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Mayo continued their preparations ahead of their Connacht championship campaign opener against Sligo on Saturday week last Tuesday night when they played Kildare in a three period challenge behind closed doors in Longwood. It was Mayo’s fourth challenge game in 10 days, having previously beaten Cavan, Westmeath, and Dublin. Mayo went down by a point against the Lillywhites in a contest that was played over three 25 minute periods, with a side starting to look like it was taking shape for Saturday week’s game against Sligo. Tom Cunniffe continued at centre half back, flanked on either side by Peader Gardiner and Kevin McLoughlin. Kenneth O’Malley got a run out between the sticks for Mayo while Alan Dillon, who had been nursing an injury, came on to score a point. Donal Vaughn, another who picked up an injury in recent weeks, also made an appearance from the bench. Andy Moran was Mayo’s top scorer, kicking 1-4, while Conor Mortimer chipped in with five points from frees. The challenge game was the sixth in 10 days that many of the Mayo players had taken part in, including club games. They will get a break from club action ahead of the Sligo game with the club action in Mayo reverting back to the secondary league ahead of their championship clash and the start of the club senior and intermediate championship proper in a fortnight’s time around the county.

Mayo 0-13

John O'Mahony named his squad for the championship on Monday, there were no major surprises in the 30 men named, with Belmullet's Billy Joe Padden the only man who wasn't involved in action so far this year coming back into contention. O'Mahony now has 33 days to get his team ready for Sligo in the Connacht championship opener.

In just over six weeks time the real deal will get under way when Mayo head to Sligo in the Connacht championship. But on Sunday all roads lead to Croke Park and a second joust with Cork inside three weeks. But this time national honours are at stake. It has been an impressive league run so far by Mayo, picking up tough away wins against Tyrone, Derry, Kerry, and Cork along with home victories over Galway and Monaghan. The only black spot on the copybook so far this term was the single point defeat to Dublin in McHale Park, but in the grand scheme of things Mayo supporters can have nothing to complain about so far this term. When the league started back on the first Sunday of February, most people’s expectations and hopes were that Mayo did enough to survive in division one. But since their blitzkrieg start against Galway, John O’Mahony’s men have barely paused for breath, as the faced down nearly all comers, with the exception of Dublin, a game they should have won, kicking 18 wides over 70 minutes.

Opportunity knocks for Mayo footballers next Sunday in Croker. A victory over Cork in the National League final would be an enormous achievement for this present group of players. On the basis of the compelling evidence of Mayo’s victory over the same opposition two weeks ago, I really do think a National League title is imminently achievable. Granted, next Sunday’s opposition have been making all the right soundings in their impressive league campaign with a number of good victories to their credit, but Mayo have also enjoyed a terrific league campaign, with six out of seven victories in the campaign. The question is being asked in these quarters, however, were Cork really trying in that last league game in Pairc Uí Chaoimh two weeks ago? As we know, Cork had already qualified for the league final before the last game and, to a certain extent, they had an influence on who they played in the final. To step off the gas and allow Mayo win without too much exertion might just present a handier opportunity to win a league title in Croker. A final against the Dubs in front of a large Dublin crowd just might not have been as easy, they might have been thinking. A few people have suggested to me that once Cork discovered that the Dubs were trouncing Tyrone in the first half in Omagh that same Sunday, their intensity dropped quite noticeably and they ambled through the remainder of the match unconcerned about the result. Nonetheless that was not the situation in the other games played in Division 1 when Mayo ground out impressive results against formidable opposition.

The last time Mayo made the trip to Cork in the National Football League, they came out of Páirc Uí Rinn with a slender one point win and one foot in a league semi-final and consigned the Rebels to division two football for the next season. A lot has changed in the past two seasons since then for Mayo. Only five of the team that lined out that night started for Mayo in their last National Football League game against Monaghan; Liam O’Malley, Keith Higgins, Conor Mortimer, Andy Moran, and Alan Dillon. Mark Ronaldson came on as a sub three years ago as he did against Monaghan. Kenneth O’Malley, who was between the posts that night, is still involved in the panel as is Pat Harte, and the injured duo of Peadar Gardiner and Aidan Kilcoyne who also made an appearance in that game, the likes of James Kilcullen, Enda Devenney, Ger Brady, and Aidan Campbell who all started have fallen by the wayside, along with Marty McNicholas who kicked 0-2 that day after coming off the bench. David Heaney and Kevin O’Neill have both retired from the game.

Over the past few weekends there has been much made of the huge decline in spectator interest in the Railway Cup.

Garrymore v Charlestown

The wearing of county jerseys has become extremely fashionable in recent times. It affords the wearer an opportunity to advertise his or her identity in a subtle way that often leads to a conversation about the chances of their team in an upcoming championship encounter. I was descending Croagh Patrick last Thursday morning when I noticed a family bedecked in their county colours. This Fermanagh family was heading for the summit to plant their county colours ahead of the Ulster final replay between Fermanagh and Armagh. Having stopped briefly to engage with them and to offer my best wishes I recognised a striking resemblance of the father of this particular family to that of Marty McGrath, the towering Fermanagh midfielder. He excitedly told me that he was indeed Marty’s brother and, as he would normally travel to climb on Reek Sunday, the clash of fixtures left him with no option but to travel west a few days in advance.

With the front door closed by Galway after the Connacht final, Mayo go in search of squeezing themselves through the back door starting with Tyrone tomorrow afternoon. The two-time All Ireland champions, who were kicked to touch at the quarter-final stage of the Ulster championship by Down and have come through the first two rounds of the qualifiers, seeing off Louth and a 13-man Westmeath side last weekend, to arrive in Croke Park with a bit of steam built up.