Following their defeat at the hands of Galway in the Connacht Final at the start of July, the Mayo senior ladies will be looking to get their championship hopes back up and running tomorrow afternoon, when they take on Kildare in the All Ireland Senior Football Championship qualifers in Duggan Park in Ballinasloe at 3.15pm.
Mayo were beaten by a rampant Galway side in the provincial decider on a scoreline of 3-12 to 1-8, with Galway's first half blitz laying the foundation of that win, with Galway going into a 2-2 to 0-0 lead inside the opening six minutes of that game. This weekend however, Mayo will be hot favourites to see off the girls from the Lillywhite county and book a place in the last eight against Donegal.
Kildare were last year's intermediate champions to book their place back with the top sides for this years championship. Their league form wasn't good this spring, losing all seven of their games in division two and finishing rock bottom of the table.
Mayo will have been disappointed with how they performed in the Connacht decider, having wrestled the provincial crown back from Galway after four years in 2016, only to cough it up again this year. But there is no shortage of character and quality in this Mayo side who, it must be remembered, were only a few controversial calls away from making it to the All Ireland final last year.
Cora Staunton was once again the main scoring threat for Mayo in the provincial final, hitting seven of Mayo's points - despite being very tightly marked in the game. Shauna Howely scored Mayo's goal in that game, with Sarah Rowe also getting on the scoreboard. But Mayo manager Frank Browne will be hoping that the scoring pressure is taken off Staunton with others stepping up to help her out; the likes of Aileen Gilroy, Fiona McHale, and Grace Kelly are well able to chip in with scores.
