Galway purring but cause for concern in Mayo

Watching the fare on Saturday evening and then the thriller in Derry, you could only be enthused at the shape Gaelic football is taking under the new rules.

And then we watched the grim scenes from MacHale Park...

The second half in Castlebar carried uncomfortable echoes of our era of dominance in the early-to-mid 2010s - except with the roles flipped.

Back in the 2011-15 period when Mayo were dominating Connacht and Galway were stuck in mid-table in Division 2, it always felt like we had extra gears to deploy against them.

We were serenely confident and knew we could swat them away without too much difficulty. We could up the tempo at any stage and they couldn't live with it.

It's funny how things work in cycles. The Mayo-Galway rivalry has usually been tit-for-tat down the years, with one team having the edge but with the other always liable to take them down. Sometimes, however, one team will establish complete superiority like we did in James Horan's first stint.

Looking at the ease with which Galway strolled to the win in the second half on Sunday, the sense is that the reverse is occurring right now.

In terms of physicality, confidence and the smoothness of their play, it was like watching a genuine All-Ireland contender playing against a team struggling to hang off the edge of the elite.

Too alarmist from a Mayo perspective? Well, to be fair, there are caveats in that Mayo are short a fair few players at the moment. Last summer, they led by two going into injury-time in the Connacht final in Salthill and it was only a late push and a very dubious free on the second-last play which saw Galway over the line.

While Cillian O'Connor, James Carr and others are opting out for the season, we still have the Crossmolina contingent,