Divided loyalties as Mayo's Fiona McHale faces partner Fiona Curley in All-Ireland SFC game with Tipperary

There will be divided loyalties in one Templemore household this weekend when Mayo welcome Tipperary to Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar.

It's the opening round in Group A of the TG4 All-Ireland Senior Championship and Mayo’s long-serving star Fiona McHale will find herself up against her partner and Tipperary captain, Maria Curley.

It’s the first time the duo have clashed but they haven’t let that storyline derail the preparations heading into Saturday’s huge tie.

"I suppose we were kind of expecting to get Tipp. We knew going into the Connacht final if we were to lose that game we were going to be in the same group so it wasn’t really a surprise," said McHale.

"And we’re not reading too much into it or anything like that. There is a bit of banter about it but it’s fine. We both know it’s just a game of football at the end of the day.

"We both go out and do our part and play our best for our respective counties and once the whistle blows at the end of the game, nothing changes for us.

"It’s an interesting one for sure, we’ve actually never played each other before, this is the first time.

"She is a defender and I’m playing in the backs this year as well so you never know, we might come across each other a couple of times here and there, but no we should be far enough away from each other for most of the game."

Having made her Mayo debut in 2004, McHale missed the four All-Ireland titles that they achieved in the five years previous. Unfortunately, her county has yet to match those feats although they reached finals in 2007 and 2017.

It's been a long wait for Mayo, albeit McHale was part of a Carnacon team that dominated the club scene in recent years.

Living in Tipperary now, she still plays for the club but is also