Which Mayo will turn up against Kerry on Saturday? Seamie O'Shea is as unsure as the rest of us.
Almost six weeks have passed since Mayo's Connacht Championship exit at the hands of Roscommon, which came just seven days after they beat Galway to lift the league title at Croke Park.
Kevin McStay has demanded a reaction from his players but they face the toughest of starts to the All-Ireland series when they tackle the defending champions in the opening round of the All-Ireland series in Killarney.
O’Shea was involved in a number of do-or-die battles with Kerry, most memorably in the 2014 and 2017 All-Ireland semi-finals when replays and extra-time were required to separate the sides, but there is not as much at stake this weekend and the former midfielder believes that could work in the visitors’ favour.
Mayo were beaten by Roscommon in last month's Connacht Championship quarter-finals
"Where are Mayo at? It’s hard to know," said O’Shea, speaking at the launch of this year's Electric Ireland All-Ireland Championships.
"They obviously went after the league it went really well for them. They got on a bit of run and won a couple of tight games that could have gone either way, and then finished it off really strongly with a good win against Galway.
"I know they had a couple of injuries and they were missing a few. It’s hard to know what kind of team will show up at the weekend.
"They’re still there or thereabouts. They’re in a group of four to six teams where there isn’t a huge gap between any of them. They’re still in that conversation.
"It’ll be interesting to see how they show up. Regardless of the result they’re still in a reasonable position over the next month or so to make an impact.
"It’s a massive ask to go down to Fitzgerald Stadium and beat Kerry. I don’t know the last time they lost a game there.
"Kerry are rightly favourites, they were obviously pretty comfortable in Munster, so there’s not a huge amount of pressure.
Kerry cruised past Clare to collect another Munster title
"The funny thing is, if Mayo win it’ll be brilliant and will put them in a great position to go directly into a semi-final, [but] if they were to go the whole way they’d probably have to beat Kerry again at some stage anyway. Certainly it would put them in a really dominant position in the group and you would expect them to qualify from there. They’d draw a huge amount of confidence from it.
"They’re probably not expected to win given how good Kerry are and how difficult it is to beat them down there, so it’s not the end of the world. It’ll be important if they don’t win, that they pick themselves up pretty quickly and get ready for the following two games."
Despite their struggles in attack against Roscommon, O’Shea believes Mayo possess the necessary firepower to get scores against Kerry.
The big area of focus for Mayo will be in defence, where they must stifle a Kerry attack that scored 5-39 in two Munster Championship games.
"Limiting their better players is typically where they need to start," said O’Shea. "The two Cliffords, Sean O’Shea, making sure they get those match-ups right.
"They’ve been coming by scores pretty well throughout the year. If they have got everyone available, then you’d expect them to get scores.
"It’s how they match up at the other end and at least limit those lads’ influence as much as possible, and not give away frees. Sean O’Shea is as good as anyone in the county, he's going to punish you, so be as disciplined as possible at the back.
"They’ve struggled at times in getting possession around the middle of the field as well. If they can break even there, there is enough scores in the team if they’ve everyone available.
"It’ll be trying to limit where possible the influence of some of their better players, or doing as good a job as possible."
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