Aidan O’Shea and Mayo deserve our sympathy for the following reasons

Aidan O'Shea and Mayo are the victim of a media "witch-hunt" that is "very, very unfair".

The Mayo footballers, they're like a Piñata. It seems like everybody takes joy out of giving them a dig. Okay, this Mayo team have been around for a long time and yes, they still haven't broken their All-Ireland duck. However, they have appeared in three All-Ireland finals in the last five years. This statistic should be a testament to the bouncebackability, the hunger, the drive and the shear refusal to give up of this side. Instead it is used as a stick to beat them with, they are regularly scapegoated against, and every Mayo foot that strays even remotely out of line is taken notion against. This targeting of Mayo came to a head with a recent attack by the former Meath Captain Bernard Flynn who berated Aidan O'Shea for posing for a few selfies with young supporters after a challenge game. The treatment of the Mayo footballers and Aidan O'Shea in particular came under discussion during The GAA Hour on Thursday and all present were in agreement on the issue of the Mayo footballers being unfairly scrutinised. "I don't know what to call it, I think it's a bit of a witch-hunt from the Irish Independent on the Mayo Footballers and on Aidan O'Shea in particular," said host Colm Parkinson. O'Shea was the subject of criticism from Kerry man Tomás Ó Sé in his recent column with the Irish Independent in which he claimed that the Mayo man was negatively affecting himself and his Mayo teammates by turning up at a press event. The former Kerry footballer took particular issue with O'Shea's reply to a question about Holmes and Connelly. "Like Aidan O'Shea didn't help himself (or Mayo) turning up at that commercial gig recently and tossing a few stones in the direction of Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly. Surely he's around long enough now to realise that until and unless this Mayo team gets their hands on Sam Maguire, they're wasting their time fighting this kind of fight. I don't doubt Stephen Rochford will have told them that. Maybe O'Shea just didn't listen." O Shea's response to the question was dignified, however, and didn't in any way constitute throwing stones at the former managers. It was a response that was actually aimed at avoiding any controversy or consternation for the Mayo footballers. “It's old news. It's factually incorrect and that's unfortunately the way the paper wanted to write it. That's their prerogative. It's not something I dwell on – I've completely moved on myself personally and the group have completely moved forward. We're trying to win an All-Ireland for lots of reasons but that's (getting back at Holmes and Connelly) not one of them," said O'Shea. Parkinson staunchly defended the Breaffy-man against the above criticism. "He responded really, really well (to the question about the article)... so immediately there's nothing there, he said it's 'factually incorrect'. Now the journalist that broke the story with Holmes and Connelly wrote a big piece the next day saying 'don't shoot the messenger'... the journalist reported what the two lads said. Aidan O'Shea might have had some issues with the facts they gave the (journalist) and then the journalist tries to make the story all about him the next day...trying to insert himself back into the story." Parkinson went on to defend Mayo in general, against the unfair judgement that regularly comes their way. "The independent went to town on Mayo, a good few of their different journalists all took the same side of the argument. The narrative coming out of Mayo between League Sunday and The Irish independent, more than anybody else is that Mayo aren't going well." "They got hammered after the Cavan game, they got hammered even more after the Monaghan game. Mayo finished on the same points as Kerry, they beat Tyrone in Omagh, they beat Kerry down in Tralee, they beat Donegal who were arguably the team of the league in the last game in a real fight...so Mayo had a good league, but you would never think it the way Mayo are getting reported," Parkinson added. Conan Doherty took particular issue with Tomás Ó Sé in his above mentioned article negatively comparing O'Shea to Michael Murphy. "If I had the choice between Ronaldo and Kanté, I would pick Ronaldo, they're both good players but they're doing completely different jobs. I think Aidan O'Shea's probably getting a raw deal." It's not the first time the Mayo lads have received unwarranted abuse. Give the men from the west a break. You can listen to the lads chatting about the Mayo and O'Shea issue here from 14'00". https://soundcloud.com/sportsjoe-gaa-hour/john-oloughlin-interview-aidan-oshea-witch-hunt-full-fwd-line-tutorial