Steady start will suffice

Focus on Mayo footballers: A year is a long time in Connacht football. Gavin Cummiskey hears from manager John Maughan about starting again with a much-changed squad

Mayo shot out of the traps like a greyhound last year. They ran into oxygen debt in September, but not before some razor-sharp displays in disposing of Galway, Roscommon and Tyrone.

Like the defeated All-Ireland final teams of 1996 and 1997, John Maughan had designed a team capable of rubbing shoulders with anyone, Kerry excluded.

This time around it has gone slightly pear-shaped as last year's team has disintegrated. Defections, in particular that of David Brady, have rocked the team's foundation, while key injuries mean the rerun of last year's Connacht final against Roscommon this Sunday is not as clear-cut a challenge.

"We are going into our first championship game from a huge low point," admits Maughan. "Can we get back to the heights of last year's performances in the Connacht championship? We don't know. There are so many things that come into the mix. The opposition will dictate how we play."

Roscommon have been on a path to self-destruction for some time now. Be it naked late-night snooker sessions caught on tape, massive county board debts or an inability to hold on to highly respected managers, they are a long way off the golden era they once looked to be entering.

They almost sank to a new low in the championship opener over in London, the crossbar in the end ensuring the greatest blow a minnow county ever landed was avoided. Only then did Val Daly realise the magnitude of the task he had undertaken.

Maughan has experienced such near-disasters and claims he would love to be sitting in such an underrated position this weekend.

"I remember in 1996 feeling embarrassed sitting on the bus leaving London having beaten them by just four points. We fell over the line that day and yet ended up reaching an All-Ireland final that we probably should have won. So I think Roscommon are in a fantastic position. I would certainly love to be coming from behind like that.

"It doesn't matter whether you win by one or 20 points against London. What matters is you get through. Their fans won't have too many high expectations either but Mayo footballers won't be fooled by it."

Still, only eight remain of the Mayo team that dismissed this opposition last year. One calculated risk is redeploying Billy Joe Padden from midfield to full forward. He was being groomed during the league to replace Brady but the emergence of Shane Fitzmaurice has given Maughan another option.

"It has been in the back of our minds for some months now and with Shane coming into the panel in the past number of weeks we have been able to play Billy Joe there in a number of challenge matches."

What does Fitzmaurice bring? "Sheer physique and height, things you cannot train into a player - they just arrive with them."

Considering the likes of Ciarán McDonald, James Nallen, Ronan McGarrity and Conor Mortimer remain, Mayo have enough class in reserve to clear the first hurdle. Another positive, cliché or not, is that Maughan can blood a host of youth on the main stage.

"We have had our hand forced on a number of issues, what with Trevor Mortimer, Brian Maloney and Peadar Gardiner all injured, but every panel has 30 players and they are not there to make up the numbers," he laughs, by way of dismissing the pun.

The seven players who started last year's All-Ireland final against Kerry and are missing now are Peter Burke, David Geraghty, Pat Kelly, Fergal Kelly, James Gill and the injured trio of Trevor Mortimer, Gardiner and Maloney.

MAYO (SF v Roscommon): D Clarke; K Higgins, D Heaney, G Ruane; C Moran, J Nallen, G Mullins; R McGarrity, S Fitzmaurice; A Moran, C McDonald, A Dillon; C Mortimer, BJ Padden, S Carolan.