Storm Éowyn may be gone, but it won’t be forgotten for quite some time across Mayo.
It also left its mark on Hastings Insurance MacHale Park with the roof of the main stand and one of the floodlight towers bearing the brunt of the damage.
At this stage, County Board officials could be forgiven for asking, ‘Why always us?!’
Another question you hear a lot before most Mayo matches these days is: ‘Will that team start?’
So it was again this evening when a Mayo XV was released ahead of Sunday afternoon’s National League local derby against Galway which now gets underway at 2.30pm.
Officially, Mayo are unchanged from the team that started against Dublin but, given that Fenton Kelly and Paul Towey were both late additions at Croke Park, we shouldn’t be surprised if PA announcer, Johnny Hopkins, is telling us about a ‘Fógra’ he has for us before the ball is thrown in.
Of course, sometimes there are good reasons for changes — like lads picking up knocks in Friday night’s training session or even pulling something in the warm-up — but often it’s all about keeping the other crowd guessing and looking for marginal gains.
Not that any of us really believe that it makes a blind bit of difference at this stage!
But the fact that it’s Padraic Joyce and Galway who are in the ‘away’ dressing-room means that Kevin McStay and company will be looking for an edge wherever they can find it.
Especially because these two teams know each other inside out at this stage.
The final scoreline when the hooter sounds will dictate how most people feel about the approach. The result dictates everything when Mayo play Galway — same as it ever was.
If there are to be changes, you’d imagine that Diarmuid O’Connor and somebody like Cian McHale are the most likely players to be parachuted in at the last minute.
By all accounts, Diarmuid had very little done before the Dublin game as he rehabbed from injury. But his Croke Park cameo last weekend suggests that his powers of recovery are as good as ever and Galway always seem to bring out the best in him.
Cian’s displays in the Sigerson Cup recently have enhanced his reputation and after making his debut against Dublin, the time could be right to throw him in at the deep end here.
It would be a surprise if he didn’t feature at some stage, and the same goes for Darren McHale and Seán Morahan.
With Jack Coyne sidelined, Morahan’s form and return to fitness could allow management to release Sam Callinan to the half-back line at some stage in the coming weeks.
Our Club Stars ‘Senior Player of the Year’ brings searing pace and line-breaking ability when he’s on the ball and the hope is that he won’t have his hands full with man-marking duties for too much longer.
It will be interesting to see what the attendance is like for Sunday afternoon’s match.
The build-up has been fairly subdued in comparison to previous seasons — the GAA’s lack of promotion for the second biggest competition of the inter-county season beggars belief — but perhaps the opportunity to see how Mayo are shaping up just nine weeks out from the start of the Connacht championship will bring out the locals.
A Mayo team hasn’t lost their opening two league games since the spring of 2016 when Stephen Rochford was still getting to grips with the hotseat and the likes of Boyler, Tom Parsons, Evan Regan (who is back on board this season as Mayo’s nutritionist) and Mikey Sweeney all lined out for defeats against Cork and Dublin.
Nine years on, Rochford and Kevin McStay will be hoping that even without key men like Jack Coyne, Aidan O’Shea and Tommy Conroy they can get a result that would really kickstart their season.
A second successive loss and the visit of Tyrone to Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in two weeks’ time would be played against the backdrop of mounting pressure on Mayo to get points on the board. And that would mean that blooding players and experimentation becomes even more difficult.
There’s nothing like a game against Galway to test a Mayo team’s mettle and we will all be a little wiser when Noel Mooney calls time on Sunday.