At the turn of 2021, Mayo lost six long-serving stalwarts to retirement as Tom Parsons, Keith Higgins, Seamus O’Shea, David Clarke, Chris Barrett and Donal Vaughan all called time.
Following the crushing All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Dublin, could a similar exodus be on the cards?
There are surely at least five Mayo players who will be pondering their future on the back of the defeat - namely Aidan O’Shea, Jason Doherty, Cillian O’Connor, Kevin McLoughlin and Robert Hennelly.
On the back of losing Lee Keegan and Oisin Mullin ahead of the 2023 season, there would be a sizeable deficit in experience from the dressing room if all five were to step aside now, even if O’Shea was the only one of the quintet to start against Dublin.
Against that, Clarke and Barrett were the only players among those who retired in January 2021 that had started the previous month’s All-Ireland final defeat to Dublin, and Mayo managed to return to the final the following September, beating the Dubs en route. But they still retained a vastly experienced core at that time.
O’Shea, Doherty, O’Connor, McLoughlin and Hennelly represent the last links to the side that emerged in 2011 under James Horan and, over the subsequent decade or so, became arguably the finest team never to win an All-Ireland.
Following the Dublin defeat, manager Kevin McStay was at pains to point out that he took the job on a four-year term and, presuming he sees that out, he will have to deal with the retirements of these five at some stage.
But he won’t want to lose all of them at once.
Aidan O’Shea
O’Shea, who turned 33 last week, featured in all 14 of Mayo’s League and Championship games this year, starting 13 of them (the round five League game against Roscommon the exception).
Having being used at midfield and across the half and full-forward lines during his career - and even had a stint at full-back on Kieran Donaghy in 2017 - McStay had made it known long before he took the Mayo job that he favoured him on the inside line and he held true to that as manager this year.
O’Shea performed particularly well in the role and had a largely effective first half against Dublin, though the decision to replace him in the 47th minute was somewhat surprising, not least to his former teammate Keegan on RTE duty.
"I would challenge that Aidan O'Shea substitution because I thought he had a good first half and I thought it was a catch 22,” he said. “I think it was the wrong call, a strange call because he could have made an impact with the diagonal balls that went in.”
There would still be a role for O’Shea next year under McStay, you would think, though whether he’d want to commit for a 16th season if an All-Ireland wasn’t a realistic aspiration remains to be seen.
Cillian O’Connor
Yet another injury-interrupted season for O’Connor. He played in the first five rounds of the League, albeit he only started one of those games, but a knee injury curtailed his involvement thereafter. He made a cameo in the Connacht Championship loss to Roscommon and then was scuppered by a hamstring issue though appeared off the bench in the last two games against Galway and Dublin.
Prior to that, he has had serious shoulder problems and he ruptured his Achilles two years ago.
At 31, he should have more to give and the mind may be willing to do so but whether his body can stand up to the rigours of another season of inter-county football is the question, particularly as he is still based in Dublin.
O’Connor started out with Mayo as a teenager in 2011 and has been their standout forward over the past decade, becoming the all-time Championship top scorer in 2019.
Jason Doherty
First appeared in the FBD League back in 2009 but only established himself on the panel from 2011 on.
Endured plenty of injury heartache and a succession of knee injuries meant that he went two and a half years without featuring for the county after the 2019 Championship.
Having regained his customary wing-forward slot for the first two All-Ireland group stage games, the 33-year-old was surprisingly parachuted into the centre-back position for the win over Galway, an experiment that didn’t work out as he was replaced at half-time.
One of the more likely of the five to opt for retirement, a late cameo off the bench against Dublin may well be his swansong.
Kevin McLoughlin
You wouldn’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to conclude that McLoughlin taking his three children onto the field following the Dublin defeat and posing for pictures was his way of saying farewell to Croke Park as a player.
A terrific servant who was first introduced by John O’Mahony back in 2009, the 34-year-old made his first start of the Championship against Galway and came off the bench in the second half against Dublin, with the game already out of reach.
Injuries curtailed his involvement for much of the year and having lost his status as an automatic starter some time ago, this feels like a natural conclusion to his inter-county career.
Robert Hennelly
Only featured once this year, in the round seven League defeat to Monaghan when Mayo’s place in the final was already assured though didn’t even make the bench against Dublin on Sunday, with Colm Reape now the first choice goalkeeper and Rory Byrne his understudy.
Having finally established himself as first choice following Clarke’s retirement, the 33-year-old may not have the appetite to take on Reape and Byrne at this stage of his career, particularly as he’s based in Dublin and transferred from Breaffy to Raheny earlier this year.
