Pride in being so close to Dublin in this year's All-Ireland final is not something which Aidan O'Shea feels. There was just a point between Dublin and Mayo and the final whistle - Dean Rock's late free being the difference.
"It's not a surprise to us that we're close," said O'Shea last week. Though, just being competitive doesn't help him sleep at night.
Close isn't really something that helps me through the winter months or helps any of the boys - we want to win the All-Ireland.
We were really close this year, let it slip in the last couple of minutes; that's the way football is. We could have lost to Derry in the last minute this year, small margins win games. We executed really well on the day but just failed to get over the line.
Dublin are a serious team. It's going to take a serious team to beat them. It's just about chipping away, it doesn't give me any extra sleep over the winter months that we were close. I'd expect us to be close, we know we're a good team.
O'Shea added that thoughts regarding the loss do not easily dissolve in the days and weeks following an All-Ireland defeat.
It's obviously disappointing, you go back to work and you focus on work and your attention span drifts off very easily because you're obviously hugely disappointed - it means a lot to you. You invest a lot of time in it and then when you come up short, it's obviously hugely disappointing.
If it didn't influence your life, it wouldn't really matter. Obviously, naturally, when you go about your daily business, it floats in and out. Things move on very quickly, other things in life are very important too - work, club, family. Things have to move on.
Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
