Cillian O’Connor: Mayo revolutionaries were ready for backlash

The minute Mayo slipped, the players knew their necks were for the stocks.

Coming off the MacHale Park pitch on June 20, they didn’t have to be told just what the consequences would be of losing to Galway and giving up their Connacht title.

Having taken their stance against Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes, perceived insolence was going to be thrown in their face.

Expecting the backlash made it more manageable, reflects captain Cillian O’Connor. “I think at the start of the year after that (heave) we kinda knew that that’s what that was going to mean; that should we lose a game again now, this will be brought up again.

“Should we struggle in the league, this will be brought up again. Should we lose in the Connacht championship, this will be brought up again. I think we got comfortable with that idea very early.

“We kinda put it to bed because as Aidan (O’Shea) said at the start of the year there’s enough pressure on us anyway. We do put a lot of pressure on ourselves, on the group.

“I don’t think it makes any difference because the way the boys are, any time we take to the field and Stephen (Rochford) gives us the jersey to go out and represent Mayo, before thinking about anything else there’s an enormous pressure to go and deliver and do the jersey justice.

“I think the pressure we put on ourselves is about the jersey (he holds an imaginary one) and it’s about going and trying to see what we can achieve in the future.”

Proving others wrong was never the starting point for this group of Mayo players. it’s about their own standards.

“Obviously, it was difficult at the start of the year after that but I don’t think that’s what it’s about for us,” says O’Connor. “I don’t think it’s about looking back at something and trying to draw motivation from something that has gone on previously.

“I think the boys, thankfully, are all kinda motivated by what’s ahead of us and what can be ahead of us and what can be achieved. I think most of ourselves find ourselves talking about things ahead of us, games down the line or what we can do.

“Between ourselves, we don’t spend a whole lot of time talking even about the qualifiers or talking about Galway or talking even about the league. We take lessons from things like that at the time and then we park them. I think that’s (last autumn) a little bit like that as well. It probably sounds, I dunno, cold or whatever.”

O’Connor accepts the management position would have been an intimidating role for Rochford to accept not necessarily because of what happened to his predecessors but how much possession this Mayo panel have taken of their own situation.

“That sense of self- motivation is pretty huge,” O’Connor acknowledges. “You can understand if a manager coming in, like Stephen, would be a little bit daunted because you do take ownership of a lot yourselves. I’m sure it wasn’t probably the easiest circumstances to come in under but to be fair he took to it very well.

“To be honest, we might be motivated that way but as soon as the new management came in and set out a few things, the boys were quick to change whatever we needed to change to row in behind whatever was being said, to take on new ideas and maybe try certain things in games that we weren’t used to trying.

“In fairness, whatever people’s motivations are, when we are told to do something, I think everybody rowed in behind it and got things going. Had a shaky league but we stuck to the process. Again, a shaky Connacht championship, didn’t go to plan but stuck to it, won the last four games and we’re back here now.”

The common belief is the defeat to Galway couldn’t have served Mayo better as a lesson and a wake-up call. O’Connor desired a sixth provincial medal but perhaps the end justified the means.

“Yeah, it’s as good an outcome as I could have expected Sunday morning (after the Galway game) when I woke up. If I could go back, I’d want to win the Connacht championship. Galway won it and that irks us but credit to them they deserved to beat us that day. We were just beaten by a better team.

“If I could go back and change it, I’d obviously go through the front door but given where we found ourselves on Tuesday evening after that defeat, I think we’ve done well.

“I think we’ve come through tough games, we’ve used a lot of different players, we’ve got some players who are coming back from injury who got some time into the legs and overcome those knocks and stuff and, look, to be back towards the end of August getting ready to play in Croke Park.”