Mayo manager Andy Moran said he wasn't "too stressed" about the manner of their loss to Kerry last weekend and admitted it was probably better from a preparation perspective that his team missed out on a league final.
Moran made a host of changes from the team that was hammered in Tralee but his side were easy winners over a very experimental Roscommon team in Castlebar.
Jack Carney, Aidan O'Shea, Paul Towey and Ryan O'Donoghue all hit goals in a 21-point victory. While it was a relatively low-stakes encounter, it appeared late on that Mayo might end up in a league final after all, with Armagh and Kerry involved in a ding-dong tussle in the Athletic Grounds.
In the end, Kerry prevented Armagh from finding a winner in the final play and the draw was enough for them to grab a league final spot ahead of Mayo.
"It was a weird one there coming down the stretch," Moran told RTÉ Sport afterwards.
"Because if you have a three-week run in here to your first round of the championship, it's good because you can give the lads a couple of days off and then get your normal two-week [lead-in].
"But if you go into a league final and you have to give them a week off, you've only eight days until the London game.
"You wouldn't mind being in there [a league final]. You'd like to be in there.
"But in terms of planning and strategy, it's probably better that we're not there."
Mayo's generally positive league campaign - in which Kobe McDonald announced himself as a breakout star - was badly soured by their 16-point hammering at the hands of a rampant Kerry in the penultimate round, which was assumed to have put a dampener on the county's status as contenders.
Moran, however, suggests there was something of an over-reaction to the result.
"We weren't too stressed about last weekend if I'm being perfectly straight with you. We got to eight points, we made six changes last week going down to Kerry.
"We knew it was experimental and if Kerry get a run on you, you've no chance. I think other people got more excited than we did if I'm being honest."
Mayo made a suite of changes for the Roscommon game, even if they were ultimately outdone in that respect by their opponents. More than the one-sided victory, Moran was pleased to hand starts to a number of debutants.
"We made eight changes today. I think we got five more debutants which was great and we'll just move on from here," he said.
"We threw Jack [Livingstone] into goals, Hugh O'Loughlin in at wing back. Big Seamus Howard there in the middle of the field. Then we got John McMonigle in, a guy who we have great hopes for in the future. And we got Kuba Callaghan in, who's a bit older.
"We always kind of earmarked this game for Tommy Conroy to come back. It was great for him to get in there and get a few points as well."
