'You should be at their level' — How Mayo finally kicked the Kerry hoodoo 

For the county, the team itself and the men involved the watershed was a league semi-final of 2012 – and the work done away from the lights preceding it.

A MOMENT IN TIME: Mayo's Richie Feeney celebrates after scoring the winning point in the Allianz Football League Division 1 Semi-Final between Kerry and Mayo. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne

When Jack O’Connor succeeded Páidí Ó Sé as Kerry manager, one of the outcomes whatever about intentions of his tenure was to give Mayo such a shellshock in Croke Park that it would put them on their arses for almost ten f****n’ years.

The same summer of 2004 that Páidí was marooned and winning up in Westmeath, colourfully telling Alan Mangan & Co how a loaf of bread and a grain of rice could relate to football, Mayo were the in-form team in the country, effectively ending the John O’Mahony era in Galway and then Tyrone’s first term as All Ireland champions.