Colm McManamon (Mayo centre forward)

Age: 25. Height: 6' 2". Weight: 14st.

Club: Burrishoole. Honours: Connacht SFC 1992, '93, '96 and '97 Championship debut: 1991 v London.

Appearances 1997: Three (suspended v Sligo). Substituted 1997: Not to date, sent off v Leitrim. Scored 1997: Nothing.

Reaction to the season? "Good. Very good. We did what we had set out to do, regained the Connacht title. Some people would say we did it the hard way, but we knew every game had to be won."

Most memorable match this season? "Against Galway we went out and hyped ourselves. That was our game. We were really focused for that game. Beating Galway in Tuam was a huge achievement."

Most difficult? "I think the Leitrim game was a good game. What happened on the day happened, I don't really want to talk about it."

Best of the rest? "I thought Derry would come very strong into the reckoning, but they disappointed me against Cavan because I was sure that Derry, once they got out of Ulster, would be a huge force."

Is the standard of football improving? "You're only as good as teams let you play and the standard is improving. The fitness and physical side of has improved."

How intense is the media pressure? "Not at all. You're there to do a job and they're there to do a job and we get on."

Inside View: John Maughan (Mayo manager) - "Colm is playing superbly, his foot-passing has improved a lot this year and that could be seen in the semi-final. He's worked exceptionally hard at that. As we found in the Connacht final, he's invaluable to us."

Outside View: Tommy Lyons (Offaly manager) - "He does his best work when under pressure, taking a simple pass from a teammate who's under pressure or releasing the ball quickly. His problems arise when he has time because his kicking isn't great."