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No rest for Connacht. After two tough Heineken Champions Cup fixtures, Andy Friend's squad will have little festive fare as they prepare for the first of the seasonal interprovincials, starting on Sunday at the Sportsground against Ulster (7.35pm).

In a year like no other, tomorrow's All Ireland Football Final will be a showpiece like one we've never seen or felt before.

There's not much left to win in the inter-county game for Stephen Coen - well, just one thing really.

James Horan has guided Mayo to a third All Ireland final as manager, he's played in two (three if you count the replay in 1996) himself and he's looking forward to trying to get Mayo over a line they've fallen short of eight times since they got back to the final for the since last winning it in 1951.

Only three times has Sam Maguire been hoisted in the air by a Mayo captain - Aidan O'Shea is the latest in a long line of those looking to follow in the footsteps of Sean Flanagan in 1950 and 1951 and Seamus O'Malley who was the first Mayo man to do it in 1936.

It's Christmas week. In normal circumstances we would be thinking about Santa Claus and Christmas parties. But these are not normal circumstances and we have the not so small matter of an All-Ireland senior football final to occupy ourselves. We will think about Christmas from around 7pm on Saturday evening.

It might not have been the 6-12 he joked last week about that he scored against Davitts in an underage club game back in the day, but the 4-9 that Cillian O'Connor netted in the All Ireland semi-final win over Tipperary was another record in the ledger for Cillian O'Connor - but there is one piece still missing that Ballintubber man craves from his roll of honour.