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While the fallout from Mayo’s Connacht Championship opener against London has been the talk of newspaper pages, online discussions, and bar stools across the county for the past fortnight, the real beating heart of Gaelic football in the county is about to be unleashed this weekend. The long hard slog since the turn of the year, through wet, muddy, fields, gym and weight circuits, for the humble club player is about to come to fruition this weekend when Treanlaur Catering Mayo Senior and Intermediate football championship gets under way.

While the fallout from Mayo’s Connacht Championship opener against London has been the talk of newspaper pages, online discussions, and bar stools across the county for the past fortnight, the real beating heart of Gaelic football in the county is about to be unleashed this weekend. The long hard slog since the turn of the year, through wet, muddy, fields, gym and weight circuits, for the humble club player is about to come to fruition this weekend when Treanlaur Catering Mayo Senior and Intermediate football championship gets under way.

The showpiece occasion in Mayo football will be tinged with sadness following the recent deaths of Ger Feeney and Donal McEllin. But what better way to honour the memory of the two men than this Sunday’s clash between Castlebar Mitchels and Ballintubber in the county senior final in McHale Park.

Seán Óg Ó hAilpín’s departure from the Cork hurling panel has dominated the sports news this week after Dennis Walsh indicated that he would not be included in Cork’s plans for next season. This was a huge decision to make and in one sense I can understand how difficult it must have been for Walsh to make it. There are two schools of thought at play here. Dennis Walsh could have taken the soft option and waited until his time in charge was over, thereby leaving the tough decision to omit the player to the next manager. Nobody would have complained if Seán Óg was kept on the squad to assist with the task of indoctrinating some new faces into a new Cork squad. I do feel he could have done a fine job in this regard.

The bookmakers have it that it will be a clash of north against south for the Moclair cup come next month, and while that may be where the money is going, it would be a foolish man who is counting out the chances of the men from the west ahead of Sunday.

The curtain came down on Mayo’s involvement in the All Ireland series last Sunday as Tony Duffy’s brave and battling minors bowed out in the All Ireland semi-final. But 62 days on from Pearse Park in Longford and their senior counterparts’ exit from the championship in the first round of the qualifiers, how far has the shaping of the future of Mayo football gone since just after 9.30pm in the underbelly of the stand in Pearse Park, when John O’Mahony announced that he was standing aside after four years?

Ballintubber v Ballina

There had been two nominations made by clubs to fill the role of Mayo senior football manager at the time that this paper went to print on Thursday evening.

Following the penultimate weekend of action in the group stages of the Royal Theatre senior football championship seven of the eight quarter finalists have emerged. On Saturday evening, Ballina and Knockmore booked their places in the last eight draw. Knockmore topped section four with five points from their three games thanks to a 0-15 to 0-9 win over 2008 champions Ballaghaderreen. The east Mayo men now have to navigate their way through the relegation play offs to ensure they hold on to their senior status for next season. Ballinrobe who were drawn in the group of death for not the first time in recent history, had a great chance to make the quarter final going into the last round of games. They were a point ahead of Ballina and had a home draw against the Stephenites, but it was the north Mayo men who came out on top steam rolling to an easy 3-7 to 0-9 win over Norman O'Brien's side. The performance by Ballina was a fine tribute to the late mother of Paul McGarry who died earlier in the week.

For three of the four groups in this year’s Royal Theatre Mayo senior football championship it is D-day this weekend. With every group still in the melting pot it promises to be an exciting weekend of action across the county.