In what was a whirlwind 72 hours over last weekend Mayo went from the hectic, having to deal with an Covid-19 flare-up in the camp to what in the end turned out to be the most mundane part of it all - an actual championship game against Leitrim, who they dispatched with ease.
After the game Mayo manager James Horan was keen to emphasise that Mayo had followed all the correct procedures in the lead up: "We'd a number of guys out as a result, so we worked with the HSE during the week and followed whatever guidelines they put in place as we have done all year with everything, so we went through their protocols.
"It was a different week to what we normally have going up to a game, the guys were brilliant with whatever testing, whatever we needed to do we got on with it and went through it. We saw their focus and the concentration today as we started the game"
As for missing players in the build up to the Galway game - he said: "I'm sure a lot of teams are, there are going to be ins and outs, we'll just manage as we do all the time, we find a way to figure it out and get on with it."
As for how hard it was to prepare for a game with all that going on in the background he told us:"Difficult. Some of the stuff we had to do was incredible, just testing regimes we had to go through in the last 36 hours, so we went through that and followed everything, you saw the focus today, it was incredible and anything they were asked to do, they just did it and got on with it. You can hear them down there (on the pitch ) they just enjoy their football and want to get on with it and that is all they do."
Horan does think it is possible that other camps could be effected like Mayo were as the season rolls on: "All I can tell you is that we have stuck to everything all year from a training point of view, with the guidelines, just I suppose with the age group and whatever, Cul Camps that was you know, it is tricky it will be tricky for everyone."
As for what they did on the field in the game - that very much pleased the Mayo manager in the circumstances he said: "I thought we started well and went about our business very well for the first quarter and built up a six or seven-point lead, took some very good scores I thought and had a goal then. I suppose we controlled the game from there and I was very happy with our start and how we went about it.
"I thought some of our movement was excellent, we dominated possession and had a lot of ball and the guys were hungry to play and created a lot of opportunities for sure," he said.
