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I spent some time with a number of my former Mayo playing colleagues from 1985 last weekend. The Connacht winning side were guests of the Connacht Council last Sunday at the Connacht final. There were some giants of men on that team. TJ Kilgallon, Willie Joe, Padraig Brogan, Sean Lowry, Sean Maher, Noel Durcan, and Big Tom Byrne to name but a few. Anthony ‘Fat Larry’ Finnerty and Frank Noone were both around so laughter was guaranteed. The reunion afforded us an opportunity to reminisce and it got me thinking about the seriousness of modern football and in particular the kind of a lifestyle required from a current inter-county footballer. Thankfully we played in a different era when football was taken seriously but it did not completely dominate your life.

And then there were 12, we’re just under three weeks out from the Connacht Final and a dozen sides are left in with a shout. While Armagh, Dublin, Cork and Galway are given another week to ready themselves for the elite eight phase of the competition, tomorrow (August 2) sees Mayo back in action. All eyes were on the draw drum on Sunday evening to see who would Mayo get of the quadruplet of sides who managed to make it through the previous two rounds of action. Each of the potential adversaries had there own pitfalls, Down a side who seemed to be on the up this year with Ross Carr moulding a side, Kildare who bombed so famously against Micko’s Wicklow in the long grass of early summer, but Kieran McGeeney is a man used to getting things done and has picked them up. Monaghan the new darlings of the football world with boundless enthusiasm and with Banty McEnneany patrolling the sideline and celebrating wildly at final whistles. But it wasn’t to be any of that trio, Tyrone were pulled from the hat and they pose their own series of questions that will have to be answered.