By John Harrington

Aidan O’Shea says he is ‘delighted’ to have been named captain of the Ireland International Rules team that will travel to Australia next month.

The Mayo man has been involved in three previous Ireland squads and has consistently been one of the country’s most effective players in the hybrid code.

“I was a little bit caught by surprise,” said O’Shea today. “I'd just asked work whether I could have the time off and then 10 minutes later Joe rang to say he was going to name me as captain.

“Obviously delighted to be asked and then I saw in the paper last week the list of players who have captained their country. Delighted to be asked and it's a huge honour.

“I've always wanted to play it as a young fella growing up and once I got the opportunity to do so anybody that asked me I'd definitely try give it a go.

“I've been lucky to play in a couple of series over the last couple of years so it's something I've always wanted to play in and I'm delighted to do so again this year.”

O’Shea’s combination of size and skill makes him a natural fit for International Rules, and he relishes the opportunity it gives to showcase skills like fielding and kick-passing.

“For me I think it rewards some of the basic skills of the game,” said O’Shea. “If you're accurate with your skills from a kick-pass point of view you're guaranteed free possession nobody can tackle you when you take that mark.

“High catching, kick-outs are out over the 45, so it puts an onus on really going to challenge for the ball and if you go and win the ball, you get a reward for it.

“There's obviously the physicality part of it as well, the defined tackle and the rules are very, very clear.”

Another reason O’Shea is looking forward to this International Rules Series is because it will shorten his off-season and give him less time to brood over this year’s All-Ireland Final defeat to Dublin.

“It's obviously disappointing you go back to work and you focus on work and your attention span drifts off very easily because you're obviously hugely disappointed - it means a lot to you,” he said.

“You invest a lot of time in it and then when you come up short, it's obviously hugely disappointing. If it didn't influence your life, it wouldn't really matter. Obviously, naturally, when you go about your daily business, it floats in and out.

“Things move on very quickly, other things in life are very important too - work, club, family. Things have to move on.”

Mayo surprised many pundits by pushing Dublin right to the brink before finally losing out to an injury-time Dean Rock free, but O’Shea was confident going into the game they would be at least that competitive.

“It's not a surprise to us that we're close,” he said. “But close isn't really something that helps me through the winter months or helps any of the boys - we want to win the All-Ireland.

“We were really close this year, let it slip in the last couple of minutes; that's the way football is. We could have lost to Derry in the last minute this year, small margins win games.

"We executed really well on the day but just failed to get over the line. Dublin are a serious team side, it's going to take a serious team to beat them.

“It's just about chipping away, it doesn't give me any extra sleep over the winter months that we were close. I'd expect us to be close, we know we're a good team.”

O’Shea admits Dublin will be favourites again next year to win the All-Ireland, but he’s determined to do all he can once again to stop them in their tracks.

“In fairness Dublin have won three in-a-row now and it's the general path people think they're going to go,” he said.

“It's up to us and everybody else to try and stop that. Dublin are doing the right things they've got new players coming in coming out year in year out, you see the strength of their bench, Players of the Years, All-Stars, captains of their country or whatever.

“If someone sat down now that's what people would think, that Dublin will win the All-Ireland next year and they're favourites no doubt, but it's up to us and the rest of the teams that are knocking around to try and stop that.

“We'll be doing our best to try and do so.”