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The first Mayo man I met early on Monday morning in the staff room just nodded at me. Smiled a sheepish, bashful smile, shrugged his shoulders, looked a tad embarrassed and said nothing. And he was right. Because, unfortunately, there was nothing to say.

The first Mayo man I met early on Monday morning in the staff room just nodded at me. Smiled a sheepish, bashful smile, shrugged his shoulders, looked a tad embarrassed, and said nothing. And he was right. Because, unfortunately, there was nothing to say.

The two top football teams in the county in 2013 are Salthill and Corofin, and they will face each other in the county final on October 13 after their respective victories last weekend.

I know it sounds like an old cliché but tickets for this All-Ireland final do seem to be like gold dust. If I believe everything I’m told some Mayo folk are willing to give limbs and/or offspring just to get their hands on one. Never mind a Willy Wonka golden ticket, just give me a ticket for the All-Ireland seems to be the message. Even with our minors through to the final there seems to be a scarcity in the county. The main reason for this is because of our opponents, they will have an even bigger problem than us because of their large following. Any neutral county players I spoke to in the last few weeks don’t want to offload their tickets as they feel this game could surpass the semi final encounter between the Dubs and Kerry and want to be there to watch it. Spare a thought for Paddy McNicholas, Vincent Neary and the county board who have the grim task of distributing the tickets to success-starved Mayo fans.

Kilmaine booked their place in the Mayo intermediate championship final pulling up on Sunday evening in McHale Park. The south Mayo men ran out seven point winners against Parke, with their opponents failing to register a single score in the second half. Kilmaine's centre half forward Joey Maloney was the main man on show kicking eight of his sides half a dozen scores. Seven of those points were from frees, with sub Joe Cooper putting his hand up for a starting spot in the final with a two point cameo off the bench in the second half.

St Brendan’s Park, in Birr, will host the next stage of the Mayo ladies’ senior team’s road towards a fifth All Ireland senior title and a first in a decade. On Saturday at 12.30pm they will face off against Kerry in the All Ireland quarter-final having seen off Westmeath with ease in the last round of qualifiers after they were beaten by Galway in the Connacht final in Tuam.

Are you old enough to have watched the original series of Fame? Do you remember waiting for the new potatoes to arrive? Check out Brid Egan’s display of oil paintings featuring in the Brown Thomas Style & Art window exhibition on Shop Street, Galway.

Hunger was the difference between Mayo and Donegal last Sunday according to many pundits; it was more like starvation. What more can you say, the best ever performance by a Mayo team in Croke Park and I don’t say that lightly. Donegal didn’t know what hit them, the way they dismantled the All-Ireland champions was so impressive it scared the living daylights out of everybody watching including the remaining three teams left in the competition. I was on Highland Radio (Donegal’s local station) the Wednesday evening before the quarter final and after telling it as it was, that I thought this Mayo team were in a really good place because of their build up, the competition for places and their ability to ease and not rush players back from injury unlike Donegal, and that Mayo were in serious physical shape, only to be jibed somewhat by James McHugh and Paul McGonigle (two former Donegal players) that “according to John Casey Donegal shouldn’t bother turning up on Sunday”. Well, maybe they should have listened.

O’Connor Park, Tullamore hosts a double header of All-Ireland minor football quarter-finals this bank holiday Monday and both Westmeath and Roscommon will be hoping they can progress to the semi-finals. Tom Carr’s side take on Connacht champions Mayo at 2.15pm while Fergal O’Donnell’s Roscommon will battle it out with a fancied Kildare side at 4pm.

And then there were eight. Watching the qualifier between Tyrone and Meath and Ger Canning announcing that Donegal seem to be into the quarter final after a struggle against Laois, I promptly let my Donegal wife Rita know that Mayo could now get drawn against Donegal. I knew it would happen, it was written in the stars, a chance for this Mayo team to right what went wrong in last year’s All-Ireland final. They could have got an easier draw in the likes of Cavan but getting pitted against Donegal - the All-Ireland champions, the team that made us sick to the pit of our stomachs last September means there is little needed in the line of motivation and complacency is gone out the window. It also means not much chat in the Casey house this week. I hope and expect to have bragging rights at 5.30pm next Sunday.