Aidan O'Shea excited by changing times

By John Harrington

When he returned for a 17^th season with Mayo this year Aidan O’Shea couldn’t help but notice the dressing-room felt a little bit different.

Two of his closest friends, Cillian O’Connor and Rob Hennelly, are no longer part of the group which served a sharp enough reminder that he’s now very much the veteran of the panel.

That brings its own challenges in terms of forging relationships with the sea of fresh faces in the group, but it’s one he has enjoyed.

“Definitely, it's a very different dynamic,” says O’Shea. “I was obviously back prior to Christmas with the boys, but I was gone away on honeymoon then.

“So then coming back and obviously no Rob, no Cillian, two good mates on and off the pitch, it’s quite strange that they're not there. So, yeah, I think it's just kind of adjusting to that environment, there's a newer, younger group.

“I think it's exciting in a way, though. I think you are kind of hanging around with lads that born in 2004, 2005 which is a bit mad. But yeah, it's definitely an adjustment and trying to kind of find your spot in the dressing room as well and kind of understand your role.

“And in other ways, kind of how to communicate with lads that maybe, when you've soldiered with lads you can probably be a little bit more raw with them in terms of the ask and them back to you, then trying to understand players as well and how we build those relationships.

“I think that’s important as well. It's been very positive in terms of that but definitely something of a shock to the system when you go back and the boys aren't there.”

A county star of a similar vintage to O’Shea, Cork hurler Patrick Horgan, said recently it won’t be the end of the world if he doesn’t win an All-Ireland Final because that’s not his chief motivation for playing with Cork.

How about O’Shea? Is he ambition to lift the Sam Maguire a significant source for the fuel that still drives him or is it as much about the journey as the destination?

“I've seen a couple of things from Hoggy over the last 12 months, especially with Cork being in the finals and stuff,” says O’Shea.

“But, yeah, It absolutely motivates me. I also think there has to be a little bit more to it, and I think he said this as well, there has to be a little bit more to why you're doing it than just ultimate, ultimate prize.

“It's definitely something that you still have ambitions to do. For me, I'm obviously playing for a long time, I think I still have a lot to offer to the group.

“I think Mayo are in a good trajectory and I'm going to try and be a part of that for as long as I can and try and help that.

“I think they're on their way to achieving good things over the next couple of years so for me, I enjoy it, enjoy the environment, and I feel I have something to offer. So I think that's kind of why I'm still there and why I love doing what I'm doing.”

Now in his 17th season with Mayo, O'Shea has had to learn a few new tricks with the implementation of the FRC rule enhancments. What has been his overall opinion of the impact they've had on the game?

"I think there's an appreciation out there that something probably had to change a little bit in terms of the game," he says. "Definitely there's been a positive change to the game. From a spectator perspective, the games are much more easy on the eye to watch.

"I think it brings back some of the old traditions of the game in terms of the kick-out, some contests and the three-up rule obviously gives you that opportunity - not that all teams are taking it - to kick the ball a little bit more.

"There have been different criticisms and there's probably a bit of fatigue around talking about them. I think probably the criticism around it was teams just wanted the rules set in stone so we could go and trash them out and play away.

"But I think that's the key thing that happened after round five. We were all waiting for that time to just kind of go, 'Right, these are the rules for 2025 and let's go after it'. I think players and teams and managers are quite adaptable.

"Once we knew the rules, we were going to adapt to them pretty quickly anyway. As a spectacle, it's garnered a bit of interest. I think people are kind of watching games a bit more and going to them.

"Obviously seeing big swings and turn-arounds in games, that adds a bit more jeopardy because in previous years you might have a team go five or six points up and they can just sit in and they control the game.

"Now that really can't happen as much. I think the other thing that's happened with the rules is momentum. That's a massive part of the game now and it's based around the kick-out. So you go 11-v-11, you kick a wide or a point or whatever it is, it's still very difficult for teams to get out.

"You have to either win a contested ball or win a breaking ball and then your pressure release valve is getting into the other half. So it's definitely added a bit more jeopardy to the game. But momentum is key to the game for teams now and I think that's something we'll see throughout the summer."

O'Shea has been playing for a long time for Mayo but some things don’t change.

No team seems to stir the emotions of their supporters as much as Mayo do, and the difference between optimism and pessimism often seems to be just one result.

There was plenty of the latter in the county when they lost their first two League games of the campaign, but now hope springs eternal again thanks to qualification for Sunday’s Allianz Football League Division 1 Final against Kerry.

What’s it like as a player to play for a team whose results can so dramatically affect the mood of a whole county?

"It's got pluses and minuses,” says O’Shea. “Obviously when things are going well, people are in great form and all that good stuff. But yeah, look, it's a challenge.

“I think for me, I'm experienced in terms of how to deal with that. For younger lads, they've seen the highs and lows throughout this league campaign and maybe walking down the street they're probably getting a lot more chatter out of people in the last few weeks than they were earlier in the season.

“If you flip it on the head, it's obviously a huge positive. We'll have a big crowd of Mayo people in Croke Park this weekend and they have done all throughout the league. Mayo people are mad into their football.

“We can be a bit reactionary at times to different things that happen as a supporter group, but I think they'll be quite happy with where we're at in terms of the last few weeks and the improvement in the squad. It's got pluses and minuses but I think the pluses definitely outweigh the minuses, for sure.

“It's funny, like I don’t think younger lads are as aware of maybe the stuff that goes on outside as maybe us older lads. That's kind of a breath of fresh air as well.

“Our league has been quite good to us. We've unearthed a couple of players and ended up in a Division 1 final, which gives us a chance to win a national medal, which are hard come by. Probably for the first 10 years of my career I didn't win any national title and then I've won two in the last couple of years so this is a great opportunity to go and grab another one.”

One of the young guns that has really caught the eye so far this year for Mayo is O’Shea’s Breaffy club-mate, Davitt Neary, who has scored 1-7 from play so far in the League and looks like a player who can add something different to the Mayo attack.

“He's a great fella,” says O’Shea of his team-maet. “He was a kickboxer back in the years and a soccer player. But yeah, to be honest, I've seen him, I was involved with the Breaffy U-14s, that would have been eight or nine years ago. And I would have known him as a young kid as well. And the second I saw him at under 14, I said, 'yeah, we've got a player here'.

“Look, 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. But yeah, very proud of him and delighted to see another two Breaffy lads now in the squad, on top of myself and Mattie. John (Vahey) is in there as a keeper as well. So it's great to see a couple of boys coming through from the club as well. And Davitt's a really good kid.”

The fact that Kerry are Mayo’s opponents in Sunday’s Allianz Football League Division 1 Final will make the occasion that bit more special for O’Shea because of his strong family connections to the Kingdom.

“Yeah, obviously my mum and dad are from Kerry, so would have grown up really watching a lot of Kerry,” he says.

“Liam Hassell would have been Dad's neighbour and would have travelled around the country watching them with dad and then obviously 04, 06. So yeah, it's...obviously the Kerry-Mayo thing has always been strong in our house.

“And then obviously me marrying a Kerry woman added to that a little bit as well. Since me, Seamie and Conor started playing with Mayo, it's always been a funny one when we play against each other. But it's always enjoyable, it pulls the family together.

“We don't get down to Kerry too often but they always come out for those games and watch. So it brings the family together, which is a nice kind of thing to have for us as a family.”