The more we all think about it, the more we realise that the last four months have been leading up to this Connacht final.

Sure, technically, the result might not define Mayo’s season, but a win will open up all sorts of possibilities going into the All-Ireland series and give the team that Kevin McStay has been building for the last 16 months plenty of reasons to be optimistic.

A first Connacht title for this management team and a Mayo captain lifting the Nestor Cup for the first time since 2021 would certainly help too.

A defeat, on the other hand, would have McStay and company reaching for the drawing board again as Galway celebrate winning a provincial three-in-a-row.

Heading into the Sam Maguire Cup group stages as a second seed is not on Team Mayo’s agenda this summer.

Momentum is the name of the game.

Throw in the fact that the final is on in Salthill and you have the perfect litmus test of any Mayo footballer. Can they do it on the big day against Galway in their own backyard?

Matches against Galway are where players are judged and reputations are made.

As it always was and as it always will be.

The fact that the teams sparked off each other three times last season — twice in the National League and once in the championship — hasn’t done the rivalry any harm either, of course.

Not least because each time there was only a kick of the ball between them (or less) and nothing we have seen so far this year suggests that this renewal will be any different.

Galway’s formline is almost impossible to find given the length of their injury list during the spring and the subsequent impact on their team selections, performances and results.

Trying to analyse their recent win over Sligo is also a fool’s errand.

Putting Mayo’s current state of health into context or some kind of perspective is also easier said than done. They were at their inconsistent and erratic best during the National League while their two championship outings told us very little we didn’t know already.

The trip to New York was a great weekend for the Mayo supporters but just a matter of getting the box ticked for the team.

In hindsight, the same could be said after watching them beat Roscommon in the semi-final. Mayo did what they had to do and showed enough intent, purpose and quality at key stages in the second half to leave the Rossies in their slipstream.

The fact that they left Hyde Park with a relatively comfortable win, despite lining out without the O’Connor brothers, Eoghan McLaughlin and James Carr, as well as losing Paddy Durcan to an injury, was no mean achievement.

But time will tell if Roscommon are the team they were this time last season.

Which all leads us back to Pearse Stadium and a fixture that was traditionally played around the time of the Galway Races and Reek Sunday.

Now it will be all done and dusted a full two months before the primary schools break for their summer holidays.

Mayo will arrive with hope in their hearts and a firm belief that this team’s time has come.

Only six of the likely starting XV this Sunday were on the field at Croke Park when the ball was thrown in for the start of the 2021 Connacht final.

Seven of the selected team are playing in their first provincial senior final.

It’s a new team trying to carve out its own identity.

As always, beating Galway would accelerate the process.