Kevin McStay may finally have solved Mayo's Aidan O'Shea conundrum

Mayo are football's great romantics.

Eleven All-Ireland final defeats since the last time they lifted Sam Maguire in 1951. Six in the last decade alone. But still they believe in happy ever after.

Aidan O'Shea has been there for all six of those big-day break-ups. The towering forward has an equally high profile and has often been a lightning rod for criticism when Mayo fall short. His failure to score in an All-Ireland final is mentioned more often than his three All-Stars.

Many 32-year-olds with 14 years on the inter-county clock would surely be tempted to say to hell to with it. But the Breaffy man seems to be thriving under new manager Kevin McStay.

O'Shea was one of Mayo's star performers in last Sunday's Allianz Football League final win over Galway, winning four frees and assisting the same number of points for team-mates.

After the 2021 decider defeat to Tyrone, McStay wrote in the Irish Times that "nobody can agree where Mayo should play him and what his best position is, yet he has been playing for over a decade. Maybe Mayo have done O'Shea a disservice here." The new boss may have solved the problem himself.

For Lee Keegan, O'Shea's former team-mate and unwanted joint-holder of the losing finals record, the answer has been surprisingly simple. Mayo are finally playing to his strengths: winning and maintaining possession.

"We're getting the best out of Aidan O'Shea, because we're kicking in the ball," Keegan said bluntly, at the launch of The Sunday Game's championship coverage.

"We tried Aidan O'Shea at full-forward for many years but the problem was our game plan was around running it. If you're a full-forward like Aidan, why would you want to move for it when you have strike runners like Oisin [Mullin] or Paddy