Cillian O’Connor has no problem with spotlight switching to Aidan O’Shea

He 1-7 kicked in Sunday’s Connacht football final and yet Cillian O’Connor was but a footnote in Mayo’s annexation of a fifth consecutive provincial crown.

It was a similar story five weeks ago in Pearse Stadium – O’Connor’s nine-point haul in their semi-final win over Galway largely overlooked.

The reason? One Aidan O’Shea.

The Breaffy man has made his name in the main as a midfielder, but operated up front in their championship opener at Salthill and caused havoc for the Galway defence by earning a clutch of relatively straightforward frees for O’Connor.

On Sunday last at Dr Hyde Park, he continued his smooth transition to the edge of the square, bagging 3-4 from open play. And, all the while, has the spotlight hanging over O’Connor since first he broke onto the inter-county scene back in 2011 been dimming.

For the moment at least, he’s been relieved of his duties in leading the Mayo attack. Mind you, he’s not complaining.

“It does take the heat off, Aidan is another point in the attack,” said O’Connor.

“We’ve always had runners in the half-forward line to take some heat off us, but even more so this year with Aido. I’ve found myself in my space.” O’Connor believes O’Shea has fine-tuned most areas of his game this summer to which the team are reaping the rewards.

“He’s improved his ball skill a lot, improved his handling and hand positioning. His footwork too, and he’s more skilful than people thought holding the ball and making sure he’s bowling them over, like in U16 club games against us.

He’s very disciplined, and careful where he puts the ball and his hand. He’s flying.”

He continued: “Aidan is a quality midfielder. He’s doing alright at full forward now, but we’re keeping our options at midfield. Seamus [O’Shea] is there, Tom Parsons as well, Barry Moran, so we’ve options.”

Impressing O’Connor also has been younger brother Diarmuid. The more inexperienced of the pair forged his way onto James Horan’s panel last year in what was his first season out of minor level.

“Diarmuid has grown, is stronger, and has taken on some of the scoring burden.

“He would have played midfield underage and a little bit in the forwards. He was always good for a point or two, but he has put a lot of effort now into his shooting, his finishing and decision-making, when to go for it and when not to go for it.

“I don’t know if he had any wides the last day, his shot-selection was very good too.”

Diarmuid kicked four points in Sunday’s 6-25 to 2-11 annihilation of Sligo and Cillian described the final quarter as “a little weird” such was the gap between the two teams.

“What can you do in that situation? You just have to keep plugging away. I think we still took our scores well towards the end, but it was strange, I suppose the atmosphere wasn’t what you’d expect.

“I think, when you’re younger and you’re coming up, if you have a massive win in a quarter or a semi-final, you might start thinking you’ve the job done or that you’re the finished article.

We know at this stage there’s so little between the top five or six teams that you really park the game once you’ve reviewed it on a Monday or a Tuesday.”