Connacht's Dave Heffernan follows his Mayo GAA dream to MacHale Park but admits Ireland hopes may be over
He grew up steeped in football at Ballina Stephenites with a hero All-Ireland winner for a dad, but Dave Heffernan's sporting life went in another direction and he has enjoyed a long career with Connacht and Ireland
Dave Heffernan always dreamt of playing for Mayo's footballers in MacHale Park - doing so for Connacht Rugby will be the next best thing.
In fact, Heffernan has already played there. The hooker grew up steeped in football. He lined out for Ballina Stephenites up to minor level and got to play in the famous Castlebar ground when his team won an under-16 county championship final.
"It had always been a dream of mine to play for Mayo - and play for them in McHale Park - I never got to do that, the door closed for me there but hopefully now I can get the chance if selected," said Heffernan of Connacht's newly announced clash with Munster there in March. it'll be a special occasion for everyone involved in rugby in Mayo, but especially for the guys who have been involved in both sports."
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Among that number is a hero of his, David Brady, who lived nearby when Heffernan was growing up. His own father, Ivan - the goalkeeper in the 1974 under-21 title winning team alongside the late great John O'Mahony.
"He was always my hero growing up, he still is," said Heffernan of his dad. "And that's probably why I wanted to play for Mayo as well from a young age."
Ivan was also a back row forward with Ballina, the club of current Ireland captain Caelan Doris. When push came to shove and Heffernan - who was a centre-back or full-back as a footballer - had to pick one sport over the other, his dad had sound advice to impart.
"There was never any pressure from him in terms of which way, he just kind of said whoever forces you to make the decision, go the opposite way," he recalled.
"And it kind of did come to a fork in the road where the Gaelic side of things were saying, 'Look, we need you to make a commitment, one way or the other'.
"Obviously, with rugby, you've got a very short window from underage to academy to try and go pro. So I just went with the rugby at that stage, not knowing what would come of it."
What's come of it is a pro career of 11 years and counting for the front row forward, a club career with his home province that has amounted to 214 appearances as well as seven senior Ireland caps.
But Heffernan admits that his days as an international may be over. The 33-year-old was in excellent form coming into the November Tests, the result of deliberately playing in a freer, less pressurised way over the past year, and trying to have a better understanding of the game.
That new focus appeared to have put him in pole position to play a big role in the Autumn Series. But Rónan Kelleher and Rob Herring returned just in time from injury, and young gun Gus McCarthy - a Leinster academy player - seized the chances he was given by Andy Farrell.
"Look, obviously there's constant dialogue there," said Heffernan. "They've been pretty happy with how I've been playing but they just want to look to the future and try something new as well, that seems to be the path they're heading down.
"In terms of my own play, they seemed to be reasonably happy with it but they want to go down a different route, which is completely fair as well."
His current contract is up next summer and the Ireland situation will come into his thinking. "I'd love to finish out my career here," he confided. "The Ireland stuff - as a player, of course it does (play a part), it's something I'll think about when the time comes.
"My game has grown a lot over the past year and I just want to keep pushing on now and do everything I can possibly do."
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