BUT FOR THE width of a post here and there, Cillian O’Connor could have been to James Horan, what Michael Murphy was to Jim McGuinness in 2012.
Horan took over Mayo during the same close season as McGuinness took charge in Donegal.
As much as Donegal were written up as being among the doldrums at the time, their ‘rock bottom’ came with a backdoor defeat to Armagh in the summer of 2010; a side who had been Ulster champions two years hence, and had just edged out Donegal for the automatic promotion place to Division One a couple of months previous.
Mayo’s fate was much more grave. Under the late John O’Mahony, the old magic just wasn’t there. They left the 2010 Connacht championship after defeat to Sligo. Not much shame in that, given how competitive they were at the time.
But their own loss in the first round of the qualifiers was harrowing. Longford had finished third from bottom in division four. The only wins they picked up were against London and Kilkenny.
And yet, that’s where Mayo found themselves, leaving the All-Ireland championship at Pearse Park.
When Horan came in, he had just delivered a first ever senior Mayo title for Ballintubber.
Horan knew enough of his clubmate Cillian O’Connor to put him straight into the Mayo senior side, fresh out of minors.
The first league game in February 2011 was a test in Castlebar against the previous year’s All-Ireland finalists, Down. At one stage they went seven points down before fighting back and snatching a draw with a late Andy Moran point. By that stage, O’Connor was on the field, having replaced Alan Freeman.
By the end of the season he had imposed himself on a number of fronts.
The first was how he tackled. For HoranBall to be successful, it couldn’t tolerate shirkers. Although O’Connor was slight and a lot more work would go into beefing up that frame, he was a desperately hard tackler. Nobody walked the ball out of the Mayo forward line with any level of grace.
Young Footballer of the Year in 2011, he backed it up and repeated that the following season. He even hit 0-7 against Dublin in the semi-final that year.
By the end of the season he was also joint eighth in the top scorers in the championship along with the likes of Sean Cavanagh, Martin Clarke, Daniel Goulding and Donie Shine.
For a decade, he was the man to hit in the forward line. While other mainstays like Kevin McLoughlin and Aidan O’Shea were tried here and there, O’Connor was the finisher.
In 2019, he surpassed Colm Cooper’s scoring record, and currently is the top scorer in championship football. His 4-9 in the 2020 All-Ireland semi-final win over Tipperary set a new record for a single game.
His career was altered somewhat with his injury in 2021 during that year’s league campaign and a play-off against Clare in his 100th appearance for the county. Wrecking his Achilles put him out for the rest of that summer.
Ryan O’Donoghue had been coming on the scene by then. O’Connor missed the 2021 All-Ireland final loss to Tyrone. During that time, O’Donoghue took over free-taking duties and became the main man in attack. The two swapped free-taking duties, mainly because of their injury history, but O’Donoghue has been given more prominence in the last two years as O’Connor’s appearances tapered off.
That’s not to say his abilities were compromised. In four starts in 2024, he scored 2-9, but had to settle for coming off the bench eight times.
At 32, there’s little comparison to be made with, say, Brian Fenton who retired just a year younger. A more relevant comparison would be with either James McCarthy or Chrissy McKaigue.
By this stage, O’Connor has 14 years’ service under him and he has five county titles with Ballintubber as well.
Mayo’s involvement in the latter stages of the All-Ireland series also has left him playing for higher and longer than most. Sure, he doesn’t have a Celtic Cross. But he still went as long and as hard as a Ciaran Kilkenny in that time.
There are many thoughts spurting from his decision to leave off the 2025 season.
The first is that the prospect of the new playing rules coming in isn’t quite the irresistible temptation it has appeared to, say Michael Murphy.
The logic goes that the elder statesmen of county teams can now lounge around the final attacking third, playing Bridge with their markers until their side achieve a turnover.
Then, it’s action time and they get to use up all that beautifully conserved energy by making a few different runs to shake off their markers before the inevitable, searching, long ball.
But is this really the role for veterans? Trying to outpace markers who will be themselves leaping out of their skins in anticipation of a foot race? In fact, it may have been that very prospect in reverse that made up McKaigue’s mind for him.
That he is not reporting for duty in 2025 could suggest that O’Connor has lost faith in the project as it stands, under Kevin McStay.
But that’s just guesswork. Anyone outside of O’Connor that makes that point is just bluffing.
Either way, it harms Mayo’s chances. All around, the various retirements are leaving a lot of teams slipping into a chaotic peloton.
What a fantastic photo