07-05-2025
Owen Mulligan teases Lee Keegan over hilarious contrast in how their inter-county GAA careers ended
OWEN Mulligan's Tyrone career may have ended sooner than he'd have liked but he is able to laugh about it nowadays.
In his early twenties he provided an exuberant presence in Tyrone's forward line that blended excellently with veteran peers Peter Canavan and Brian Dooher.
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Mugsy is one half of talkSPORT Ireland's new podcast Beyond The 45'
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Mayo great Lee Keegan is the other co-host along with talkSPORT Ireland editor Luke Delaney who will chair each discussion
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New episodes will drop every second Wednesday from here on out
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But for all of his ability, he didn't end up soldiering as long in the red and white as either of those two legends.
Instead his time with the Red Hand came to a fairly abrupt end at the age of 32.
After the conclusion of the 2013 inter-county season he had wanted to take a longer break before going again.
That put him on a collision course
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But all these years later, the three-time All-Ireland winner is able to see the funny side of how the curtain came down on his inter-county career rather quickly.
Discussing that adjustment period after your time at the elite level of Gaelic football comes to a close with Lee Keegan, he joked about how the Mayo legend did at least
Initially, Keegan recalled: "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tough because you're going back into daily life.
"Our week would've always been structured between the gym twice a week, training twice a week and then a match on the weekend.
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"So you were essentially being spoon-fed. You show up at this time, leave at this time."
"How do you get that feeling of chasing something really big again?
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"That was probably the hardest thing I missed for that first year or two."
Mulligan, 43, then quipped: "At least you had the chance to retire! You got to retire whereas I got the chop!
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"I found out in The Irish News. They rang me to say 'Well Owen, any chance you can give us an interview about being dropped from the panel?'
"I was like 'Are you serious?' But I was one of 12 who were given the chop.
"I had said to Mickey that I wasn't ready to come back to training until Christmas but he wanted to start straight away.
"So I said 'No I'll come back after Christmas' which he didn't take too well."
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The discussion during the debut episode of their new podcast Beyond The 45' - made in conjunction with talkSPORT Ireland.
Among the other topics dealt with include how the Westport clubman partly owed his hands-on marking style from his rugby background and how James Horan instituted a culture change in the Mayo camp.
Additionally, Mulligan reflects on how the Tyrone-Armagh rivalry was akin to Scottish football's Old Firm in terms of intensity around the early 2000s when they were both vying for Sam Maguire.
You can listen to the opening episode on
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