Mayo's top five championship performers

Diarmuid O’Connor
Ballintubber

IF any Mayo footballer is nominated for an All Star this year, then surely it will be either the man from ‘The Golden Mile’ or the second name on this list, Jordan Flynn.
But O’Connor marked his 10th season playing senior championship football by delivering a consistently excellent series of displays; as a back-tracking wing-forward who could sweep around the ‘D’ or as a ball-winning midfielder who went ‘box-to-box’ for 80 minutes.
The 28 year-old was back to his best in this season’s championship, starting all five matches, and working himself to a standstill for the team, always trying to make something happen.
The only surprise was that a man who has scored 13-65 in his 116 appearances for Mayo failed to register a single score in the championship. He hit 1-1 in six league games.
That stat underlines the defensive midfielder-cum-sweeper role that O’Connor filled for Kevin McStay most of the time.
Finding the best role for the youngest of the O’Connor brothers in 2024 will be a conundrum.
Play him at centre-back and be done with it? Continue to develop him as a number nine?
Or move him back into the forwards? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Jordan Flynn
Crossmolina

AS befitting a man who started every single match that Mayo played this year — including the two FBD Connacht League games back in January — Flynn was the most improved player in the team by some distance.
The 25 year-old got better and better every week as his role became more defined and his confidence soared. He was Mayo’s best player of the league, winning a few man of the match awards and shooting nine points from play, as the Division 1 title was won.
Flynn brought the form into the championship, and became one of Messrs McStay and Rochford’s most trusted lieutenants. He was given a variety of different jobs to do and, invariably, did them well as his strength and conditioning complemented his under-rated football skills.
The quality of Flynn’s kick-passing and shooting made a lot of people sit up and take notice this season. He also shot seven points over the course of Mayo’s five championship matches but there was so much more to his game too.
He made the wing-forward position his own and also moonlighted in midfield here and there.
Perhaps centre-field is where he will find a more permanent home with Team Mayo?

Ryan O’Donoghue
Belmullet

ANOTHER man who featured in every single one of Mayo’s 15 games in 2023.
The 25 year-old was outstanding at times and his performance levels rarely, if ever, dropped below impressive over the course of the championship.
He also had a very good National League campaign and has the pieces of crystal to prove it after winning the ‘man of the match’ award on more than occasion.
O’Donoghue has come a long way since making his senior debut in 2020 and showed plenty of examples of why he was an All Star forward two years ago.
He finished with 0-22 from Mayo’s five championship games and was always a threat with ball in hand. He also shipped more than his fair punishment at times.
Kevin McStay and company predominantly used the diminutive Belmullet man in the full-forwardline this year, but there seems little doubt that he could do a job at centre-forward.
That move might be required to try and get Mayo’s attack firing on all cylinders in 2024.

David McBrien
Ballaghaderreen

THE new number three looked extremely comfortable in the role as the season went on.
After a few years when he was dogged by injuries, by and large the Ballagh’ defender got a clear run at things and did very little wrong against some of the best forwards in the game.
After missing the defeat to Roscommon due to injury, McBrien made his championship debut against Kerry and was handed the responsibility of picking up David Clifford.
He did as well as could be expected too, and went on to tag the likes of Louth’s Sam Mulroy, Cork’s Ruairi Deane, Galway’s Damien Comer and Con O’Callaghan of Dublin.
None of them were able to get the upper hand on McBrien for too long, and he will have learned a huge amount from the experience.
He’s unlikely to forget his first championship goal either (against Galway) for a while.

Aidan O’Shea
Breaffy

THE season may have ended on a disappointing note for Mayo’s number 13, being replaced 12 minutes into the second half against Dublin, but the 33 year-old was one of the team’s most consistent performers across the championship.
O’Shea kicked 0-9 (four of them from open play) in Mayo’s five matches and turned in a man of the match display in the stand-out win over Kerry in Killarney.
He was at his most effective in his role in Mayo’s forwardline against the All-Ireland champions, but found it harder to make an impact against the massed and structured defences of Louth, Cork and Galway.
However, his appetite for hard work and ability to win ball and lay it off to team-mates in better positions created a lot of opportunities for the team.
Like so many of his colleagues, O’Shea played the majority of his best football during the National League. He led the line, shot 1-6, and looked like a new man up front.
But he was missed around the middle at times when kick-outs needed to be won when the going got tough against Cork and Dublin.
What role does Kevin McStay have in mind for him next year?