On Sunday in Carrick on Shannon Ardnaree will face into their eighth championship game this season, and when the full time whistle goes, Declan O'Dea's men will have left everything they have on the pitch to make sure there's a ninth one coming up next month in Croke Park.
The north Mayo outfit shook a four decade monkey off their backs in the county final when they hammered Killala 6-14 to 0-7 to finally claim the Mayo junior title, and since then they have had a walk over against the Leitrim representatives in the Connacht semi-final, before having seven points to spare over Clifden in the Connacht final on a wet and windy day in MacHale Park.
Next up for Ardnaree is a meeting with Monaghan and Ulster champions Rockcorry for a spot in the All Ireland final. O'Dea and the faithful from Ardnaree will be hoping that their captain fantastic Eoin McCormack can once again light up the scoreboard, McCormack hit 1-5 in the county final win over Killala and went on to be man of the match in the provincial decider. This is not a one man team though, with Chris Walsh and Ronan Doherty showing throughout the championship that they know where the posts are, with Ardnaree scoring an average of just under 25 points a game so far in their championship run.
The Ardanree defence will have to be on their toes on Sunday and they will be looking to Blaine Ginty in goal to keep his defence in check. In front of him Conor Naylor, Conor Cawley, and Ian Clarke will hope to be touch tight to the Rockcorry full forward line, while the half back unit of Michael McCormack, Pat Lacken, and Shane Timlin will be expected to keep things shut down behind them and provide an attacking platform for their attack.
Ardnaree's opponents had a 3-10 to 0-9 win over Faughanvale on the last Sunday in November, with the goals coming from Fergal McGeough, Mark McGuirk, and sub Martin Carroll. Centre half forward McGeough was the main man on the scoreboard in that Ulster decider bagging 1-4. Rockcorry hit the ground running early in that game going in leading 1-6 to 0-2 at the break. Ardanree will have to be on their toes to ensure that the Monaghan men do not get off to such a good start in Carrick-on-Shannon on Sunday to ensure they are not playing catch-up in the final half an hour.
The Ulster champions midfield of Mark Thornton and former Monaghan senior player Marc Daly look to be a quality pairing and the Ardnaree midfield pairing of Stephen Tighe and McCormack will need to be on top form all afternoon.
This time last year if you asked anyone involved with Ardnaree what was their aim for the year, it would have been to put the hurt stemming from county final defeats in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013 to bed. They finally did that with their win over Killala, but since then it has been bonus territory, but this is one bonus trip that they will not want to end for another while yet.
