Having let victory over Dublin slip through their grasp in the dying seconds of their last round-robin game, Mayo were forced to face Derry six days later and they exited at the preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final stage after penalties.
McStay led them to a Division 1 League crown last year but their championship performances have been underwhelming in his two seasons in charge, although Leitrim manager Moran doesn’t feel that the Mayo boss is under any more pressure than any other county manager.
“Nah, I don’t think so,” Moran said when asked if McStay might walk away. “I think he has got a four-year term. You see all the managers throughout the country. To me a telling reflection on football was the Galway/Mayo Connacht Championship final.
“Going into it I remember saying to Jenny, my wife, it feels like the two managers are under pressure, Kevin and Pádraic (Joyce). Pádraic was going for his third Connacht final in a row.
“Kevin had just won the National League last year and was going for a Connacht title. Ten or 15 years ago when we started playing, if you had won a National League title or a Connacht title, or you’d won three Connachts in a row, you’d be lauded as a bit of a king.
“Now you are under pressure going into those games. It just goes to show where you are going. Every manager, from me in Leitrim to Dessie Farrell up in Dublin, is under a significant amount of pressure, just the way the world has gone.”
Moran also expects Breaffy powerhouse O’Shea, who made his senior debut in 2009, to extend his county career into a 17th season when next year rolls around.
“I don’t think there’s any question about Aidan coming back. There’s maybe one or two others that you’d be more worried about. But Aidan…I suppose I had the advantage that I never relied on pace when I got a bit older,” he said.
“Aidan is kind of the same. He was never going to be the fastest player in the world. But when he’s playing the way he’s playing, like, he was outstanding last Saturday night.
“For anyone that was at the game, young (Eoin) McEvoy tried to take him up the line at one stage, I was just like, ‘Bad idea’. He turned him back in and to see him playing like that again was a joy to all Mayo people to be honest.”
