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Mayo's preparations for their crunch tie with Galway on May 13 have gone to the next stage with Stephen Rochford tidying up his championship panel last week.

As far as Mayo GAA football days go, last Sunday in Elverys MacHale Park will probably rank as one of the worst, particularly for this bunch of players.

Just as the evenings start to get a bit of a stretch in them, Mayo got a bit of a bounce to their game last weekend as the battles that lie ahead this summer come more into focus.

Following their impressive victory over Kerry last weekend in Tralee, the Galway footballers face Malachy O’Rourke’s Monaghan this Sunday in Pearse Stadium.

The shadow boxing and experimenting has come to a close, with the end of the FBD League last Sunday for Mayo. This weekend Mayo will make the trip to Clones in the reverse fixture of last year's National Football League opener which was won by the Farney county men in MacHale Park. The top division in the National Football League is a high intensity environment — Mayo want to hit the ground running and they will be targeting a win in this game.

With respect to the FBD league Mayo's season kicks off in earnest this Sunday when they travel to Clones to take on Monaghan in the first round of the National Football League. The FBD was somewhat of a calamitous affair this year with the weather playing puck with fixtures resulting in postponements and last minute cancellations. The decision to call off the Mayo v Galway game at the 11th hour the most frustrating postponement, as almost 3,000 spectators had gathered in Baltic conditions in Elverys MacHale Park. Most wondered why the decision was not made earlier. That re-fixture meant Mayo of course had to play three games in five days, two of which were lost while the other was a draw. Amazingly last weekend Mayo's game went ahead against Sligo albeit after a venue change. It was the only inter county game that took place last Sunday.

“Mayo football is in a critical state,” “the players are finished,” “the management aren't up to it,” “I hope Roscommon beat us to put us out of our misery.” They are just a small example of what I listened to last week in the build up to the replay against Roscommon. Fast forward three days and the Mayo for Sam bandwagon is in full swing. “That was Mayo's best performance in Croke Park,” “This is the strongest squad Mayo have ever had,” “every player played well,” “Rochford is a tactical genius,” “I think we'll win the All-Ireland this year.”

Stephen Rochford was a happy man not long after the full time whistle in Croke Park on Monday, but he knows that Mayo have to keep improving with Kerry coming down the tracks in 13-days time.

There were no surprises across the GAA world as all the expected teams made it through to the next round of their provincial championships in both hurling and football. There was almost a shock of epic proportions in Fraher Field in Waterford as the home side were on the brink of an historic win against Cork in the Munster football championship only for two late points to see the Leesiders through by the slimmest of margins.

Almost anything can happen this weekend in division one of the national football league, but there is one thing that Mayo need to see happen. Take at least a point from their game against Donegal and they can be assured of top flight football, simple as that. There are lots of other permutations and combinations that can see Mayo stay up, go down, or even end up in the league final as distant a possability that is.