Defence could be the best form of attack for Mayo in 2015 according to Aidan O'Shea.
Looking back on how they coughed up five-point and seven-point leads respectively against Kerry in the All-Ireland SFC semi-final draw and replay, the centre-forward admitted to The Irish Independent that they might have to curb their natural attacking tendencies moving forward.
"It might be something we have to address. We are very attack-conscious, it does suit our game to play that way. We have some massive runners from our half-back line, even corner-back with Keith (Higgins).
"It's probably something that when we get into those positions, we make sure we... not taper ourselves completely, but make sure we don't lose a seven-point lead inside 10 minutes.
"Even in games we've won, the Cork game, after my goal this year we conceded a goal straight away and put ourselves under pressure. We were up by maybe five or six points at the time.
"So, absolutely, you can't be putting yourself in that position and expect to keep playing 100mph football because, if we're playing all-out attack all the time, we're going to be leaving gaps at the back and we've been exploited too many times."
The high levels of commitment being asked of GAA players nowadays has been a hot topic of debate in recent days but the Breaffy clubman doesn't 'feel like a slave to the game'.
"I see Bernard Brogan talking about players putting their careers on hold for Gaelic football and I would definitely agree with that.
"I can see from my own brother (Seamus), he has probably stood still from a career point of view because he wants to play football for Mayo but with a drive up and down the road? So it's probably getting to a level where it's very difficult to maintain both. But I don't feel like a slave to the game or anything like that.
"Everyone agrees the season is too long. Every professional sport has an off-season and we're the only ones that don't. I know we're not a professional sport but we don't have an off-season per se."
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