Joe Brolly believes that the Derry team on which he played and won an All-Ireland in 1993 would undoubtedly have beaten the Mayo team of recent years.
On the Irish Independent's Throw-in podcast - speaking with an absolute certainty which gave the impression he believes this is the general consensus rather than just his own questionable opinion - Brolly said that modern Mayo would not have won All-Irelands in other eras.
"I don't think so because somebody always comes along," stated Brolly.
"That Mayo team certainly wouldn't have beaten the Derry team I played on. Kieran McKeever and Tony Scullion would have picked up Cillian O'Connor and Andy Moran.
"We would have had just too much power for them through the middle - they wouldn't have been able to deal with Anthony Tohill for example."
That is a Derry team which failed to win an All-Ireland other than in 1993. It's also a side which only won one further Ulster title in 1998 before losing by five points to Galway in the All-Ireland semi-final. Brolly's Derry team lost two other Ulster finals.
The team which Brolly is certain his Derry side would defeat played in every All-Ireland semi-final between 2011 and 2017, reaching the final on four occasions. Mayo may not have won an All-Ireland in that period but they are still one of the greatest football teams of all-time - one which has shown incredible resilience and consistency.
1990s Derry are are not the only team from the past against which Brolly thinks Mayo would have problems.
If you go through the years, the Galway team which won two All-Irelands, the great Down team - I mean, which of those teams would they have beaten.
That Down front six would have absolutely annihilated that Mayo defence. Particularly in and around their fullback area, James McCartan, Mickey Linden could have ripped them.
The problem with Mayo is that they just haven't been good enough. I don't think it's a question of bad luck. They've had many, many, many opportunities and they just haven't been good enough.
Brolly also suggested that the Dublin team aiming to win a fourth All-Ireland title on the trot may not be as good as believed by many.
"It's a constant source of amazement to me that Mayo have been able to stay so close to the Dubs.
"I suppose the theory that's gaining traction is that the Dubs are not as good a team as we thought - they're just in an era at the moment where football hasn't been that great.
"Whilst they've concentrated on playing Gaelic football, attacking and expressing themselves and building that chemistry, other teams have resorted to blanket defending etc., etc., and became very predictable.
"The Dubs have easily picked them off apart from Mayo who have gone man-to-man against them."
As for the window on Mayo's All-Ireland chances:
Ah yeah, it's all over now. Some of their players' effort in the All-Ireland final last years was titanic but the problem is it's not across the board with them.
They've given us huge entertainment but they just weren't good enough to be All-Ireland champions.
Picture credit: Sportsfile
