Mayo manager Stephen Rochford praises Aidan O’Shea’s contribution

Aidan O’Shea, a brief study. Before the marriage of inconvenience with Cathal McCarron, the 25-year-old stood alongside big brother Séamie for the throw-in.

Lying deep makes it harder to shadow him.

After some decent foot passing to switch play, as Mayo patiently probed Tyrone’s white wall, he glanced up with 6.07 on the clock then sprayed a left footer between the posts from 45 metres.

O’Shea’s only obvious weakness is his strength. The size of the man was exploited when Niall Sludden scampered past him to level the game on nine minutes.

O’Shea was redeployed closer to goal. Cillian O’Connor wasted no time dropping ball into him but Justin McMahon and Colm Cavanagh were ready. Ronan McNamee rushed over to bash into O’Shea’s chest as a form celebration (for a player losing possession). He pushed McNamee away with a look of mild disgust.

More of that to come.

Square’s edge now, a one way conversation from McCarron is well underway. Leaping from behind three Tyrone bodies, O’Shea pads the ball down for Andy Moran to point.

Mattie Donnelly gets the Ulster champions up and running with two quality scores before O’Shea gathers and lays off for O’Connor to put Mayo 0-4 to 0-3 up.

The game has rhythm now. O’Shea shrugs off McCarron like a man would a child only to shoot wide. McCarron gets yellow-carded for saying something.

Almost a flashpoint: Diarmuid O’Connor catches Ronan McNabb with heavy contact and as O’Shea arrives over the prone number 12 with heavy forearms a gang of white jerseys roll in.

Moments later, a Mayo free becomes a throw-up after he planted Sludden with an off the ball shoulder.

As half-time approaches, following long stretches playing decoy or covering in defence, O’Shea comes awfully close to yellow when fouling Cathal McShane. He indicates that McShane dived. There is brief bodily contact with Seán Cavanagh - who is playing a similar enough role for Tyrone.

“The process with any good player is they have that element of fluidity,” explained Mayo manager Stephen Rochford. “The one thing we can be damn sure is when Aidan gets on the ball he is going to attract two or three guys so at times that is important to have that inside so he can attract the people in there so he can create space out field.

“But in any 70 minutes of football when you are not getting on the ball or you need a smart solid guy on the ball he is able to drop out the field and play that.

Huge experience

“And he has huge experience. I don’t what a situation where we have a team of robots. They have to make decisions out on the field. I trust the guys wholly out on the field and they trust us but you don’t want to straight jacket them either.”

O’Shea finishes the half deep in defence, taking a deserved breather having motored his 6ft 4in frame through an ocean of grass on this humid evening.

Seconds after Cavanagh is yellow-carded following a scuffle with Lee Keegan, O’Shea wins the throw- in to start the second half. He takes off. Stepping past Rory Brennan, one of those Ciarán Whelan type goals becomes a possibility until three white defenders swallow the space.

So he flips possession to O’Connor for an easy point. 0-8 to 0-7, Mayo lead again.

With McCarron in the book and making decent yardage up the wing, McNamee takes up residency on O’Shea’s shoulder. Then a lull. For about 15 minutes O’Shea struggles to influence the game in no man’s land between the square’s edge and midfield.

Suddenly he demands possession about 35 metres from goal, again stepping the first man, only to be collared by Cavanagh. Referee David Gough indicates that he has no option. Second yellow and red card for the Tyrone captain. O’Connor points the free to make it 0-12 to 0-11 with 60 minutes on the clock.

O’Shea is at left corner back now, questioning Gough’s decision to award Tyrone a free that allows Darren McCurry to level matters.

Keegan points his brilliant second score to make it 0-13 to 0-12.

Tyrone reply with a string of wides. But Mayo abandoned any notion of attack to spend the last five minutes playing keep ball. They are very nearly punished but Niall Morgan missed his third long range free while McCurry is also off target deep into injury time.

“There is a lesson in there for us,” said O’Connor afterwards. “We didn’t have enough forward momentum when we were doing that.”

It ends with O’Shea in possession at wing back. He under hits a free across the pitch to David Clarke, forcing the Mayo goalkeeper to rush out and carry away from danger.

With the full-time whistle O’Shea shows how much this matters by punching the lights out of an imaginary enemy. He takes his time to disappear under the Cusack. Touches every paw, Mayo or Tyrone man, with warmth and respect but saves his bear hugs for the brother and Keith Higgins before cupping an ear when passing the noisiest Mayo supporters.

There’s more to come.