Main men firing, familiarity and spite: The makings of a Mayo ambush

This Sunday's Connacht final is a seismic game for Mayo manager Kevin McStay.

Kevin McStay has used 50 players since taking over as Mayo manager in 2023. Nobody has played more minutes in that time than Ryan O'Donoghue. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

The big one. Somehow, despite a fiendishly difficult group awaiting the winners and the continued devaluing of the provincial championship, this still matters. Galway and Mayo always play by their own set of rules.

Forget recent form. Only two of their last ten championship meetings have been more than a one-score game. You could only call one of those results a true shock. In 2016, five-in-a-row champions Mayo went looking for their fifteenth consecutive win in the Connacht championship. Instead, Kevin Walsh’s Galway produced the upset of the summer.