TODAY IS MY birthday. I am 32 years old and can safely say now that I will never play inter-county anything.
Truthfully, I was not much of a contender anyway, always more comfortable as a spectator. But if my lack of talent could have been overcome, worked on, or compensated for somehow, age only ever rolls in one direction.
To be absolutely clear, I never had a chance. Definitively. There is no sense in mourning any lost sporting potential as my time elapses. I enjoy spectating. When one suddenly finds one’s self firmly into their 30s, however, the change in what you see is more starkly felt than the gradual erosion of your youth.
I am older than most inter-county players now. I now always will be.
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I wonder if Aidan O’Shea is concerned with the passage of time.
For a few more months at least, we are 32-year-olds together. Between his longevity and the hardened grief of Mayo’s disappointments that he occasionally wears in plain view, I assumed he was older.
O’Shea had established himself as an inter-county footballer before the likes of Lee Keegan or Colm Boyle made their mark for Mayo. And he remains after both have retired with nine All-Stars between them and legacies that seem increasingly detached from Mayo’s inability to win even the one All-Ireland in their time. Great players for a team that could not overcome the greatest team (or Donegal and Tyrone), they will be remembered more fondly for their individual brilliance than anything else.
Aidan O’Shea has three All-Stars of his own, but it is difficult to foresee a time where he will be granted the same sense of detachment. Rightly or wrongly, he embodies what Keith Duggan identified as Mayo’s apparent destiny “to be the county that almost always nearly wins,” the focal point for abuse when resurgent hope is soured again.
Was Joe Brolly the first to realise that targeting O’Shea – a big, strong, unmistakable man in the middle of things – engaged the greatest audience of supporters and detractors in equal measure, or just the most withering in his contempt?
He has labelled O’Shea everything from a shrunken pea to a wayward goat in his weekly column. God knows what he says in private. Following Mayo’s defeat to Dublin in the 2020 All-Ireland final, Brolly bluntly described O’Shea as an inter-county footballer lacking in seriousness who could not to be relied upon, albeit a “lovely, personable lad”. “Time wasters,” was how Brolly described Mayo broadly when he needed to up the ante in his description of the 2021 All-Ireland, their captain O’Shea regarded as undroppable and a hindrance.
Such incendiary comments are Brolly’s bread and butter, and to deal with them head on is often to miss his reasoning for writing them. Nevertheless, they are read in a multitude of ways and it is impossible to believe that they can have had absolutely no impact on their frequent target.
I wonder if Aidan O’Shea is concerned that he’s been wasting his time.
*****
Born around 9 months before me, as O’Shea grew up in Mayo, I was growing up in Sligo. With eight Connacht titles to his name (more than twice what Sligo have ever managed to win), O’Shea has been an unavoidable presence in our provincial championship. Indeed, the last time Sligo had a chance to win a fourth title, it was O’Shea’s Mayo (scoring 3-4, they were definitely O’Shea’s Mayo that day) that showed them absolutely no mercy in Dr Hyde Park.
He was only after turning 25 then, full of promise. I was still 24, watching snippets of the game on the bar television of the hotel where I worked. On what remains the biggest stage for Sligo football, I saw players, some of whom I was familiar with personally from underage level, being dominated. He was quicker, stronger and so visibly aware of it that to celebrate scores after a certain point became an unnecessary waste of his energy.
Here he was, this colossus catching high balls and going himself or feeding them off to teammates, and no Sligo player could disturb him. There is something remarkable about watching those players you were once inferior to being roundly demolished by a greater force again. It gives you cause to question what greatness really looks like.
Irrespective of O’Shea’s achievements in the game, every natural ounce of his size and ability make him an altogether incredible Gaelic footballer. How his effectiveness has been applied or managed at times is something else. Fundamentally, his gifts were so well suited to Gaelic football that it is no surprise he has kept at it so long.
Ahead of O’Shea’s first All-Ireland final in 2012, an RTÉ article documented his background: his Kerry roots, his two talented brothers Seamus and Conor, and the fact that he had played club minor football as a 13-year-old. A final against Donegal that Mayo had good cause to feel that they would win, the article was auspiciously titled, “Aidan O’Shea: Man of Destiny”.
Five further beaten finals later, reading that same article now entices you to wonder what might have been for O’Shea. Neither his time with Mayo nor his determination to succeed have abated. Yet, from the vantage point of age, it is inescapable that O’Shea’s approaching the end.
*****
What will happen to him then?
As I grow comfortable with the realisation that my generation of inter-county players are fading from the scene, few departures will be as indicative of this moment’s end than O’Shea’s. In amongst all the spite and back-biting (and the glory and excitement of Mayo’s great days too, undoubtedly), O’Shea, despite Brolly’s critique of the county’s celebrity culture, has always seemed incredibly, relentlessly driven by what Mayo might achieve.
Time has shown us, of course, that O’Shea was not so much a “Man of Destiny” as a man desperately trying to create one. From the kindest or cruelest perspective, O’Shea’s time with Mayo has been devastating when they most desperately wanted to succeed. To what extent one All-Ireland win this late in the day might serve to lessen that devastation’s ill-effects is unclear, but things have started quite nicely this year for Mayo under new manager Kevin McStay. And while assumptions were made that O’Shea was finished at this level, he has found ways to remain a force in this latest venture toward the summit.
But as I sit here at 32, contemplating my own crossroads and ambitions in life, I wonder what he is going to do when it’s all over.
I never had what it takes to be a sportsperson of his calibre or anything like it, and while it may have appealed to me when we were both 17-year-olds and he was on his way, it seems a lot less attractive at 32.
Fifteen years driven by a singular ambition to win the All-Ireland and falling short. Having my effort, ability and determination called out in the country’s media, if nothing else goes to plan before we’re both 33 in 12 months’ time, I hope Aidan O’Shea gets what he’s looking for.
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