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The blizzard has started. The Evening Heralds resident chief Dub supporters are in full flight, along with most of the Pale based press. The biggest battle since Brian Boru met the cowardly Bruder slinking past his tent. Bigger than Cuchulain and Ferdia with his sly darts...would have made a great politician by the way.

Anyway we get the mother battle. Dublin v Kerry. Great rivals, mutual shlurping and kissy kissy. Pat Gilroy , realist that he is sees the rivalry only back to the 1970s.
So what do we get, well apart from the daylights being battered out of the Dubs , not much more.

The 1978 final saw a 17 point walloping, the next year a more bearable 11 point shalacking and 2009 saw business as usual at 17. In fact since 1950 Dublin has beaten Kerry...wait for  it...twice, in championship football. Galway and Mayo have similar records.

The real rivals Kerry have is of course Down, unbeaten in 5 championship matches v the Kingdom and Tyrone who goosed them three times out of the last 4 meetings. Armagh would not quake in their boots either. However in the world of spin, spoof and spanners the only real rivals Kerry have are Dublin. And do you know what...Kerry wouldn't have it any other way.

I like Jinxys photograph of the Mayo men panning for gold on the land they "took" from the poor old Meath people. None of course mention that most of the Meath team hail from the sons of what was known as "The Colonists". Even O Rourke is not a Meath man, born in Edgewardstown and Leitrim reared I just find most Meath crowd bitter and the rest funny...in a stupid way.

Like a ghost hanging around a foggy lake Sligonian reappears. Gone from Hogan Stand due to his own turning on him, he clanks around Gaaboard.com rattling his tin of misery and hate towards his betters in Connacht. Why wouldn't he hate Mayo..and Galway and Roscommon and Leitrim. They are all better than his own sad county. I recently saw on another post they have yet to win a Connacht U21 title. Like farmer2 old Sligonian looks across Killala bay through green tinted glasses. Be gone bitter lad and take your misery with you boy. Away with you to the lake Isle of Innisfree where ...ah you know yourself...a thingy majig of clay and wattles made.

Who in Gods name is Shane Stapelton? Some anorak who thinks he knows about sport I would hazard. Does he actually get paid for this?

I agree Dillon and Moran were poor on Sunday, still the press gave Moran man of the match. I actually believe Mayo can kick on provided they drop those two. They bring nothing to the picnic. Free taking is abysmal. Anyway I know that Horan wont drop them and I know that the end is nigh. Roscommon are doing what they tend to do at the start of most decades...win Connacht titles. The 1960s/70s/80s/90s/00s and last year. Never ever rule out the dead hand of history.

The day we start to move into the real world and stop fooling ourselves is the day we rise from our ever bended knee. I will always support the team and county. I will never ever paper over the utter and dire set up that currently passes for football in the county. From 1993-2005 we had teams in Croke park from the clubs every second year. Since then what? Time we woke up and saw where we are. Admitting the truth is the first step to recovery.

Jesus lads we have hit a new low. Who would ever have thought that people would look to Kildare as some kind of panacea to our football ills. They have yet to win a Leinster title under McGeeney, they are a division two outfit. They failed to beat an average Down team last year and Wexford and Fermanagh also reached all Ireland semi finals. Would you look to Fermanagh or Wexford with all respect, to sort your football woes?

As for under age, what exactly have they ever won? Galway, Roscommon, Tyrone,Armagh, Mayo Cork etc would eat them at that level. Kildare are ok when they can take in a few outsiders like the way O Dwyer did with lads from Tipp, Cork, Kerry and Meath on the team. Lift your sights please people from Armagh, home of the current club champs. What the f***k have Kildare ever done except have a big huddle around their new manager.

Abbeysider. No I am not exaggerating about 21 yard frees either side of the post. Dillon is a regular at missing them. Another thing, I recall Mayo missing three 14 yard frees in All Ireland finals. Ciaran Mac v Kerry in 1997, and the minor forward of 2008 v Tyrone and 2009 v Armagh, same guy both times. A Kerry man who sat beside me in 2009 could not believe it.

Do you see Kerry, Kildare, Wexford, Dublin, Cork, Donegal or Roscommon subcontracting the job out to every tom dick and harry on the pitch. What next for Mayo,an announcement over the tannoy asking if some fella in the crowd  is he handy with the  auld frees and would he call to the Mayo dressing room at half time.

Truly we have sunk and next Sunday will confirm the drop. Back door will nail it home.

Its a pity that Bluett isnt around indeed or more the pity that the men he saw arent around to take the frees either. Joe Corcoran would point them still and him in his mid 60s. At present we have not ONE single player that can kick a 50. We have not ONE that can be relied on to point a 21 yard free that is not direct in front of the post.
Instead of Twittering and captains and vice captains giving boring interviews it might suit them better to take a bag of balls, find a telegraph pole and start aiming shots at that , then progress to goalposts.
I am mortified at the pathetic efforts at frees we see at the moment from Mayo players. Wexford, Donegal, Laois, Down, Kerry, Dublin,Cork, Carlow, London... ffng everbody has a free taker. We have eight, nine or ten, all equally useless. I am going to watch this one through my fingers and the backdoor match v Armagh through the curtains.
By the way , any body old enough to recall the last time a Mayo man pointed a 45/50 as we called them when I was a boy?

Hey Rosnarun, Micky Moran was a one year walk on as well. He got the walking papers after taking the team to a league semi final. a Connacht title, a good win v Dublin and to the All Ireland final. Heady days back then. Look at us now, shipping two goals per game.

Thankfully the match is in Castlebar and the Mayo team should be able to find it without too much trouble. I see on another site that whilst the Mayo supporters supported the local airport in Knock the Mayo team did otherwise. Apparently in a noble gesture to re float a stagnant economy the Mayo county board spread their cash around a bit.

Hence the players gathered from all over Mayo in Castlebar. Then got the bus to Galway. From there they flew to Waterford. From there (sigh...I am getting travel sick at this stage) they flew to Southend. From there they bussed to London. And from there they made it onto the pitch the next day, travel weary and road and air lagged.

How dare anyone suggest that the county board might have got a handier way over i.e like the cattle boat from Dun Laoighre or a yacht from Westport.

Great time for Dara and he is also a great writer. Would worry about his selection of good refs though. Poor in my humble estimation but we are all allowed to have the odd hobby horse.

Instead of Maurice Sheridan teaching 28/29 year old men how to kick a ball over the bar from 21 yards perhaps we might be better off if we got Maurice fit enough to play and take the frees himself.
Would any of the four Mayo players on the London team make our Junior team? Probably not. Are they good enough for the our senior team? Why not.
When you fail in succesive years to beat Sligo and Longford and London forces you to extra time then shuffling the sad pack we have wont do the trick.
BJ Padden, Austin O Malley and Alan Costelloe had to get out of the rags of misery before they were appreciated. James Horan has a thankless task. Its not his fault that the standard of football in the county is dire. However those charged with running the game in Mayo need to look at themselves.

Sligo patriot, you are correct, just like Costelloe for Sligo and young Kelly from Belmullet stock and Walsh the manager from Galway. You'd know all about outsiders allright. Never won a Connacht U21 title since its inception.

Sligonian, go back to Hogan Stand, your level of debate is more suited there. By the way, I resent your small print piece "beaten by Leitrim". They have a better record in Connacht than Sligo, they actually won a Connacht U21, your lot didn't. You have some cheek . Sligo belong with the Fermanaghs, Carlows, Waterfords, Clares etc of football. Honest sloggers, no more no less. I don't suppose any of your TDs will be writing to the Sligo team members like last year when you still won nothing.