Sean Cavanagh said goodbye to a glittering inter-county career a couple of weeks ago in what must have been gut-wrenching circumstances. All year, his big goodbye was set to culminate in an almighty clash between an up and coming Tyrone team, and the All-Ireland Champions Dublin.
Tyrone were tipped from a long way out as being the team that could give the Dubs the most trouble this year, and their recent League outings with Jim Gavin's team only seemed to further fuel this thinking.
Instead, Tyrone came up against a juggernaut, and were hammered. Dublin go onto another All-Ireland final, and Sean Cavanagh's Tyrone career ended on the bench, with his team not only getting demolished, but never even getting a chance to give it a go.
What Cavanagh saw that day is ominous for the rest of the country. He saw a team that "could easily win seven or eight All-Irelands out of the next 10."
Not that Mayo fans will be thinking that way this week.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport, Cavanagh doesn't think Mayo can live with Dublin on their current form.
Dublin could win this All-Ireland playing at 80 percent, they don't have to be at full power.
Ruminating on his side's defeat to Dublin, Cavanagh explained that despite feeling confident prior to the match, the extent of the challenge in front of them dawned on him very quickly when play got underway.
I felt we would win and I felt the system we had in place would be difficult for Dublin to break down.
After 15 or 20 minutes we were bleeding quite badly. Our energy was spent on chasing shadows. They played the wings brilliantly. Everything they were doing seemed to be very well practised and well put together.
What really impressed me was the way Jim Gavin was able to read us. We were beaten in almost every facet of the game.
We didn't change our approach quick enough, they were so impressive in the way they closed us down. All told, it was Gavin at his meticulous best.
He does, however, offer up some hope for Mayo fans. He draws a parallel between his All-Ireland winning side in 2005 and this year's Mayo vintage because of the amount of games they have had to play.
According to him, this can lead to a strong sense of fortitude developing throughout the panel.
In 2005, we played nine game before that final with Kerry, we had a feeling of being invincible. I have no doubt that this Mayo team will have that feeling right now.
That feeling of not caring what has been thrown at us. They have come through some tough battles all over Ireland. All they have to do is get it right for one more game.
Mayo are adaptable. First and foremost they do like a running game out of defence and then distribute the ball quickly into Andy Moran and Cillian O'Connor inside.
Mayo's strength is that they can change strategies within the game and they are going to have be on top of that next Sunday.
Ultimately though, he finds it difficult to be too optimistic about their chances.
Mayo have the scope to mix it. They’ll need that and more to cope with the artillery at Dublin’s disposal.
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