Mayo manager Kevin McStay is hoping to have a full-strength squad for the Connacht senior football final, as he laid bare his intention to throw everything his side have at the final.
McStay's side were quietly impressive in their 1-15 to 0-13 victory over Roscommon in the semi-final at Dr Hyde Park and a Connacht final against old rivals Galway is their reward.
The Green and Red showed their quality after the break, with Ryan O’Donoghue and Aidan O’Shea leading their charge for the finishing line.
The only note of concern for Mayo was the fact that Paddy Durcan, only recently returned to action following a thigh injury, limped off midway through the second half.
Durcan could now be a doubt for the final but McStay is hoping that he, along with Diarmuid O’Connor and Eoghan McLaughlin will be back in time.
When asked about O’Connor fitness, McStay was bullish.
"We’re going to have them all fighting fit for the Connacht final," he said.
"They trained this morning and did a good session and they’re really champing to get into the matchday 26 and I believe they will be.
"You left out Eoghan McLaughlin there as well I should add. We’re really hoping we get our full squad for the Connacht final.
"Paddy, I haven’t a clue yet, he came off limping a bit so we’ll have look at him shortly.
"It’s full throttle for the provincial final, we believe in the Championship, we believe in a cup that we want to bring to Mayo, so we’ll be going flat out for it."
The Mayo manager is making no secret of his desire to claim the Nestor Cup against Galway, and he talked up the benefits that securing their place in the final brings, not least a more favourable All-Ireland schedule.
"Myself as manager, my coaches, we needed to get to a Connacht final," he said. "Then you factor in that the rhythm is more to your liking. If you can get the win, it stays at the two-week, three-week rhythm and that suits the group pretty perfectly.
"That’s the next challenge now, to stay in control of the schedule.
"If we get the two-week break, we can train Wednesday after Sunday and then Saturday after Wednesday. It’s more advantageous in terms of recovery and prep."
Man of the match Ryan O'Donoghue echoed his manager's thoughts and insisted that Mayo are determined to win the Connacht title after missing out on the final last year.
Mayo avenged their quarter-final defeat to Roscommon last year and with that done, O'Donoghue now has Galway in his sights.
"You want to be playing football every two weeks and at least we know our schedule. Last year we didn't get to a Connacht final and we haven't won it since 2021, so we'll be looking to set that right," he said.
Meanwhile Roscommon manager Davy Burke took encouragement from his sides performance and he believes that if they had taken the chances they created, the game would have been a lot closer.
Speaking after the match Burke said: "Our performance wasn't too bad, our conversion rate probably hurt us in the end, our execution of our chances wouldn't be good enough at this level but we created them, so it's not too bad.
"We dropped four or five short uncharacteristically and we kicked some bad wides. Mayo were good enough defensively but I thought offensively we just didn't execute well enough.
"I wouldn't be that worried about our attack play but I might hand out a couple of bags of balls to them during the week.
"We created a huge amount of opportunities so it's far from doom and gloom. We're sick we lost at home to our arch rivals but we created a huge amount of opportunities and we will get better."
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