Mayo defender Pádraig O'Hora has said that Aidan O'Shea’s resilience in the face of continuous criticism speaks volumes of his strength of character both on and off the pitch.
For many, the big Breaffy man has been the lightning rod for the discourse surrounding Mayo’s failure to end their long wait for the Sam Maguire title in recent times.
O’Shea has been reborn though under new manager Kevin McStay, causing havoc on the edge of the opposition square as they claimed the Division 1 title - although his influence was stymied in their Connacht quarter-final loss to Roscommon.
O’Hora, speaking at Supervalu’s championship launch focussing on diversity and inclusion, was in awe with how his team-mate didn’t allow the outside noise to break him down.
"I don’t want to speak for him, but I assume it has been," was his response when asked had it been tough for the player to hear such harsh words.
"We’ve all had our ups and downs when people are on your back or you’ve been under a little bit of pressure, I certainly have had a little bit of it and it’s not nice.
"I don’t know how Aidan has dealt with that, but he has been subject to a fair bit of it. But it hasn’t knocked him, he’s still there. For all that’s been said about him he’s still there, he’s stuck it out.
"He’s playing for Mayo how many years now? He’s done extremely well so it clearly hasn’t done too much to him so."
"I don’t know how that works to be honest. I’m not on that side of the fence slating people and giving out about them.
"It’s the person that makes the headlines really, isn’t it, or if you’re a target man for a team.
"If we pick any team in the country, talk about Armagh and you immediately go to Rian O’Neill. Why? Because he’s a scorer or whatever. Go to Mayo and you’d probably go for Aidan O’Shea or Cillian O’Connor in years gone by. I assume that’s just how it happens."
O’Hora, who has spoken passionately about topics such as mental health, neurodiversity and inclusion during his Mayo days, has said that people need to be more aware of the impact their words can have on the person in the firing line.
"Anyone worth their salt, anyone with a bit of cop on, wouldn’t slate players.
"They’d understand the commitment. It’s voluntary, you’re not getting paid to be here. It’s dedication, it takes a huge amount of your time.
"If you’d ask most footballers at elite level who want to win something, we’re putting more time and energy into this than we are our full-time jobs.
"Anyone that has a family, the family suffers because you’re away and you’re focussed on football. There’s not a minute of the day that goes by that isn’t focussed around football.
"Regardless if whether you go out and have a great performance or do poorly, that’s just the nature of it. At the end of the day you should respect every player from every county that gives their heart and soul for the jersey.
"Anybody that’s throwing abuse around online, I’ve just no time for it."
On O'Shea’s successful conversion back to the edge of the square, O’Hora said that his power ensures that he will be a valuable asset for the forthcoming All-Ireland round-robin series.
"It’s his sheer size, it’s like trying to wrestle with a bear, there’s only going to be one winner.
"He’s got a good skillset. Like myself he’s played a lot of basketball so his hands are good, he’s not just a big unit. He’s quite skilled and he’s a smart footballer as well."
"It's his sheer size, it’s like trying to wrestle with a bear, there’s only going to be one winner.
Mayo were unable to carry their league form into the championship battlefield, being outfought by a Roscommon side that forced them to chisel through stone for all 10 points in the four-point loss.
With the first round-robin games pencilled in for 20/21 May and 27/28 May, it means that Mayo could have as many as seven weeks away from the spotlight to prepare for the All-Ireland series.
O’Hora believes it may be a more beneficial path for the Westerners to take and he makes no secret that they have already started seriously targeting that first group game.
"We did want to win the [Roscommon] game, we want to win every game and we’re lucky there’s a different route.
"In hindsight, you could argue both ways, of course you could. It depends on what line you want to go with – playing games in the Connacht championship every week could be ideal or it would be ideal to have five or six weeks to focus in and really train hard. Get your house in order and get ready really to go at it.
"I’d be of that thinking that it is good and it is beneficial to us. It gives us an opportunity to really target game one in that round-robin series.
"I’m not great with arithmetic and maths, but there are 16 teams going in and 12 of those teams would have lost. So 75% of the teams going in would have lost a game in championship so we’re going in in a similar boat to everybody."
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