MAYO AT A CROSSROADS

CONNACHT final, Galway and Mayo. This weekend you're looking at one team which is an actual All-Ireland contender and another which is just about hanging in there as a top team.

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Maybe that's harsh on Mayo. They'll always be a top team, but they are a county that perplexes me.

I've tried so many times to understand Mayo over the years and failed.

I've gone through a range of emotions with them from hating them and respecting them to getting frustrated with them.

The average Mayo supporter deserves serious credit for dealing with that on a regular basis. It's always a rollercoaster with them and this year is no different.

Mayo stumbled into a League Final. If Donegal had any conviction in that last group game, they'd have beaten Mayo and in that League Final Kerry comfortably got the better of them.

They stuttered over Sligo and Leitrim. How do you explain the fact they just stutter over teams like that?

They're levels above them and they're just getting through the games. They actually look like a team that knows deep down they're not good enough.

Contrast that to the way Galway disposed of Roscommon.

When you step back and look at Kevin McStay's time with Mayo, what is the general consensus? First of all, I've serious respect for someone like McStay, to leave the comfort of the critics chair and go and try it.

In today's world there aren't enough people like McStay, willing to step off the ditch and actually go and do it. Easier to sit back and whinge about things.

But I don't think he's got enough from this group. Once everyone is on the field, there is a good group of players there.