Mayo’s experience likely to prove too much for new-look Tribesmen

There was a moment of truth during the launch of their championship by the Connacht Council when it was put to Mayo manager James Horan by master of ceremonies Jim Carney that for all the Connacht champions' apparent superiority, these matches always seem come down to a converted free or some other point.

Horan doesn’t always heed the convention of not frightening the horses in these sorts of situations so he took issue with the suggestion, saying more or less that if a team prepares properly and is focused, it can deliver on its favouritism.

That epitomises what Horan’s management has done for Mayo. They are prepared and focused and never get caught on the hop. If more highly rated teams aren’t prepared and focused, Mayo will do for them as well. In other words it’s hard to imagine them being the victims of a “shock defeat”.

Which is very much what it’s going to take for Galway to exploit home advantage and come out on top of tomorrow’s first big championship match of the summer.

Mayo's injury list is indeed extensive but if they get over this, there's another month before the semi-final against Roscommon and most of the current problems should be all but cleared up by then.

Strong rumours
In fact there are strong rumours that All Star Alan Dillon forward may start tomorrow with another potential change in defence.

Galway’s latest underage triumph points up the anomalous position of the seniors. Four All-Ireland under-21 triumphs in 12 years have not alone not yielded senior success but during that time the county has managed just three Connacht titles and a handful of appearances in Croke Park but not a single championship win there since the 2001 All-Ireland.

Galway manager Alan Mulholland was an outstanding underage player with a senior career that concluded before the senior success under John O’Mahony and he has gone on to be an equally outstanding underage manager. Mulholland has been very slow to proclaim bright horizons on the basis of the recent silverware at minor and under-21 despite being sympathetic to the players he managed to both 2007 minor and 2011 under-21 titles.

Centrefield has needed reinforcement for a long time and the arrival of Fiontan Ó Curraoin and Thomas Flynn has promised a great deal but both have been hindered by injuries.

Flynn is selected at wing forward with Niall Coleman partnering Ó Curraoin in the middle but whatever the eventual configuration it will have a hard time against the O'Shea brothers now that Aidan is restored to his optimum position.

This is the first championship match of the post-Pádraic Joyce era, which has lasted 15 years, which is symbolic of the need for the interim generations to step up. But can they?

Although Mayo are missing forwards their stock of serviceable replacements is reasonably deep and the spread of scorers commendable. Galway without Finian Hanley are missing a key leadership figure in defence and that will help to balance the opposition losses.

Although Galway’s forwards have quality there is a lack of forcefulness about the attack as a whole that makes it difficult to back against a practised and by now well-drilled defence.

Whereas a poor display by Mayo is unlikely to go unpunished, the champions’ co-ordinates are fairly steady and likely to hold.