'I'm not everyone's cup of tea' - Mayo's O'Shea

Mayo's Aidan O'Shea admits that whilst he is "not everyone's cup of tea", criticism of him through the years has been "disrespectful".

The three-time All Star opened up to Thomas Niblock and Oisin McConville on the GAA Social podcast about abuse he has had to deal with through his 15-year inter-county career.

"I know what I’m good at, I know I can add value to the group and feel I have done for a long time," O'Shea said.

"When you’re getting stuff through your post box at home, letters about you personally and stuff you should do, that is scandalous."

'My core focus is always Mayo'

As a result of intense criticism he has faced online, the 34-year old explained that he had muted mentions of his name and Mayo GAA on social media to avoid reading what people have said about him.

O'Shea also believes that perceptions of him as getting caught up in things off the pitch instead of focusing on helping Mayo on it, have been misconstrued.

"My core focus all of the time is Mayo and being in the best shape possible, I think that gets missed and some of the criticism over the years is really annoying," he admitted.

"I might play a bad game that’s fine, but the media will say I’m carrying a few pounds, but if I play a good game six weeks later it is I've really trimmed down.

"That terminology by commentators is completely wrong and untrue. It is quite disrespectful for someone who has done what I have done and how long I have done it for."

'I won't lose sleep over not winning an All-Ireland title'

O'Shea recently became the GAA's all-time appearance record holder for an outfield player as he played the full game against Dublin in the group stage of this year's competition.

His 91st Championship appearance was the penalty shootout defeat against Derry, which ended Mayo's hopes of winning a first All-Ireland title since 1951, for another year.

The Breaffy clubman, who made his debut for Mayo in 2009, has lost six All-Ireland finals, but still hopes to be involved with the Westerners next season.

"Let’s see how we go, Mayo don’t play a game until January, but I would like to play, and we'll see when the time comes," he conceded.

"I’m 34, but I still feel good, my body is good, and I don’t get injuries."

O'Shea knows that time is running out for him to get his hands on a long-awaited All-Ireland winner medal but believes that Mayo are equipped to challenge next year and beyond for the Sam Maguire.

"I think it will happen, we have as good a chance as anyone. There are more teams in and around it who will think they can win it, but the Championship is hard and you need luck with injuries and seeing games out," he explained

"I don’t see why Mayo in 2025 can’t get to an All-Ireland final, we have some really good young players coming through."

He added: "Do I think I will be around to win one? It’s not something I’m going to lose sleep over."

Final defeats 'all morph into one'

O'Shea has been part of a Mayo side that lost All-Ireland finals in 2012 [against Donegal], 2013, 2016, 2017, 2020 [all against Dublin] and in 2021 [against Tyrone].

He admits that many of the finals are a blur, but the 2021 decider where Tyrone won 2–14 to 0–15 was particularly painful.

"There’s a couple of them [that standout] but they all morph into one, I find them hard to separate," he said.

"The Tyrone one hurts the most because I hadn’t played well in the semi-final [a three-point win against Dublin] and we had a really young core, and the boys were humming after beating Dublin."

O'Shea continued: "I wondered if I should reign them in or see if they can ride out the wave and as captain and having played badly I probably did them a disservice in not intervening."

He concedes that it still plays on his mind, and that if he had have played well in the semi-final he may have been more inclined to speak up.

"It annoys me as maybe with the experience we older boys had we should have warned them what was coming down the tracks."