Cillian O’Connor: Criticism leaves Mayo cold

It’s weeks later and Cillian O’Connor still can’t get his head around it.

The Ballintubber man was there the day the Mayo and Meath footballers played that now famous challenge match in Mullingar. When Aidan O’Shea accommodated a few kids with some pictures and scribbles as his teammates congregated in a huddle nearby, nobody apart from Bernard Flynn seemed to take a blind bit of notice.

Certainly not O’Connor, who was carrying a knock and didn’t tog out. By the time the post-match non-drama unfolded, he was already back in the clubhouse “eating sandwiches … sorry, I mean drinking protein shakes!”