Mayo play host to the Dubs

Mayo have enjoyed a morale-boosting start to the year with victory in the FBD League and a good win over Laois in their opening Allianz Football League game.

The visit of Dublin this week is the perfect follow-up. Beneficial or not, expectations will be raised in the county after last year’s Connacht title and the toppling of Cork in the last eight.

That is something that usually does not suit Mayo, but this young team is developing, and this weekend’s test will help their progression. Conor Mortimer looks like being a massive addition to the panel and has began the year in excellent form.

It is important to keep perspective over league results, but any away win in inter-county football is notable. The difference between Laois and Mayo was the attacking players. Mortimer, Alan Freeman, Alan Dillon, Barry Moran and Andy Moran will usually be very reliable in putting together a match-winning score and Laois didn’t do enough to stay in the game.

The Dubs will be disappointed with their defeat against Kerry last week. Much of the talk before the game was a chance of revenge for the Kingdom and that it would give them greater hunger to win in the match. But both sides shared the same level of ambition - it was slopiness that cost Pat Gilroy’s men. It was a typical early-year performance and not something you would associate with a team as well prepared as Gilroy’s men.

With one All-Ireland win and the end of a long pursuit of the game’s ultimate prize, it would be easy to fall into a belief that they become infallible from hereon in. It is far too early in the year to even suggest that was the case last week, but it certainly does offer a reminder that Kerry are just waiting for the chance to overthrow the Dubs.

Pat Gilroy was critical of his players after the game in GAA HQ and they will have worked on the basics this week. With improved passing they have enough to see off Mayo in what should be another fascinating tussle in this opening stages of the league.

Verdict: Dublin