Getting the match-ups right has gone a long way for Kerry and Mayo in recent years. We think of Aidan O’Mahony on Michael Murphy in the 2014 final, Lee Keegan on Enda Smith in the 2017 All-Ireland quarter-final replay and just last weekend Patrick Durcan tagging Ryan McHugh.

Mayo will need to do something monumental to beat Dublin on Saturday but former forward John Casey says it would be in keeping with their “bat-shit crazy” season.

Imagine trying to convince somebody that, after 68 years of trial and epic failure, the prize they crave so badly will never be theirs, always beyond them.

And with that, the Super 8 became the final four with the remaining quartet arguably the best in the country.

In first-half injury time, with Mayo having pushed their advantage over a spluttering Donegal from two points down to six up, Fionn McDonagh hit Donegal’s Jamie Brennan with a ferocious, fair shoulder to win possession right in front of a heaving Gerry McDonald stand.

Andy Moran kicked two injury-time points to ensure his Mayo side sealed a place in the All-Ireland semi-finals as they withheld any notions of Donegal comeback.

Friends Buckley and Rochford must pit their wits against each other, writes Christy O’Connor.

Kerry defender Paul Murphy has warned that one win will not make their summer and has urged his teammates to build on the foundations they have laid with Sunday’s victory over Mayo.

Kerry don’t lose many championship games in Killarney, but Mayo could cause Peter Keane’s charges a mountain of problems.

By the time the final whistle blew in Portlaoise last Sunday afternoon, the landscape of this season’s Super 8s was finally set.

Collateral damage or a typically tigerish season? This evening’s all-or-nothing duel with a county they have not beaten in five league and championship games will go a long way to defining Mayo’s 2019.

So far the evidence would suggest Mayo are going down a similar route to 2017 for their qualifier odyssey.

When you referee a provincial final it puts you in a good position for later on in the year and both Paud O’Dwyer and John Keenan will feel they didn’t lose any ground after their performances yesterday.

There was no shortage of drama or excitement in Castlebar as the All-Ireland SFC Qualifiers served up a thriller with Mayo doing just enough to book their place in the next round.

Cian Lynch, Declan Hannon, Gearoid Hegarty, and Graeme Mulcahy have been restored to the Limerick team for tomorrow’s Munster hurling final.

Mayo manager James Horan has named his starting line-up for tomorrow's All Ireland senior football championship round 3 qualifier against Armagh in Castlebar.

In the typical nature of Mayo championship games, there was enough in their five-point win over Down on Saturday night for Mayo manager James Horan to get his teeth into when the post-match analysis starts in earnest.

Mayo got their hunt for a Super 8's place back on track after that messy Roscommon defeat in Connacht, with a typically nerve-shredding win over Down on Saturday night.

It was two minutes after 10pm when the Roscommon team bus, led by two garda squad cars, departed the scene of a most unexpected raid.

Dean Rock and Cillian O’Connor will both have similar feelings this morning.

Mayo manager James Horan has made three changes for their Connacht Senior Football Championship semi-final against Roscommon on Saturday.

Mayo got their 2019 championship campaign off to an impressive start with a facile win at Gaelic Park against a New York side who were outclassed.

Mayo captain Diarmuid O'Connor has missed out on the Mayo team for their Championship opener in New York.

Jason Doherty has insisted he won’t shy away from continuing as Mayo’s primary free-taker if called upon for the championship.

Long serving Mayo defender Keith Higgins believes the truth about their Allianz league campaign lies somewhere between the boom and bust scenarios that were painted.

Mayo 3-11 Kerry 2-10

The sight of thousands of Mayo young supporters on the field at MacHale Park after yesterday’s win over Monaghan was a timely reminder of just how popular the county’s footballers have become in recent years.

Mayo 3-15 Monaghan 1-18

The chance of claiming a first national title in 18 years is not to be sniffed at but in the event Mayo do fall short of reaching the final tomorrow James Horan seems satisfied with what he has learned from their Division 1 exploits.

A foul night but an immensely gratifying one for Mayo, who not only ended Kerry’s 100% Division One record in the Kingdom’s back yard, but got an unexpected favour from Tyrone to tee them up for a possible final repeat with Peter Keane’s side.

Saturday night brought further evidence — not that much more was needed — that the balance of power in Connacht football has unmistakably shifted in recent seasons.

Mayo 0-12 Galway 1-11

The sight of some supporters streaming out of MacHale Park at half-time on Saturday night told its own story.

Mayo’s stand-in captain Jason Doherty revealed he took more than a dozen penalties on Saturday ahead of Sunday’s FBD League encounter which ended up being decided by an historic shootout.

James Horan wants to make history in his second stint as Mayo manager but little did he think that a nugget of it would come in his first match back as they advanced to a FBD League semi-final showdown with Galway on the back of a penalty shootout.

As has been their habit since the innocent summer of 2011, the Mayo football team hasn’t been short of takers lining up to bury and praise them in recent days.

Here’s five talking points from this weekend’s Senior Football Championship.

Not since 1998 and 1999 has there been this much fanfare about Connacht championship games, writes John Divilly

Although it wasn’t widely identified as a trend — more reported as a series of unrelated events — an intriguing development in 2017 was the signing by the managers of the country’s top four football teams to stay on until 2020, writes Kieran Shannon.

Tyrone 2-14 - Mayo 0-8: After what he described as his team’s best performance in years, Tyrone manager Mickey Harte took aim at those who had been critical of Tyrone’s tactical approach this year.

The game panned out along expected lines with Dublin racking up another routine victory, and Jim Gavin stuck to a familiar script afterwards when he spoke to reporters.

Table-toppers Dublin continued their relentless march through this Allianz League campaign with a routine victory over beaten All-Ireland finalists Mayo in Castlebar.

Mayo 2-9 Kerry 1-15... Some league matches are straightforward affairs, easy to summarise after unfolding along predictable lines.

Like their last two All-Ireland final clashes, champions Dublin have pipped Mayo by one in the 2017 PwC All-Stars, picking up seven to Mayo’s six.