Mayo manager Stephen Rochford has explained the thinking behind putting Aidan O’Shea to full-back in their epic drawn All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park.
O’Shea has been Mayo’s main man this summer, playing at midfield, across the half-forward line and occasionally along the inside line.
But against Kerry, Rochford sprung a surprise and sent his big man in to mark Kerry’s former Footballer of the Year Kieran Donaghy, who is one of the best target men in the game.
"He has played full-back in a few instances," explained Rochford. "This year he played full-back against Donegal on Michael Murphy and he played full-back against Kildare on Kevin Feeley before.
"He is one of our best tacklers, he has a physical presence and we put that against the aerial threat and physical presence that Kerry have in that area.
"We can’t be too clinical about it at this stage because we’ll have to watch the video and see what worked and what didn’t work. Ultimately, we didn’t lose anything by it."
Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice says he wasn’t surprised to see the match-up develop, though he admits that he didn't expect Mayo to implement it from the off.
"It was a thing we had discussed, we knew it could happen, but we felt it was down the list of possible options," he revealed.
"It’s up to Mayo to get their match-ups right and it’s not something we could control.
"He (O’Shea) did fine. He won one or two balls in the first half and he rooted away for a few balls with Kieran. It (the contest between the two) didn’t have a major impact on the game.
"No one can be in two places at once so in a way it was robbing Peter to pay Paul for Mayo."
Kerry only hit a handful of high balls into Donaghy in the whole game, though Fitzmaurice says this wasn't an instruction from the sideline.
"To be fair to Mayo, they were very intense in the middle third," he said. "They work and tackle hard so it was hard for our kickers to get their heads up and get the ball in, particularly in those conditions."
The sides finished deadlocked at 2-14 each, their second semi-final draw in three years, and both sides had chances to win it and lose it.
"We are still in the competition," said Rochford. "We felt we had the momentum at stages of the game and we conceded goals we were disappointed with. We will need to review the game to see the source of those.
"We have been down this track a few times before and the six-day turnaround won’t be a big deal for us. We’ll be back next week."
Fitzmaurice added: "It was some battle. Both set of players deserve massive credit for the way they went at it, particularly in the conditions. Both teams will have regrets because they had chances to win it, but both had chances to lose it too."
Rochford was left to bemoan "sloppy" goals that hurt his team when they were in the ascendancy.
Mayo started like a train at Croke Park, Andy Moran firing home a terrific goal and Colm Boyle also rippling the net in the first 20 minutes.
Stephen O'Brien goaled for Kerry in between those efforts however, with Johhny Buckley getting another in the second half. Those moments left the Mayo boss frustrated.
"We gave away two sloppy goals, which is disappointing," Rochford told RTÉ Sport.
"We'll look to learn from that over the next 24 hours and prepare for six days' time.
"Goals are big big scores in these games. We got the first one but we coughed them up, not just soft ones but at critical times when we were playing really well. It's all about next Saturday now.
"It's small margins. We're just looking forward to next week, that's all you can do."
