Eoghan McLaughlin has sights set on climbing greater summits for UL, Westport and Mayo

Picture the scene. Eoghan McLaughlin rampaging up the field from the Mayo half-back line.

For the player himself he could today be on a bike, perhaps competing in one of the grand tours. A different form of putting the foot to the pedal, or going up one of those punishing hills.

McLaughlin was a former All-Ireland junior cyclist. Football, in a serious way, would come later.

On the transition, he told RTÉ in 2021: "My first year in the International Junior Tour of Ireland in Ennis, I won the mountain jersey. I was delighted. I got full mountain points on the Corkscrew Hill, but I think there is a climb that's ten times worse, Castle Hill, just outside Doolin.

"I did the junior tour the following year as well. I put my eggs all in one basket and tried to get the yellow jersey, but I didn't get it. I had the polka-dot jersey for four days of the tour, but I lost it on the fifth day.

"Starting to play football, I don’t know if cycling has or it hasn’t helped me. I was a climber so my main objective was to have a big power output, but to be as light as I could to get up the hills as fast as possible.

"When I started playing football I was standing on the scales I was putting on muscle. I was thinking 'Oh gosh. What’s happening. I need to lose this’.

"It took me a while to understand that you need to put on a bit more weight for football. I wasn’t even going to get round a Junior B game at 65 kilos. I’d be nearly 84 kilos now."

After travelling up with some of the Mayo lads for the All-Ireland quarter-final against Roscommon in August 2017, McLaughlin was encouraged to give football another go. Going pro' as a cyclist was no longer an option.

He went back training with his club Westport.

"The first training session was hard. Oh my God,