Of all the body-blows shipped by the poor, traduced provincial championships over the past decade or so, Kevin McStay's comments after Mayo's landmark win in Killarney may prove fatal.
"We took two weeks off, just the nature of the calendar. It's a funny one," McStay told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
"Giving lads an opportunity to get away, I know a lot of them got away to the sun. Got a break from us, fed up listening to us for a while. When we came back we doubled down in terms of, 'Come on lads, we've put a lot of work into this. We can't walk away from this, we have to plough on.' We got a brilliant reaction."
It read like the most compelling advertorial anyone has yet heard for throwing out the reserves in the provincials. Maybe treat them like Fergie did the League Cup - or whatever it happened to be called at the time - in his and United's pomp.
While the Mayo lads were lounging by the pool somewhere in the Mediterranean, their rivals were breaking tackles and recycling possession in the blustery surrounds of the Hyde.
McStay confirmed that this wasn't the plan all along - "sure how could you plan for it? You'd be mad." Certainly, any plan that asks Mayo people to contemplate a scenario where Roscommon supporters are leaping deliriously around Castlebar is probably a hard sell.
It nonetheless bolsters the narrative that the powers-that-be are resigned to the provincials weakening over time.
Having failed to jettison them in more cut and dried fashion at Congress when Proposal B came up a couple of years back, they are happy to do so via the Boiling Frog method, whereby they steadily diminish in relevance until the decision becomes a fait accompli.
At the end of the opening weekend of what the excellent Michael Murphy rather generously termed 'the Super 16s', we see Connacht continuing to build its case as the finest province.
We had the 1, 2, 3 in the top league and now a big statement at the start of the All-Ireland group phase. Even Sligo, in way over their heads in the Connacht decider, mustered a draw at home to a characteristically flaky Kildare.
When the All-Ireland football championship last embraced major change, Connacht teams scooped the lot. Mayo won the league before flaming out against the Rossies, as is tradition. Roscommon won the province and celebrated with their characteristic abandon. Having already ended their famine three years earlier, Galway finished the year with the big one and celebrated with their trademark reserve.
Could we possibly be bound for a similar carve-up this year? (That would mean, of course, that Roscommon are owed the All-Ireland).
All the people who suggested that Mayo might benefit from the time off couldn't have believed they'd be proven this correct. Lee Keegan has noted in his RTÉ column last week that there was a distinct lack of the usual championship buzz around Mayo ahead of this one, which he partly put down to vagaries of the new structure.
The Mayo contingent, traditionally the most helplessly devoted band of supporters in Irish sport, travelled in poorer numbers than usual down to Killarney.
Perhaps a small dose of apathy was just what this Mayo crop needed. Having been out of sight, out of mind and, in the case of some, out of the country, they fired out of the traps on Saturday, overwhelming their lethargic hosts with power and athleticism.
Aidan O'Shea, a haunted and beleaguered presence for several years, picked up another Man of the Match trinket. Matty Ruane, a classic Mayo middle third operator, cantered through the heart of the Kerry defence on a few occasions. Ryan O'Donoghue and James Carr were lively and prolific up front, chipping over three from play.
David Clifford, as he did against Tyrone in 2021, fared strongly in adversity, bagging an impressive 0-08, five from play. He briefly morphed into Andy Cole circa May 1995 at one point in the second half, impetuously pinging a series of goal-shots in the space of a few minutes, all of which were blocked. In hindsight, with the game still in the balance, popping the few points might have been the more prudent option.
Galway's performance was more underwhelming, though they kept up their winning streak against Ulster teams under Joyce. Christy O'Connor detailed last week that Joyce had won 10 of 12 matches against Ulster opposition as manager, drawing one and losing one.
The only defeat was the 2021 relegation playoff against Monaghan in Clones - and no one who watched it could quite fathom how they lost it, least of all Joyce himself, who spent the aftermath staring at the ground and shaking his head, like a man surveying his wrecked front bonnet after a traffic accident.
Since the game, it's been widely asserted that the match changed with Frank Burns' sending off, though Galway led 5-3 at the time and only wound up winning 0-16 to 0-13.
Not even the most uncompromising members of the man's game lobby were inclined to raise much of a stink about the sending off. As the rugby referees are wont to say, there was a high degree of danger there.
Niall Morgan's black card which followed was a little more contentious, the Tyrone keeper being sent to the bin for the manner of his protests when demanding a card for Ian Burke's high tackle.
If anything, the sending off, the black card and the burst of fractiousness that followed seemed to have the effect of perking Tyrone up. They dug in well defensively and were very economical in attack in the second half, though could never get level.
Galway fared little better with the two-man advantage that they did in '83 and appeared somewhat unnerved by the scenario, as if harrassed by the idea that they should be running up the score. They only added one point during the eight-minute period.
Joyce wasn't blown away by his team's display, bemoaning that they had been too "lateral." Galway resemble a team who are acutely conscious of keeping their natural swagger in check.
Back in the 'surfer dude/ modern trad musician' era, they were regarded as the most cavalier and casual team around, now they're one of the most careful and disciplined. Either way, they're in a very strong position now, with a routine looking assignment against Westmeath looming, while Tyrone and Armagh tear into one another in Omagh.
The provincials may be a fast depreciating currency but the battle for supremacy between the province's big two continues to rage.
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