FAIR MEANS

O’shea: Dubs did what they had to do to win All-ireland, it’s just smart

MAYO ace Aidan O’shea says Dublin were ‘smart’ at the end of the All-ireland football final, not cynical.

Plenty of analysts laid into the Dubs for dragging down a host of Mayo players before David Clarke’s injury-time kick-out, ultimately winning back possession.

From there, Jim Gavin’s side cleverly held onto the ball for over a minute until full-time and were crowned three-in-arow champions.

O’shea said that he and his brother Seamus, the Mayo midfielder, have already watched the crushing defeat back together on DVD.

But he refused to stick it to Dublin for their late cynicism.

“I wasn’t thinking this was unfair or anything like that, that’s just what they ought to do and it worked,” he said.

“I don’t know what the rules are – if there was a foul in play then should the free be taken from where the foul was committed and then obviously we don’t have a kick-out but a free? I’m not sure.

“Look, they were trying to stop us kicking short, no more than any kick-out all day. They went a little further and dragged boys to the ground and stuff. It’s just smart.

“They stopped us from getting the ball, they kept it for the rest of the game. They won the game.

“If we get the ball in our hands the reality is we would get an opportunity to score, or to win a free like last year, or score like Cillian O’connor did in the drawn game. They didn’t allow it this time.”

O’shea has played in four All-ireland finals for Mayo and lost the lot. But the big Breaffy man said this was the toughest of all as Mayo ticked many of the boxes they’d hoped to but still came up short. He said: “When it’s fresher in your mind, it’s probably harder as well. But yeah, it’s harder because when you look at the game... like, I watched the game back with my brother.

“He said, ‘ah f*** it, we did this or that’. I was like, ‘But Seamie, we’re doing f***ing so many things right here’. When you lose a game by a point you’re analysing every single play.

“I’m sure Dublin made loads of mistakes, have places they could improve, but they won the game by a point so they don’t have to reflect on those things.

“That’s the tough part of it. You’re looking at every little inch that you could have done better, could have improved on. You look back and think we played really well, just came up against a team that were better than us.

“We just lost control of the game in the last five or six minutes where I felt we were in control previously for long stretches, just let it slip.”

In truth, it could all have ended so much earlier, on the first weekend of July to be exact when Mayo were fortunate to beat Derry after extra-time.

O’shea said: “This year was typical us really – you tell us we’re not going to win anything and all of a sudden we turn around and play well again. We got on a roll.”

irishsport@trinitymirror.com