The race to avoid the league final is on

It's a nervous time for teams at the bottom of the table and at the top of it.

Down the divisions, promotion chases and relegation battles are in full swing. In the top tier, the motivations are harder to decipher.

When it was put to Kevin McStay by local reporters that his team were, then, in second spot and thus in good shape to reach a league final, he reacted like a chap who'd been asked to deliver a best man's speech at five minute's notice.

"Down with that sort of talk," McStay said, breaking out into a smile.

Paudie Clifford, meanwhile, indicated they'd have to hear from the management whether a league final appearance is an encumbrance they're willing to accommodate at this time.

Enda McGinley had already told us at the outset that a third place finish was the prize, avoiding the final but also entailing minimal looking over one's shoulder.

The league has been lionised as the best competition in Gaelic football for several years now, partly as a means of expressing dissatisfaction with the shape of the championship.

It is a strange 'best competition' that has several contenders at the highest level admitting they don't care if they win it. As ever, the man from Mars would require a lengthy debrief and a fair deal of background colouring in before he could wrap his head around things.

Mayo are currently Exhibit A in the dangers of winding up in a league final. In McStay's first year, they were cavalier enough to win the whole thing a mere seven days out from their Connacht championship opener, when the Rossies were already crouched in wait, primed to deliver one of their trademark ambushes.

From a competition and even a novelty perspective, the GAA is missing a trick not dispensing with these extraneous showpieces. It