‘Deserve’ has got nothing to do with it

Mayo have reasonable grounds for hope without resorting to arguments about entitlement. But they’re likely to come up shy in September again

THOSE who have spent any time analysing the language used in the run-up to tomorrow’s All Ireland final will have heard the term esprit de corps more than once from Dublin manager Jim Gavin.

Esprit de corps is, according to most sources, equivalent to morale — the capacity of a group’s members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship.