Kieran Shannon: It would be just like Mayo to go and beat Galway in Salthill

Knowing his team would be on the road next weekend on account of his own late missed free from the right dropping short, Aidan O’Shea would have intuitively known how much tougher his team had made it for themselves by missing out on top spot in their group.

Ian Maguire of Cork in action against Matthew Ruane of Mayo during the All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 3 match at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Picture: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

As the Cork players rightly lingered on the Gaelic Grounds field after only their second –not just their second-most – significant championship win of the past decade, most of their counterparts from Mayo bolted off it.

In the past after other championship defeats that hadn’t necessarily terminated their summer, most of the Mayo group still tended to oblige any autograph or selfie seekers. In 2019 after watching Kevin McLoughlin miss a 25-metre free with the last kick of a one-point game against Roscommon, James Horan was immediately confronted by an onrushing child extending a pen and piece of paper. To his eternal credit, Horan had both the grace and presence of mind to accommodate the kid when a part of him must have been tempted to dismiss and possibly even dismember him.