The long goodbye for Kobe McDonald and Aidan O'Shea

Mayo's Kobe McDonald celebrates with Aidan O'Shea. Pic: Tom Maher/Inpho

“Well, it’s goodnight from him… and it’s goodnight from me.” 

They are at different ends of the spectrum, one completed his Leaving Cert only this month and the other 17 years ago, but Kobe McDonald and Aidan O’Shea arrive at the coliseum on Saturday perhaps wondering if it will be their last time.

McDonald has more than earned his right to play a first game in Croke Park. After scoring 1-7 in three league games, he has produced 1-14 in four championship outings. 

Throw in the 4-20 he amassed for the U20s and it’s fair to say few debut seasons have hit like his.

Alas, the 18-year-old’s bags are packed. 

He will be acquainting himself with seaside life in Melbourne’s St Kilda by the end of the year having last year signed a two-season rookie contract with the AFL outfit.

O’Shea turns 36 on Monday having reached a landmark 100 senior championship appearances against Monaghan last month. That total is now 101, 12 ahead of the closest outfield player Seán Cavanagh. 

Combined with the 114 league outings, he has appeared in 215 season games for Mayo, 20 short of Stephen Cluxton’s all-time record. Theses should be written on his longevity, discipline and resilience.

However, last Saturday’s win over Meath was the first time in 14 years that he has not featured in a SFC game for his county. A run of 89 consecutive games ended when he was not used from the bench in Castlebar. 

Whether that is a watershed moment that will give O’Shea pause for thought. He has spoken about going on as long as he has a purpose in the group.

On becoming the first outfield centurion in the win over Monaghan, he revealed manager Andy Moran told him a few days before the game that he wouldn’t be starting. 

Moran would likely have been on the receiving end of the same conversation in 2019 when James Horan utilised the Ballaghaderreen man from the bench for most of the championship.

O’Shea to McDonald would be described as a passing of the baton if it weren’t for the fact O’Shea is more likely to be seen in a Mayo jersey in 2027. At least McDonald gets to grace Croke Park. 

That a talent as abundantly obvious as the teenager might not have played there would have been terribly sad.

It will also give him a taste of what he will be missing. This story we’ve told before but it bears repeating: in 2012, against Mayo, Pat Gilroy gave Ciarán Kilkenny his championship debut in an All-Ireland semi-final. 

Kilkenny obliged with three points as Mayo won but a seed had been planted.

Watched by a crowd of 81,439 people, Kilkenny was living his dream and later returned home having signed a deal with Hawthorn. Dr Niall Moyna, then Dublin coach and selector as he is now, said it was a masterstroke by Gilroy.

McDonald will make his own decision. Mayo are appreciating him for the time he is here. Like Oisín Mullin who is lighting up the AFL with Geelong, he has everything to be a star in Australia but maybe McDonald is the savage that loves his native shore.

Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s column last Monday was full of gratitude for David Clifford choosing Gaelic football but it would have read bittersweet for Mayo people who are losing a player who appears ordained with just as much skill and poise. 

“We call Crossmolina Kobeland now,” says former Mayo forward John Casey.

O’Shea will hope to make a 35th senior championship appearance in Croke Park on Saturday, Mayo’s first SFC fixture there in three years. His final record is nought from six, but his quarter-final return is eight wins from 11.

The place should be a haunted house for him but he returns undeterred. The only indication he himself has given about stepping away was in an interview ahead of this year’s championship speaking about the birth of his second child, Romee, earlier this year. 

“You realise how selfish you’ve been, probably for the last five, six, seven, 10 years.” 

That same charge will be unfairly thrown at McDonald for pursuing a professional career. Those who know the arena will be sending him with the best of wishes. Like O’Shea, he will be desperate to extend his goodbye.