Galway manager Kevin Walsh admits that the county's strong showing in the Allianz Football League has raised expectations ahead of the Championship.
Despite being newly promoted, the Tribesmen were the only unbeaten team in Division 1 before finishing runners-up to Dublin after a closely fought final.
"I'm sure there is (more expectation)," said Walsh. "There has to be and if you, I suppose go back to maybe three, four years ago when we were playing Mayo there wasn't as much talk as there is now.
"We'd be hoping, the likes of getting to a League final, maybe things might have been learned. Hopefully they're growing as people."
Walsh wouldn't be drawn on whether his young team are now genuine contenders for Sam Maguire in his fourth season in charge but insisted holding their own at the top table meant there would be no "fear factor" against elite opposition.
"It was our first season in Division 1, we held our own, we are now playing the second best team in Ireland so we can’t be getting drawn into that," he said.
"We just have to look at this game, wherever it takes us.
"We were seven years trying to get up to Division 1 and now that we got there it was always going to be a big spark factor for us.
"You would be hoping that it would help our guys come the summer no matter who is put in front of us. There should be no fear factor there and that should be one bonus of playing Division 1.
"I think particularly going up to Donegal and maybe holding on for a one-point win (boosted confidence). When you're made to hold on, it was a good experience for the lads and maybe a bit of confidence came in heading down to Kerry. Overall we'd have certainly taken the league."
Galway will face Mayo in a Connacht SFC quarter-final on 13 May, aiming to record a third provincial victory in a row over their old rivals.
Despite his side's recent dominance in the fixture, Walsh insists the two-in-a-row All-Ireland finalists Mayo will be favourites in a fortnight's time.
"We're still underdogs, there's no doubt about that," he said. "We're playing the second best team in Ireland, but the expectation is that we'll run them very very close. We'll have to deal with that.
"There were lots of teams in Division 1 that would feel they only had half teams out. Particularly with Mayo, they'll have a lot of fresh legs coming back with all the players that were missing."
There were three red cards when the sides met in the League in February, which ended in another victory for Galway.
Walsh suggests that the physical edge that has re-emerged in encounters between the neighbours is a sign that the gap is closing.
"I suppose if you go back three or four years ago, maybe the expectation wasn’t there at all for Galway to perform or even compete. But that’s something that has probably changed in the last two or three years, which is good for us," reflected Walsh.
"Go back to when the teams were very closely together, one or two-point games, which I was in as a player myself, those games were quite physical.
"They were always going to be physical because at the end of the day you had a man to mark and hopefully you are going to walk off there and say you got the better of him.
"I think when the teams are coming a bit closer to each other in relation to expectation I think you are always going to have a high-intensity game.
"The guys who are on top all of the time, they bring the intensity all of the time to the games and they get applauded for it.
"I suppose what we are trying to do is maybe get to that level, to bring the intensity that Kerry, Dublin, Tyrone, Mayo, Monaghan, bring every day. We haven’t proven that yet. So we’re hoping we can stick with it."
