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I thought the Mayo team looked a little bit spooked last Sunday in Hyde Park and I really do not know why they appeared that way. Some might suggest that Conor Mortimer’s surprise departure from the squad placed a difficult burden on Mayo. I don’t believe it did. On the other hand I bumped into the Mayo manager in Castlebar last Saturday and could see he had the weary look of a man that had a belly-full of the Mortimer issue over the previous few days. I am sure he is sleeping a little more soundly since Sunday as his squad did just about enough to get over the line against a typically sticky Sligo challenge. As I stood to watch the presentation of the Nestor Cup, I engaged with a few Mayo supporters who were just as relieved that Mayo won the match. And I have to agree with their view which was that winning is the most important thing.

The distraction of Wednesday’s news that Conor Mortimer has decided to leave the Mayo senior panel is the last thing that Mayo manager James Horan will have wanted ahead of Sunday’s Connacht final showdown with Sligo in Hyde Park. Horan’s side had only just been announced by the county board online and through traditional methods a matter of hours when news broke of Mortimer’s decision to leave the panel, bringing the eye of the national and local media on Mayo ahead of Sunday for reasons other than what happens on the field. Mortimer being the second member of the panel to make themselves unavailable for Mayo in a matter of weeks, following Robert Hennelly’s decision leave the panel due to work commitments a few weeks ago.

The big news of Conor Mortimer’s withdrawal from the Mayo squad earlier this week did not take me by surprise.

Mayo 4-20

In recent decades there have been a number of inter-county teams that have made real eye catching progress. Dublin, Tyrone, Armagh, Kerry and Cork are the obvious selection in this regard and they, more than most, have brought a new dimension to the whole area of team sacrifice and all year round physical preparation. In fairness, Mayo football has also moved up a gear or two and if nothing else we are a team that few will ever take for granted. But I get the impression that we are just about hanging on to the coat tails of the top three or four teams in the country right now. On the evidence of the matches I have witnessed so far this year, I need some convincing from Sundays encounter with Leitrim that we deserve to be talked about in the same breath as Dublin, Cork and, believe it or not, Donegal. I watched the Ulster champions play Derry last Saturday and those of you who saw Derry’s inept performance will agree that they (Derry) are a team in serious decline. But it was the performance of Donegal that was the main talking point of the encounter. They played a terrific brand of open flowing football that suggests they have stepped up a level from last year. It should be a fascinating Ulster semi-final between themselves and Tyrone in a week’s time. But I am digressing!

The Mayo Senior Football team to face Leitrim in the Connacht Senior Football Championship semi-final this Sunday June 24 at 3.30pm in Elverys MacHale Park is as follows:

I was in Dublin last Sunday morning to do a slot with Today FM on the football season ahead, more of which later. I rushed home from Dublin anxious to get back in time for the club championship matches; Crossmolina v Ballinrobe and Ballina v Westport. The big shock for me from all of the fixtures last weekend was the score line from the first game in Crossmolina.

This weekend heralds the start of everything that 16 sides have been preparing for since Ballintubber claimed the Moclair cup for a second year in a row last autumn. Since that moment, everyone else has been looking forward to trying to knock the champions off their perch. The talk over the winter was of the old reliables having a crack, the likes of Knockmore, Ballina, and Castlebar being the kind of sides who could put a dent in Ray Prendergast Park ambitions for three in a row.

Castlegar and Kiltormer will renew acquaintance in the county hurling championship next Monday in Athenry at 6.30pm.

It's been a rollercoaster ride though this year’s National Football League for Mayo so far and last Sunday was no different. The game saw Mayo lead Kerry by eight points at one stage in the first half, but ended with them clinging on manfully to hold out against the Kerry challenge as long as possible when they were forced to play the last 25 or so minutes with only 14 men – following Lee Keegan’s dispatch for an early shower after he was suckered into a sloppy foul resulting in a second yellow flashed in his general direction.