Cillian O'Connor backs fresh Mayo faces to prove their worth

Cillian O'Connor is confident Mayo's young guns will adapt to the intense demands of inter-county fooball after a chastening winter experience.

Earlier this month, an experimental Mayo team - which included seven debutants - was beaten by London in the FBD League at the University of Galway Connacht GAA Air Dome.

Manager Kevin McStay pulled no punches in the aftermath, warning the squad's fringe players that "opportunities don't go on forever" when it comes to staking a claim for a place in the panel.

O'Connor scored a goal off the bench in that loss to the Exiles. One of Mayo's most seasoned and reliable campaigners, the 31-year-old admitted there were some frank discussions in the wake of the defeat, but he also offered some perspective as McStay's charges prepare for their Allianz Football League opener against Galway on Sunday.

"You don't consciously decide that you're going to force conversations with lads, but it probably does happen naturally in the dressing room, that you find yourself chatting with younger players," he said at the launch of this year's league campaign.

"You do strike up those kind of conversations. If we lose a training game and we're sitting beside each other we're p****d off. Yeah we would have had a few chats after the [London] match. A lot of our players, it might have been their first time representing Mayo... it's all part of a learning curve.

"Obviously we were very disappointed not to have won the game but it's the same as anything, we reviewed it, management facilitated a review, went through it and we know certain parts weren't good enough."

The demands on inter-county players have never been as intense; nor has the spotlight been so brutally unforgiving. But O'Connor insists Mayo's conveyor