Pressure on Mayo to kickstart their year - Tomás Ó Sé

Tomás Ó Sé says Mayo can't afford to lose to Tyrone on Sunday as they continue their quest for their first points of their 2025 Allianz League campaign.

A poor 2024 led to a county board review for manager Kevin McStay but the former RTÉ GAA pundit survived. He has been forced to plan for the new year without experienced duo Cillian O'Connor and Pádraig O'Hora however, with both opting out of the panel for 2025 at least.

McStay could have done with a bright start to the new campaign but the Green and Red have lost their opening two games - a close-fought contest with Dublin at Croke Park, before a more painful humbling against old rivals Galway in Castlebar.

They return to Hastings Insurance MacHale Park this Sunday and for Ó Sé, it's a game that Mayo have to take something from.

"Mayo are in a bit of bother already," he said on the RTÉ GAA Podcast. "It depends where you are, and what you want to achieve.

"The fact that Galway have won the Connacht Championship in the last couple of years, they are being questioned that little bit more.

"There is that little bit more pressure involved this year. They've lost a couple of players; players have stepped away. They will need a win."

Predicting games during the league can be a fool's errand and league form is no guarantee of a long summer, as Derry and Dublin - last year's Division 1 finalists - can both attest to.

But for Ó Sé, the goal of sides in the top flight is not necessarily in lifting the trophy at the end of March. Rather, it's about getting games against the country's best outfits early in the year.

"Definitely whoever loses that game will be looking at themselves, and that's where the interesting side of it is," the former Kerry defender continued.

"We all know how