After all its tribulations, the Allianz National Football League has thrown up an interesting final. Aside from their common provenance, Mayo and Galway have something else in common as they count down to tomorrow afternoon's final at Croke Park (TG4, 3.45). Both have spent a successful League introducing young players and largely being pleased with the results. There the road diverges.

Mayo are at a more obvious stage of reconstruction than Galway. In Pat Holmes's second year, he has adopted the brave policy of going with talented young forwards from the current under-21 side.

But as the stakes get higher what happens if it becomes apparent that the youngsters are being pushed too far too soon?

John O'Mahony's problems are the diametric opposite. Galway have reached a NFL final with half their regular team missing. What happens here if the young players do prove that they have what it takes with all those All-Ireland medallists on the bench? In ways this would be a pleasant conundrum to solve.

Given that certain players - Jarlath Fallon, Tomas Mannion and Paul Clancy for instance - are sure to return, what are the pressure points in the current side? For a full-back line of novices, Micheal Comer, Kieran Fitzgerald and Lorcan Colleran did very well as a unit against Sligo in the semi-final. Comer is regarded as the likeliest long-term prospect and it will be interesting to see how he gets on with Trevor Mortimer.

One of the most intriguing questions hangs over Michael Donnellan who was exceptionally good against Sligo. Playing at centrefield gave him the freedom to patrol the field and removed any suggestion of scoring pressure from him. But who would partner him? Could Sean O Domhnaill anchor a centrefield? Has Joe Bergin the experience to do so? Will Kevin Walsh be fit enough?

The attack moved smoothly and menacingly when the forwards put their mind to the task and would surely cause immense problems to the Mayo defence of the first quarter last Sunday.

Once the backs tightened up, the party was over for Roscommon but they were still in with a shout after an hour. Troublingly for Holmes, it was his forward replacements who did the damage but he sticks with the original line-up. Given the experimental nature of the two teams, it's hard to be too sure about the outcome. On the one hand, Mayo football is in buoyant form at present and will have the Crossmolina players' upbeat Croke Park experience available on the bench; on the other, Galway looked the better of the finalists last weekend. With their more practised forwards - specifically Padraig Joyce and Derek Savage - the Connacht champions pose the bigger threat and can bag their first NFL title in 20 years.