One of the more divisive players in the game.
Aidan O’Shea is a good footballer, he can make things happen and is a little bit of a freak of nature.
The Breaffy man can do it all, he’s a demon under a high ball, can shoot and is fast too.
Yesterday was another heartbreaking day for O’Shea, he lost yet another final.
But it has been a good year for the 27-year-old, despite all the critics he has performed at an extremely high level and will probably pick up an All-Star later on in the year.
He was included in the Sunday Game’s team of the year too but not everyone was in agreement.
On the highlight show on Sunday night, Joe Brolly wasn’t having any of it.
“He didn’t have a big final, James McCarthy was allowed run free at crucial times in the second half of the game,” Brolly proclaimed.
“James McCarthy was the dominant midfielder,” Brolly said of the midfield battle between McCarthy and O’Shea.
McCarthy was man of the match and scored two points in the process and that was Brolly’s basis on judging the battle, “the proof is in the scoreboard,” the Derryman said of O’Shea and McCarthy.
“Aidan O’Shea also took a lash of a kick on the right wing, he was good in the qualifiers.”
O’Shea has been at the heart of Mayo’s run to the final, Brolly is right though he was good in the qualifiers and without him they may have been a lost cause.
If it wasn’t for O’Shea Mayo could well have been out of the competition at the hands of Derry, he laid down a marker against Roscommon in their replay and has just been magnificent the whole year.
As Colm Cooper said of O’Shea, “When they needed leaders he did stand up” and O’Shea did that for the whole year, he had bad games for sure but to exclude him from team of the year would be unforgivable.
