt Neary would make a comfortable transition to inter-county football.

- KARL O'KANE

Neary has been a big find for Kevin McStay this spring, with his all action displays at wing forward catching the eye as Mayo attempt to unearth new talent and develop a bigger squad.

A lovely dinked finish to the net against Armagh and three points against Galway showed Neary has quality to go with the graft and aggression required at this level.

"He's a great fella," said O'Shea (34).

"He was a kickboxer back in the years and a soccer player.

"I was involved with the Breaffy under-14s. That would have been eight or nine years ago.

"The second I saw him at under-14, I said, 'Yeah, we've got a player here.'

"Anybody who's talked to me about Davitt over the last couple of years, I thought this was possible and that he would transition into a county footballer pretty comfortably.

"Huge pace. Great attitude and there's a bit of edge to him as well.

"He's done really well. I'm delighted for him and hopefully that continues.

"He's a young kid so he's learning his trade. Very proud of him and delighted to see another two Breaffy lads in the squad, on top of myself and Mattie (Ruane).