GAA: All Ireland SFC Quarter Final
After drawing Galway in the last round, there was something of an inevitability that Mayo were going to get pulled out of the hat alongside Dublin last Monday morning for Sunday's All-Ireland Football Championship quarter final.
The rivalry between the two counties have been the games that have defined the two teams over the past decade, albeit with Dublin winning all but one of those championship meetings (excluding draws ) over those ten years.
Mayo's solitary championship win from 2013 up to now came in their last championship clash in the 2021 semi-final, ending Dublin's run of six All Ireland titles in a row. For most of this year Dublin have been plying their trade off Broadway, having been relegated from Division One in the National Football League at the end of the 2022 season. They did manage to bounce straight back up to the top level of league football after a Spring of playing some of the lesser lights during that competition - but it did include wins over both Cork and Derry (in the final ) who have also made it to the last eight of the competition.
Since then they disposed of Laois and Louth in emphatic style in the Leinster championship, while they were pushed hard by Kildare in their provincial semi-final. In the round robin stages of the championship, Roscommon, who had dumped Mayo out of Connacht at the quarter-final stage,held them to a draw before they saw off Kildare once more and then they took care of business against Sligo at their ease to top their group and book a safe passage to the last eight without the need for a preliminary quarter-final, unlike Mayo, so they will go into this game with a week mores rest over the Kevin McStay's side.
Just how well prepared are Dublin this year compared to others has been one of the big questions hanging over the championship since it started. Having faced just one Division One side all year, there is a perception that they could be undercooked and underprepared for when they face off against one of the big beasts - the first of those big beasts just happens to be Mayo.
The return to Dublin colours of Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion earlier in the year saw plenty of headlines - but the out of nowhere return to the fold of Stephen Cluxton in their league clash against Louth after 27-months away was a bolt from the blue that no-one was expecting. The Dubs still pack plenty of punch and quality with the likes of Brian Howard, Brian Fenton, James McCarthy, Con O'Callaghan, Ciaran Kilkenny, Michael Fitzsimons and Eoin Murchan all still key men in Dessie Farrell's set-up.
Kevin McStay shook things up in his starting 15 for the clash against Galway, bringing in experienced players like Jason Doherty and Kevin McLoughlin for that one and it will be interesting to see what 15 takes to the wide open spaces of Croke Park on Sunday evening.
The unforgiving grass in GAA headquarters is somewhere that even being the slightest bit off can see a player exposed against a top side and despite the joy at overcoming the near neighbours, all in the Mayo set up know that this weekend will see them need to bring another level of improvement against Dublin.
One thing Mayo will have to make a serious improvement on is their scoring return hitting 1-10 against Galway following 1-11 the previous week against Cork and 0-14 in their clash with Louth the game before that isn't really going to cut it against Dublin in Croke Park.
While there was a far better spread of scorers last weekend than the previous weekend, you will imagine that Mayo need to up their return again to around the 20 point mark if they are to get over the line - they did get 11 scores from 20 attempts against Galway a 55 per cent return, upping that to around 75 per cent will be a necessity.
Conditions played their part too, with the notorious Salthill wind having a major effect on the game, and Mayo's retention level from their own kick-outs was well below par winning just seven of their own all game, with the Galway press especially in the first half proving very difficult to bypass.
Both sides head into the game with plenty of questions still hanging over them. Mayo look to be far more road tested this year - but with Dublin not having had to exert themselves as much as other sides, this is the stage of the competition they will have been targeting to really let the choke out and go for it - a fascinating encounter awaits between these two counties once more.
