Great expectations for Mayo fans

IT’S been a strange, strange few weeks out west. Mayo crowned champions of Connacht, Roscommon showing potential for the future and John O’Mahony retiring from the management game.

But one thing remains constant. The expectation levels in John Maughan’s Mayo rest somewhere between stratospheric and plain unrealistic for another trip to Croker. The fact that the All-Ireland champions, Tyrone, provide the opposition is glossed over by supporters questing for Sam Maguire after the disappointments of the past decade.

In the week leading up to Mayo’s Connacht semi-final against Galway they were quoted at 33-1 to win the All-Ireland, way behind such teams as Meath, Kildare and Cork. Oh, we of little faith.