After two rounds of the Allianz Football League, Mayo were still pointless in Division 1 and freshly chastened by arch rivals Galway.
Aidan O'Shea hadn't yet made his seasonal return having spent the winter honeymooning and recovering from minor surgery but was aware of stinging criticism.
Looking back now, a few days out from a Division 1 final against Kerry, O'Shea can only smile. At 34, he's been here before, plenty of times.
"It's outside," he said of the criticism. "It's outside it is, not internally. I think we're very much focused on ourselves, internally, but you're right, there's a little bit of hyperbole, or whatever the word is, whenever there's a result in Mayo, or something to talk about."
Truth be told, Mayo are fortunate to be in a league final. Beating Donegal by two points last weekend franked their ticket to the spring showpiece but if the Ulster champions' had taken the goal opportunities that fell their way late in that Round 7 encounter, including one from a penalty, they'd have won and relegated Mayo.
It sums up just how chaotic it all was in the closing minutes and for a while afterwards that O'Shea was sure when he left the field that Mayo were going to be playing Dublin at Croke Park this weekend, not Kerry.
"I was walking around afterwards thinking, 'Yeah, we're playing Dublin'," smiled O'Shea. "And then somebody was like, 'We're actually playing Kerry, you know that?' I was like, 'No, I don't!'"
Pundit Paul Flynn made the point that a Kerry-Mayo final is an ideal fixture to showcase the new rules, given that both teams traditionally play high-paced, expansive games.
"The way they play football, it suits them, high-octane stuff," said Flynn of Mayo.
Yet rewind back to those difficult days at the start of the league, after losing to Dublin and neighbours Galway, and the criticism being levelled at Mayo was that they hadn't embraced the new rules.
"Has anybody embraced them?" responded O'Shea, when reminded of that early season criticism. "Has anybody figured it out perfectly? I don't think so. I mean, they changed them halfway through the league as well to go from 12 v 11 to 11 v 11. The 3 v 3 has changed and the four back has changed.
"Look, I think there are a lot of things going on. Were we perfect on the rules early doors? I don't think any team was. We were in the same boat. We had a lot of players coming into inter-county football for the first time, never mind having to deal with new rules. So I think it (criticism) probably was a little bit harsh.
"We just weren't good enough in the first two games to get over the line. We could easily have won the first day but we weren't good enough the second day out.
"The next day, against Tyrone, I don't think it was a case of us getting a handle on the rules any better, if that's the barometer of how we won that game. We were just better on the day than Tyrone and we've improved our performances."
The last time Mayo reached the Division 1 final, they beat Galway, in 2023, but subsequently lost to Roscommon in the opening round of the Championship. This year, they'll play Sligo in Connacht a week after the league decider.
"We were probably in a different spot back then," said O'Shea of 2023. "We had a lot of injuries that time. We had no complaints in terms of we were beaten by the better team against Roscommon that time.
"But I think we're in a good spot coming into this weekend and the following weekend. We ultimately know that we're going to be going after that game against Sligo at home."
Win or lose on Sunday, there'll be plenty of O'Sheas smiling. His parents are from Kerry and his father's native club is Laune Rangers in Killorglin. O'Shea's wife, Kristin, is from Tralee.
"She's a Rockie," he smiled, indicating her Austin Stacks' status. "Ah, it'll be straightforward enough - she'll be wearing Mayo colours. There won't be too many arguments on that.
"But yeah, there'll be a few cousins and aunts and uncles who will be on the fence for sure. Some not so much. But it's good, all good fun."
