​By John Harrington

Former Mayo, Galway, and Leitrim manager, John O’Mahony, believes Mayo will once again ask Aidan O’Shea to shadow Kerry’s Kieran Donaghy in Saturday’s All-Ireland SFC semi-final replay.

Mayo manager Stephen Rochford’s tactic of using one of his best forwards to man-mark the Kerry danger-man was widely criticised in the wake of last Sunday’s drawn match.

But O’Mahony believes he will persist with it, albeit with the possibility of tailoring the tactic slightly.

“It's a difficult one, but I think he'll go again with Aidan O'Shea at full-back,” O’Mahony told GAA.ie.

“They'll have to go through a few thought-processes now. The aerial bombardment didn't materialise and you'd have to give Kerry credit for tweaking their approach, Fitzmaurice said he was ready for it (O'Shea at full-back).

“Usually with Donaghy in there you have high-ball coming in from all places, but that didn't happen the last day. I think what it demonstrated is that Kieran Donaghy isn't a one-trick pony.

“I'd imagine they might start with it again (O’Shea marking Donaghy), but they'll tweak the way they operate it.

“Aidan O'Shea now has the experience now of playing at full-back and they'll have fine-tuned what he might do to combat Donaghy and the ball being played in front. Whether they place someone there to protect as well.

“The other thing would be that when we win possession, that Aidan O'Shea might go forward as well and someone else would be detailed to cover for him while he gets up the field. That they don't just leave O'Shea back on the square all day man-marking Donaghy.

“They might also start with that approach again and change it during the game depending on how things are going.”

Were Rochford to persist with the tactic of using O’Shea as a full-back he would be thumbing his nose at the many critics who took him to task after the match.

O’Mahony himself didn’t believe O’Shea’s reinvention worked, but he's adamant Rochford was perfectly entitled to make the decision and was taken aback by the level of criticism the Mayo manager shipped in the aftermath of the game.

“What I've found incredible was that within five minutes of the game being over, when you were talking to people, there was huge criticism of that call,” said O’Mahony.

“Now, I would be the first to admit that it didn't work. You'd be putting yourself in the position of asking yourself what you would have done, and I might have changed it within the game.

“But I would defend the management for making the call in the first place.

“People have short memories. In 2014 when we drew with Kerry it was Kieran Donaghy who came on with seven or eight minutes to go in a desperate situation for Kerry and changed the whole course of the game.

“And then in the replay in Limerick he was brilliant. We didn't even play a sweeper in front of him that day and Ger Cafferkey was exposed.

“There was huge criticism at the time, and yet when you do something different to counteract Donaghy you're criticised as well.

“Look it, for those of us who have been in the management game, you know that you have to make big calls and you know that you're not going to please everybody so I don't think Stephen Rochford will be too worried.”

O’Mahony believes Rochford deserves a lot of praise for reinvigorating the team in the wake of their defeat to Galway in Connacht, and coaxing the best out of veteran players like Andy Moran and Keith Higgins who have been superb in recent matches.

“To revitalise those guys within the season is tremendous,” said O’Mahony.

“Andy Moran is our clubman and I know him since he was a youngster, and that game against Kerry topped everything he had done in what would have been regarded as his peak years, it was an excellent performance.

“Mayo exploited the spaces and ran the Kerry full-back line a merry dance.

“That's the other point - people say that O'Shea was missed up front, but in some ways it allowed Mayo to play a little bit more direct and beat the Kerry cover rather than try to bombast your way through it.”

O’Mahony is concerned that Kerry have more room for improvement ahead of the replay than Mayo do.

But he also believes the Mayo players will be hugely confident they can finish the job on Saturday because they dominated a highly rated Kerry side for such long stretches of the drawn game.

“I'd say it would have done an awful lot for the confidence stakes in Mayo,” said O’Mahony. “They're the only team that has exposed a weakness in Kerry this year.

“Kerry weren't tested coming into the game and they showed on Sunday that they didn't stand up to some of those tests when they were put to them.

“People would have said when Mayo hammered Roscommon in the replay, 'ah well, it was only Roscommon'. Whereas now I think that what it has ensured is that we're going to have another game against Kerry that will go right down to the wire again.

“And I think Mayo's confidence will carry through that. I don't think the tiredness thing is going to be a factor at all. These fellas are just playing games now rather than training. This week was about analysis and recovery rather than anything else.

“I’m keeping the faith, but the only concern you would have is that you'd have to say that Kerry have more improvements to make, if you like, that possibly Mayo.”

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