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I have so little energy this evening. I am wrecked after a tough session in the gym. The penny hasn’t dropped with me yet that the body isn’t able for the kind of punishment I once subjected it to. Earlier this evening, I was happily plodding along in the gym doing my thing, when I was invited to join in with the spinning class taking place in an adjoining room. The instructor pushed us hard for almost an hour. It was an eye opener and I can now admit to myself that the old body is not what it once was. However I comforted myself when I realised that there is no point in peaking this time of year! That is not the situation however for any new potential inter-county footballer wanting to impress new managers around the country. The reality is many of those players wil not have kicked a ball in months, yet they are expected to make an impression at these trial games. That’s the way it is, and until there is a better solution it will continue that way. I had a text from Ian Rowland from Crossmolina earlier this week announcing that he was invited on to the Mayo football panel for the FBD league. Ian had a wonderful year with Crossmolina, impressing in lots of games in both the league and championship. He is a player who has improved enormously this year and I expect there is more to come from this young student. Ian was one of the players invited to participate in a trial match last Saturday morning in McHale Park. I heard he played well in the trial, kicking a number of monster points that clearly caught the eye. Incidentally, I have rarely witnessed a player anywhere in the country who can kick the ball as far as this man can. Understandably, he is thrilled to be presented with this opportunity and I am quite confident he will do well.

The curtain came down on Mayo’s involvement in the All Ireland series last Sunday as Tony Duffy’s brave and battling minors bowed out in the All Ireland semi-final. But 62 days on from Pearse Park in Longford and their senior counterparts’ exit from the championship in the first round of the qualifiers, how far has the shaping of the future of Mayo football gone since just after 9.30pm in the underbelly of the stand in Pearse Park, when John O’Mahony announced that he was standing aside after four years?

I travelled to Pearse Park, Longford, last Saturday, not quite sure what to expect. It was awful stuff, arguably as bad as I have witnessed from any Mayo team at this level. It is difficult to apportion blame to any single individual. There is a collective responsibility on everyone involved to shoulder some blame for the embarrassing display. The team definitely looked demoralised, in some cases disinterested, with a few others clearly not physically fit enough to play and win at this level. However despite this I did send a text to a number of people at half time suggesting that Mayo would probably win the match, not because we were playing any better than our opposition, but because Longford were dreadful.

Mayo will definitely be with out the services of both Keith Higgins and Enda Varley for Sunday's National Football League final against Cork it was reveled on Saturday afternoon. Both men who won u21 All Ireland titles against Cork back in 2006 underwent fitness tests on Saturday morning before Mayo departed for Dublin. Higgins picked up a knee injury in Mayo's win over Monaghan in the penultimate round of games in the league stages of the competition, while Varley aggravated a hamstring injury while playing for his club Garrymore in the opening round of league games at the start of the month. The UL student did make a cameo appearance for his club last weekend, but failed to make the grade for Sunday's game.

In just over six weeks time the real deal will get under way when Mayo head to Sligo in the Connacht championship. But on Sunday all roads lead to Croke Park and a second joust with Cork inside three weeks. But this time national honours are at stake. It has been an impressive league run so far by Mayo, picking up tough away wins against Tyrone, Derry, Kerry, and Cork along with home victories over Galway and Monaghan. The only black spot on the copybook so far this term was the single point defeat to Dublin in McHale Park, but in the grand scheme of things Mayo supporters can have nothing to complain about so far this term. When the league started back on the first Sunday of February, most people’s expectations and hopes were that Mayo did enough to survive in division one. But since their blitzkrieg start against Galway, John O’Mahony’s men have barely paused for breath, as the faced down nearly all comers, with the exception of Dublin, a game they should have won, kicking 18 wides over 70 minutes.

Mayo 0-12

While they might not have the glamour of the championship or the expectation of the national league, Mayo and Galway games are always somthing to savour. And only a fortnight after they came together in the opening round of the league, Mayo and Galway will lock horns again on Sunday afternoon in McHale Park in the final of the FBD League with the prize of an away final against New York later in the year in the offing. Galway will be gunning for Mayo after they were comprehensively beaten in the league opener. Mayo picked up their second win of the campaign last weekend with a 1-12 to 1-11 win over Tyrone in Healy Park. Mayo hung on to come out on top by the most slender of margins, after hitting six points without reply to put them four points up midway through the second half, before the homeside rallied in the final 10 minutes to cut the gap to one as time ticked down. Mark Ronaldson had his scoring boots on again as he continued to carry on the good form he has shown since the turn of the year, bagging 1-6 last Sunday, with four of his points coming from play. Donal Vaughan was another who impressed over the course of the game as the young Ballinrobe man continues to develop well in the early stages of his inter-county career. John O’Mahony also used last weeks game to give a number of players some game time off the bench, with Barry Kelly, Kieran Conroy, Neil Douglas, and Mikey Sweeney all getting their first game time of the national league this term.

While they might not have the glamour of the championship or the expectation of the national league, Mayo and Galway games are always somthing to savour. And only a fortnight after they came together in the opening round of the league, Mayo and Galway will lock horns again on Sunday afternoon in McHale Park in the final of the FBD League with the prize of an away final against New York later in the year in the offing. Galway will be gunning for Mayo after they were comprehensively beaten in the league opener. Mayo picked up their second win of the campaign last weekend with a 1-12 to 1-11 win over Tyrone in Healy Park. Mayo hung on to come out on top by the most slender of margins, after hitting six points without reply to put them four points up midway through the second half, before the homeside rallied in the final 10 minutes to cut the gap to one as time ticked down. Mark Ronaldson had his scoring boots on again as he continued to carry on the good form he has shown since the turn of the year, bagging 1-6 last Sunday, with four of his points coming from play. Donal Vaughan was another who impressed over the course of the game as the young Ballinrobe man continues to develop well in the early stages of his inter-county career. John O’Mahony also used last weeks game to give a number of players some game time off the bench, with Barry Kelly, Kieran Conroy, Neil Douglas, and Mikey Sweeney all getting their first game time of the national league this term.

This Sunday Galway football manager Joe Kernan will find himself back on the sidelines in McHale Park, Castlebar, facing Mayo and John O’ Mahony in the FBD league final only two weeks after his team suffered a humiliating defeat in the first round of the national football league to the same outfit.

Just after the final whistle had blown in McHale Park last Sunday evening and with the taste of victory still fresh in his mouth, Mayo manager John O’Mahony was still urging caution despite the comprehensive manner in which his side had just dismantled Galway. “It's two points at the end of the day, you won't be asking me about this next September, or October, or even July,” was O’Mahony take on people getting carried away following last Sunday’s result.