NEVER underestimate the power of presence.
Dublin, Mayo and Derry have all lost key figures this month.
2
James McCarthy, Brian Fenton, Cillian O’Connor, Padraig O’Hora and Chrissy McKaigue will not grace the inter-county stage next season.
McCarthy’s departure from the Sky Blues was one thing, but Fenton’s was another.
The Raheny man hanging up his inter-county boots at 31 has rocked the capital to its core, and the Jacks are firmly back in the pack without him.
The greatest team of all time had the greatest midfielder of all to fit the bill, but the fear factor around them has wilted now.
Armagh’s All-Ireland this summer has sparked great hope for the rest in 2025. The likes of Kerry, Donegal, Tyrone and beaten finalists Galway will truly believe they can land the big one next July.
Mayo were in that bracket until this week, but Cillian O’Connor’s departure is a massive dent in their hopes whether they like it or not.
When Dublin failed to reach the summit in 2021 and 2022, Stephen Cluxton was absent.
Sure, they missed his flawless kickouts, overall distribution and status as the best goalkeeper to ever play the game – but they longed for his presence off the field just as much as on it.
Standards slipped, and the high bar their iconic stopper set for everyone was lowered just enough for them to fall in back to back All-Ireland semi-finals.
When Cluxton returned last year, they were champions again. He turns 43 next month and reports suggest he will join Dessie Farrell’s backroom team next season.
It will leave a gaping hole between the posts but his presence will still determine the great standards to which he won nine All-Irelands – even with Fenton and McCarthy gone.
That’s why O’Connor’s Mayo departure feels deeply significant. The Ballintubber man was a prodigy when he burst onto the scene in 2011 at 19.
Back to back Young Footballer of the Year gongs in 2012 set a bar that he met time and again across his 14 seasons in Green and Red.
A prophet is never appreciated in their own land, and it has quickly dawned on Mayo fans how much they might struggle without him.
Sure, he scored for fun and terrorised defences and tops the all-time championship scoring charts.
It was often said they relied too much on him for scores, but it was a heavy reliance nonetheless.
Although he never won an All-Ireland, he played in seven finals, including the 2016 replay.
They would never have reached any of those showpieces without him, but what he brought off the field from his late teens to the 32 year-old who departs is immeasurable.
O’Connor demanded the best from himself and those around him every single time.
His brother, Diarmuid could have easily wilted in that shadow but thrived as he met the standards set by his older sibling.
Colm Boyle has already come out on the Mayo football podcast and declared it a “monumental” blow.
Boyle knows more than anyone how much O’Connor’s absence will be felt, on and off the field, at training and games.
Maybe the lack of playing time this year pushed him over the edge. He came on as a sub in the two championship games they lost this summer against Galway and Derry.
He also did not start in their drawn All-Ireland group stage clash with Dublin, which saw them miss out on a quarter-final spot.
O’Hora departs with him and although neither have retired, they will leave gaping holes in the Mayo dressing room as leaders and standard bearers alone.
The same goes for Derry in the wake of Chrissy McKaigue’s retirement, and Paddy Tally will deeply miss their former skipper as he prepares to take the reins.
And the massive figure that Donegal have longed for returns in Michael Murphy. He’s 35, but so is reigning Footballer of the Year Paul Conroy.
It remains to be seen how Murphy will be used, but he will presumably be deployed on the edge of the square with the new rules on the horizon.
Either way, you cannot buy that kind of presence. Mayo will realise that to their cost in their long, painful wait for glory that has gone on since 1951.
