I was driving across the country this evening so I saved the Mayo Football Podcast interview with Lee Keegan for the journey. Lee was extremely generous with his time, chatting with Mike for over an hour and the pod makes for compelling listening.

What’s immediately apparent is that Lee is content with his decision to call time on his Mayo career. He said that he’d as good as made his mind up after the All-Ireland quarter-final against Kerry last June but that other things, notably Westport’s march to Moclair Cup success, got in the way of thinking the whole thing through properly.

When he finally did, though, he knew that his gut instinct from June was right and that it was time to go. He was, he said, glad that he was able to depart on his own accord, as this extract from the pod confirms:

Hear our full exclusive interview with Lee Keegan at: https://t.co/wDomAR1NSc #mayogaa #GAA pic.twitter.com/1fcq8iQNZs

— Mayo Football Podcast (@MayoPodcast) January 13, 2023

It’s also obvious that Lee is happy with the contribution he made during his time in the Green and Red. He speaks with satisfaction about the “body of work” he did during his years as a Mayo player and reveals how, when he first broke through to the squad, he was determined to lead the charge in raising standards. He was, he said, gratified to find out quickly enough that he wasn’t the only one in the group with this mindset.

In a wide-ranging interview, Lee looks back on the big days he enjoyed with Mayo since breaking through at inter-county level in 2011, picking out some special moments as well as talking about the toughest opponents he faced down the years. He reveals why he has no regrets about his time with Mayo, a period which he says he enjoyed to the full.

The GPS incident at the end of the 2017 final gets a mention and Mike even manages to persuade Lee to name his favourite tipple.

The full interview with Lee is available exclusively to Mayo Football Podcast club members on Patreon. We’re delighted that Lee chose to speak with the podcast first, at a time when every media outlet in the country would have loved to get this exclusive, and we’re equally delighted to be able to bring this content to our loyal and growing band of club members.

Last year, club members got access to just under a hundred bonus podcast episodes on Patreon, with over forty more episodes made available free of charge on all other podcast platforms. Already this year, we’ve released four new podcast episodes and, with the football set to resume shortly, club members can look forward to another year of unrivalled Mayo GAA audio content from us.

If you’re interested in joining the club and getting access to all this great content all year round, including the Lee Keegan interview, you can do so here. Our best value option is annual membership, which is available at a 10% discount off the standard monthly rate, and so costing just €54 plus VAT for a full year’s listening.