Kieran Shannon: 2011's Operation Ambush ensures Mayo have no hang-ups about playing Cork 

Before the 2011 All-Ireland quarter-final, Mayo had not beaten Cork in the championship since 1916. 

After spending time with Cork players on a 2010 All-Star tour, Andy Moran returned home a change player. The following year, Mayo would be reigning All-Ireland champions Cork in an All-Ireland quarter-final. Pic: Diarmuid Greene / SPORTSFILE

In more ways than one, that crazy run of theirs began with Cork, and not just with that amazing run and goal of Kevin McLoughlin’s in that watershed quarter-final 15 years ago.

In November 2010, Andy Moran found himself in a late bar in Kuala Lumpur along with Player of the Year Bernard Brogan and a host of other reigning All-Stars and their partners.