Things have changed considerably on the Connacht landscape since Tom Cunniffe last donned the Mayo jersey.
The Castlebar native was moments away from captaining New York to their first-ever win in the Connacht Championship last weekend, before Leitrim fought back to edge past by the bare minimum.
More than three thousand miles away from MacHale Park, Cunniffe will be watching on as Mayo host Galway on Sunday (live on RTÉ2, throw-in 4pm) in a game many expect to be every bit as close as the cliff-hanger at Gaelic Park.
Cunniffe's Mayo career got up and running with All-Ireland success. Four years after failing to make the Castlebar Mitchels U16 A team, he was centre-back on the victorious U21 team of 2006, while the following year he made his senior bow.
Five provincial medals were accumulated over the course of his Mayo career, even if the big prize continued to elude the county.
The versatile defender endured some difficult days at the office – a chastening experience marking Colm Cooper in the 2011 All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kerry – but there were many highs along the way. He started the 2013 All-Ireland final defeat to Dublin, but the rigours of elite inter-county football began to take its toll.
His final outing was the 2015 quarter-final victory over Donegal, having missed the two-game semi-final saga with Dublin with a hamstring injury.
"After the 2015 season, I decided that my body couldn’t take it anymore, the training was so rigorous," he told RTÉ Sport. "I was trying to play the games without training as much. I just couldn’t take it anymore."
The Big Apple has been home for the past two years and will watch on earnestly this weekend as some of his friends and former team-mates attempt to get the better of Galway for the first time in three years.
It is a complete turnaround from his own time with Mayo when the rivalry was at its least competitive in living memory.
Cunniffe lined out with number six on his back in 2015, helping himself to a point at sunny Pearse Stadium as James Horan’s men coasted to a more comfortable win that the four-point winning margin suggested.
Twelve months previous the margin was seven points, while 2013 was arguably the lowest ebb for the Tribesmen; a record breaking 19-point loss in Salthill with Cunniffe on the edge of a largely quiet square.
What has brought about the change in fortunes in this particular fixture?
"Galway have definitely changed their style a bit," Cunniffe suggests. "They have a lot more quality players. Their tackling is a lot more intense and are a lot more powerful."
He is expecting a "close, exciting" game, but isn’t privy to what is going on in the camp these days. He keps in contact with a number of the squad – "Snapchat is good that way" – but his knowledge isn’t any more informed than the general public at this stage.
"I wouldn’t be getting into too much detail with them because they just want to concentrate on each game."
That last year in red and green also proved to be the end for join-managers Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly, with the pair forced to resign after being ousted by the players following grievances over a number of issues under their stewardship.
Holmes is a club-mate of Cunniffe, who publicly stated he felt the decision by the players was "rash" and felt it wasn’t the right course of action.
He still stands over that judgement.
"It was very unexpected when there was a vote. I just felt as a team, we made the wrong decision. Obviously there were a lot of fellas going in the opposite direction. There was always going to be conflict with some players, but that was to be expected."
"I just felt it was very wrong"
Did he fear that personal relationships would suffer by voting against a number of his team-mates?
"I didn’t name any players, I didn’t want to get into any of that," he says. "I don’t think that’s the right way of doing it whatsoever. I was coming at it from the point of view as a team. I just felt it was very wrong."
That is all in the past however. Last year he watched the All-Ireland drawn unfold in Manhattan, struggling to stay still as Mayo again led their followers through the full range of emotions.
"There’s one thing about those Mayo lads, they just have that fire in them"
He is almost becoming accustomed to the long-distance watching brief. The absence of Lee Keegan for Sunday is a significant loss, but he of all people knows the sheer bloody-mindedness that this group possesses.
"There’s one thing about those Mayo lads, they just have that fire in them.
"I know we haven’t won the All-Ireland yet, but they are just going to keep driving on. They’ll never give up."
Follow Mayo v Galway on Sunday (throw-in 4pm) via the live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the News Now App, live on RTÉ2’s The Sunday Game or listen to exclusive national radio commentary on RTÉ Radio 1’s Saturday Sport.
