It used be thought you couldn’t win anything with young players, until Alex Ferguson came along and turned that on its head with his team of tyros from the class of ’92.

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.

I can’t tell you how much of a buzz it would have been for David Gough to have taken charge of Saturday’s game in Castlebar.

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.

Former Mayo selector Tony McEntee insists tomorrow’s Super 8 decider is not personal for Stephen Rochford - but claims Donegal are in difficulty going to Castlebar.

Patience will be a virtue for Mayo against Donegal in their Super 8 encounter at MacHale Park on Saturday evening, according to Alan Dillon.

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

Former Galway footballer Seán Óg de Paor does not expect Kevin Walsh to abandon his favoured defensive approach in tomorrow’s season-defining clash with neighbours Mayo.

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

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.

A Fintan Cregg point in the third minute of second-half stoppages scored Roscommon a famous Connacht semi-final win over Mayo, the county’s first championship triumph at the venue since 1986.

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

Not one for watching recorded sport, especially if the result is known in advance, but an exception was made for this year’s Division One football league final between Mayo and Kerry.

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

Mayo look set to be without their inspirational captain Diarmuid O’Connor for Sunday’s Connacht SFC quarter-final with New York at Gaelic Park.

Mayo manager James Horan has cut six players from his panel ahead of their Connacht championship opener in New York on May 5.

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.

It turned out to be an exhilarating, exciting, and excellent game of football did this Allianz Division One decider between Mayo and Kerry.

Certain words have featured quite a lot in interviews with James Horan over the last few months.

The contrast couldn’t be starker. Of their 26-man panel that travelled to Roscommon last Sunday, 11 Kerry players have yet to lose a national final in Croke Park.

David Clifford is in line to make his first start for Kerry this season as he is named in the full-forward line in tomorrow’s final round Division 1 game in Roscommon.

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.

Former Tyrone attacker Owen Mulligan has criticised the GAA's proposed one-game suspension of Donie Smith for an apparent eye-gouge as a "cop out".

These are players to be admired and celebrated, not pitied, says Paul Rouse.

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.

Mayo will struggle to make the Super 8s, according to former Kerry footballer Bryan Sheehan.

Mayo 0-12 Galway 1-12

It was, without doubt, one of the poorest games of football between these two great rivals in living memory. 

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

Former All-Ireland winning Tyrone defender Conor Gormley has admitted the county lacks serious firepower and has challenged the current forwards to prove they’re ‘marquee’ talents.

There’s a school of thought that Chris Barrett should have been named man-of-the-match in last year’s All-Ireland football final.

Reigning Footballer of the Year Andy Moran has admitted he acted out of character when he remonstrated with referee Maurice Deegan last month and says he was “disappointed” with his actions.

Poor decision making invariably leads to poor results.

The talking points from this weekend’s GAA action. 

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.

Monaghan 0-12 Mayo 0-13: One point sourced from a disputed free was all that separated Monaghan and Mayo in Clones yesterday and Malachy O’Rourke was of the opinion that his men may have edged it had the crest on their chests been different.

AT the halfway point of the decade, I selected the players who were best positioned to make any all-decade side.

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.

For the first time in the history of the PwC All-Stars, there are four candidates for the footballer of the year including two goalkeepers, David Clarke and Stephen Cluxton, writes John Fogarty.

For the first time in the history of the PwC All-Stars, there are four candidates for the footballer of the year including two goalkeepers, David Clarke and Stephen Cluxton.

Before considering the wreath and awkward handshake for the Mayo post-mortem, consider perhaps a microscope and tweezers. We’re down to the smallest margins here.