Whatever problems Mayo have at the minute, they don’t need to worry too much about them.
You see, the thing is, they have Aidan O’Shea.
And this isn’t just your ordinary, run-of-the-mill Aidan O’Shea.
This is Aidan O’Shea: the one who lives up to the name, the stature and the ability.
This is Aidan O’Shea: the one we’ve heard stories about and the one we’ll hear myths of one day.
This is Aidan O’Shea at his very frightening best, playing at a level where he almost looks possessed, so completely and utterly honed in on every movement of a football and giving himself so wholly to the winning and losing of not just a game, but every single battle within that game.
There was a moment against Derry when the big Breaffy man capped off a simply wonderful performance with a right-footed point that sent his county on their way in extra time. He gave a little nod to the skies, some say as a tribute to his club mate David Gavin who’s missing in Canada.
Whatever emotion O’Shea must be feeling right now, it’s almost as if he’s channelled all that energy to release it in the best possible way on the football pitch and, through that, he’s doing his friend, his club and his county an inspirational service.
It’s powerful to watch, captivating nearly.
He’s allowed himself to get lost completely in the game and by Jesus he is thriving because of it.
Early on in Ennis, Gary Brennan was threatening to run riot. The Clare midfielder was like a steam train, unstoppable and direct, and Mayo were really struggling.
When that was coupled with the similar inefficiency up front that saw them almost shoot themselves out of it against Derry, you had a frantic game in front of a boisterous home crowd threatening to get away from them.
But, listen, Mayo have Aidan O’Shea.
And this boy isn’t just dominating duels with the sort of conviction that would nearly have you believing that he might never lose a throw-in ever again, he’s lording the skies and the grounds beneath them with indiscriminate authority. He’s swatting away challengers as if they were only pests on his mammoth shoulders and, on Saturday night, he grabbed a stranglehold of that midfield battle and that game and suffocated the life out of the Banner men until they coughed up possession or just learned enough manners to not have the audacity to go looking for it again.
When O’Shea came charging forward, it was bloody chaos.
He’d clatter into poor souls, wriggle these boys from his body and keep Mayo pointing squarely and fearlessly towards the posts time and time again. The only thing Clare could do was foul him but even then they sometimes failed.
If the steam train was Brennan and the added running power of Malone and McMahon in the first half, O’Shea lifted the damn tracks and rerouted them himself so the only traffic was pumping one way towards the opposition’s jugular.
Mayo might be struggling with their accuracy right now and even their composure and nerves.
There might well be worrying signs that teams like Derry and Clare are simply sauntering through their back line at will and opening them up.
But whatever is going on at this present time, they have Aidan O’Shea like they haven’t had him before. He’s at the very peak of his powers and he’s leading from the front with performances of pure heart, of old-fashioned skill and raw, brute strength.
He might bemoan his luck that he’s flying at a time when the rest of his team have seemingly taken a step backwards but they’re in Round 4 now against either Roscommon or Cork and, having played virtually nothing so far, he’s dragged them there because he’s sickened the forwards with enough ball that something has eventually stuck.
That’s what the best warriors do – they get you there, by hook or by crook.
That’s what Aidan O’Shea is doing and that’s why Mayo needn’t worry right now. They have their problems – they have plenty of them – but they have this monster in breathtaking form.
The rest of them will catch up.
God, at this rate, he’ll damn well make them catch up. And who would dare ignore him?
