The Connacht final winners on Sunday will have the dubious reward of a meeting with Derry first up in the group phase but provincial deciders between Galway and Mayo are special nonetheless.
The draw didn't do many favours for either team to be honest, with a group which is certain to involve Dublin awaiting the loser. But it was car crash stuff for the winner, who are thrown in with Derry and the Ulster runners-up, to boot.
The caveat here, of course, is that three teams get through the group phase. Had it been two teams progressing - as it should be - then Group 1 would be an absolute bloodbath and some might even argue that the two teams in Salthill would be left wondering whether it's actually in their interests to win the game.
As it is, that shouldn't apply. Especially for Mayo, who I think will be keen to put some silverware on the table for Kevin McStay and Stephen Rochford.
Rochy, in particular. It's mad to think he's won an Ulster medal as a coach but still has no Connacht title won (at county level anyway). We lost to Galway three years on the spin during his stint as manager. He's never even been in a Connacht final! It's mental. And in his term he brought us within a whisker of winning an All-Ireland twice.
At the time, it was no big deal given that for us back then, the All-Ireland was the only game in town. Most of us already had an armful of Connacht medals at that stage anyway.
But now, it might annoy him, especially after the ambush last year. McStay, too, will be eager to get a Connacht title under his belt as manager, just to tick that box. For the younger players, the likes of David McBrien and Sam Callinan, etc, it's important to get that first Connacht medal on the board.
At the minute, where Mayo are in their evolution, I don't know if All-Irelands are really a topic of discussion. For the time being, a Nestor Cup might be a more realistic target.
Strangely enough, I only played in three Connacht finals against Galway. This was mainly down to the way the draws fell - though in a couple of years, either team screwed up along the way, our defeat to Roscommon in 2019 being a prime example.
We won all three Connacht deciders I played against Galway, in 2014, 2020 and 2021.
In 2014, Galway were still a Division 2 team and were only emerging from a long slump, while we were gunning for All-Ireland titles. We won fairly comfortably that day - even despite the fact that it was in MacHale Park.
The 2020 final was a weird experience, like so much else that winter. In an empty stadium, save for the TV production crew, I had an uncomfortable afternoon, trailing around after a long-haired Shane Walsh (the Covid hairstyle was in at the time).
He twisted me inside out a couple of times and was pinging shots at the posts all second half. He scored a couple of absolute beauts, two of them, in particular, from close to the terrace side in Salthill. But he missed a few more.
In the last play, he'd a sideline from distance and opted to play it short. Galway never got the shot away and we wound up winning by a point, for our first Connacht title in five years.
My favourite Connacht final against Galway was the 2021 match in Croke Park. It was a unique enough occasion, the sun was beaming down. After a sluggish enough first half, where they got a run on us, we played very well after half-time to overturn a five-point deficit and win by six. I know Padraic Joyce was annoyed afterwards at the manner of Shane Walsh's injury - which I initially got the blame for, though as I've said many times, I could never execute a move like that.
Ahead of this weekend, both teams feel like a bit of an unknown quantity. They also have their injury issues.
Paddy Durcan went off injured in the semi-final and the sense around is that he'll miss this one. Diarmuid O'Connor hasn't played since Round 4 of the league. Cillian O'Connor is meant to have picked up an injury in New York.
Galway's injury situation has been chronic and well documented at this stage, though at least a couple of big beasts are beginning to return to action now. In what condition is the question.
Mayo were fairly unspectacular and workmanlike against Roscommon. After a big wobble in the lead-up to half-time, where they were devoured on their own kickout, they took over in the third quarter. The last 10 minutes of the game were a complete snore as Mayo ran down the clock. It was good to get revenge for the loss last year but I don't think the main All-Ireland contenders were watching on in trepidation.
As for Galway, I know Joyce was pretty scathing of their performance against Sligo, where they were blessed. Obviously, we didn't learn a whole pile from them running up the score against London. All we learned from them in the league is that - not unlike a lot of teams - they're bang average without their best players.
It took Damien Comer to dig them out of a hole in Markievicz Park. Rob Finnerty palmed the winning goal but the Sligo fans there will tell you Comer was the game-changer. His return is the best news for Galway, and he's probably the main reason why they can't be counted out this weekend.
I speak as someone who's had the extreme misfortune to mark him a few times. He's a real focal point of their attack and is an old-school full-forward in many ways. If all other avenues are closed off, you can lump the ball into him any which way and he can cause havoc. He's a massive weapon.
Sean Kelly, in Footballer of the Year form until injuries derailed him last summer, has a decent clutch of matches under his belt as well.
And Mayo showed fraitlies in the semi-final. One concerning stat to emerge from Hyde Park was that Roscommon had more shots overall. They'll be lucky if Galway are as wasteful as the Rossies were the last day.
The biggest positive for Mayo in the Hyde was their full-forward line. They scored 1-10 combined. Aidan O'Shea rattling the onion bag, Tommy Conroy looking sharp and, more importantly, scoring. And Ryan O'Donoghue, at the minute, is playing brilliantly every day he goes out.
Weighing up injuries and form, I would just tip Mayo to win a one-score game. Though you can never be too emphatic where these matches are concerned.
There's one very good omen for Mayo this week in that the game is not in MacHale Park. It's obviously one of the longstanding oddities of the Connacht championship, the inability of any team to win their home games, and the stats fairly jump out at you.
I don't have any theories on the matter and personally can't make head nor tail of it. We used to discuss it in team meetings and whatnot. Occasionally, it'd be said that we needed to make Castlebar a fortress. I used to joke that for us, it was more of a bouncy castle than a fortress.
Who knows? The provincial finals may be extinct in a couple of years - or if not extinct, then shunted off Broadway into early spring.
While there were only three Mayo-Galway finals - and only one 'traditional' one in Connacht with a crowd - in my career, the match-ups were always special. I loved playing in those games.
Even the ones we lost were etched in the memory. I remember Galway turning us over in Castlebar in 2016, on the same day Ireland got spanked by Belgium in the Euros.
It ended a long period of dominance for us in Connacht and I still remember seeing Comer and Walsh on top of the supporters' shoulders on the pitch, the Galway crowd after swarming on as we trooped down the tunnel.
Images like that would lodge in your memory and provide fuel for the next day. It's all part of what made it one of the best rivalries in the sport.
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