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.

Two key members of past Mayo football management teams have painted a revealing portrait of a ‘phenomenal’ group of men whose crucial attributes are their ordinariness and thirst for information.

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.

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.

The group-deciding Super 8 encounter this evening in Castlebar has the potential to be explosive, a real old-style knockout championship game. There is no love lost between Mayo and Donegal dating back to the now infamous challenge game in 2012 and there are a lot of ifs, buts, and maybes making it a hard game to call.

Former Donegal footballer Brendan Devenney expects Declan Bonner’s men to dump Mayo out of the championship this Saturday but believes Donegal, along with Kerry and Tyrone, are playing for second place thereafter, as Dublin will not be toppled.

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

Are you a Gaelic football fan who is interested in American politics, but doesn’t want to listen to a 90-minute New Yorker podcast in order to sound hip at the watercooler? Here’s a breakdown of the contenders as Super 8 teams (and Galway)...

Shortly after the final whistle, the two teams mingled, swapped jerseys, and smiled in the middle of the field. Level 15 times and never more than two points difference between them, it was all they could do.

The climax to the second weekend of Super 8 football was needed to keep us interested. In truth, the other games disappointed in various ways.

A last gasp Michael Murphy free levelled this game for a 15th and final time in a cracking Super 8, Round 2 game.

Alan Foley Just under a year ago Patrick McBrearty trundled out of MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey on crutches after his Donegal team-mates had squandered a four-point lead against Tyrone to miss out on a place in the All-Ireland semi-finals.

You know what? These Super 8s might be something after all.

Donegal were 9-point winners against Meath at the sun-kissed Ballybofey, although the scoreboard only tells half the story of a gripping contest.

Here’s John Fogarty’s low-down on the final eight for the Sam Maguire Cup.

An irate Mickey Harte delivered a damning assessment of the GAA’s black card rule after his nephew Peter picked up a third in four games to leave him suspended for Saturday’s Super 8s clash with Roscommon.

Former Tyrone star Owen Mulligan believes the ‘knives will be out’ for long-serving manager Mickey Harte if the Red Hand fail to come through tomorrow’s tricky All-Ireland qualifier trip to Newbridge.

Ryan McHugh doesn’t remember much about his father Martin leading Cavan to an Ulster title, but he says his family will always have a special bond with the county.

Summer certainly hasn’t started temperature-wise but from a refereeing perspective it did yesterday. The games in Cavan and Kilkenny swung the Championship into life.

A short-term gain for Davy Fitzgerald yesterday could turn out to be a long-term pain. His intervention seemed to upset Galway’s momentum and got his players going.

One of Jim McGuinness’s first tasks when he finally landed the role of Donegal senior manager heading into the Baltic winter of 2010 was to cobble together a backroom team.

Donegal All-Star Ryan McHugh has admitted that last year’s championship campaign turned decisively against them once Paddy McBrearty suffered a season-ending injury.

Donegal waltzed back to the top flight of the Allianz League with a comprehensive 13-point win over a listless Kildare at Fr Tierney Park in Ballyshannon yesterday.

With Cork unable to do themselves any favours on Saturday, it was the unintentional goodwill of others that has them still in with a slim chance of avoiding the drop.

Donegal’s fourth league win of the spring has kept alive their promotion bid, while, in the process, moving Cork perilously closer to the relegation trapdoor.

Tipperary knew the implications of defeat here. Injury-ravaged and with only one point from a possible six, not to mention upcoming trips to Armagh and Newbridge, relegation to Division 3 would have been near unavoidable.

Ryan McHugh has put his injuries behind him and is now concentrating his efforts on getting Donegal back to Division 1 and preparing for the defence of the Ulster SFC come summer.

Martin McElhinney says the current Donegal squad is the best he’s been involved in.

A bleed on the brain and two concussions in the space of seven months convinced Ryan McHugh to take a complete break from football.

It’s All-Stars week and in the interest of keeping you informed, there is a change in the selection process from last year — an outfield player can be chosen for an award in an area other than the one they were nominated in, writes John Fogarty 

YESTERDAY’S events in Thurles told us more about a man who wasn’t on the field than one who was. If anybody was in doubt about the Westmeath man taking charge of the All-Ireland final, they aren’t now.

Michael Murphy gave us a glimpse of his past brilliance on Saturday. Past brilliance as one of the best Number 14s in GAA history. He has dominated hundreds of ‘squares’ for the best part of a decade.

Croke Park has been treated by the GAA public lately as if it were a vacuous hunk on the receiving end of a particularly awkward Love Island dumping.

Donegal 2-18 Fermanagh 0-12

My expectation that Fermanagh would make things horrible for Donegal in yesterday’s Ulster final never materialised. Perhaps I hadn’t factored in how much of an occasion this was for the Fermanagh players.

Donegal sucked all the energy and drama out of Ulster final day on Sunday afternoon, strolling to a 12-point win against a Fermanagh side that never looked capable of mounting the challenge needed to upset the odds.

Donegal 2-22 Down 1-12

Donegal 2-20 Cavan 1-15

Monaghan 1-16 Donegal 1-10: Monaghan are safe in Division One, for another season, while Donegal will have a final chance at survival on Sunday, when they host Mayo in a winner-takes-all contest in Ballybofey.

Donegal 1-16 Kildare 3-7: Donegal’s poorest performance of Division 1 this term was still enough to post a first win, at Kildare’s expense.

Donegal came through something of a must-win to give themselves a fighting chance of Division 1 survival at Kildare’s expense at Ballyshannon.

There were fresh-faces aplenty on show at Letterkenny in the respective Donegal and Galway ranks but, in the end, it was left to experience to settle the issue.