Mayo off to a flyer in the league with Mourne men put Down

TYNAN'S TAKE BY STUART TYNAN

MAYO couldn’t have got off to a better start for their opening salvo in Division 2 as they made light work of Down at Elverys MacHale Park.

This columnist said last week that Mayo would just get over the line against Down but following Tommy Conroy’s goal early in the first half, it was one-way traffic from then on in and the only disappointing thing for Mayo manager James Horan would be that they eased off a little too much in the second half. But considering it was Mayo’s first competitive game since December, as well as a large number of substitutions being made, I think it can be forgiven this time around.

Speaking of Conroy, he was fantastic in all aspects of his game at the weekend. All reports floating around that The Neale man was in fantastic shape were very much on the mark, and he took his first-half goal superbly after some excellent work by Ryan O’Donoghue, who had a very good game in his own right.

That being said, I don’t believe anyone will get too carried with the result. From a physical aspect alone, Mayo was very much on a different level to their counterparts and much tougher tests lie in wait down the road for the Green and Red.

But you can only beat what is in front of you, and Mayo did what they had to do and did it very well. A trip to Mullingar awaits this weekend to take on Westmeath. If Mayo produce anything like they did in Castlebar, they should win with minimum fuss.

YERRA!

MAYO performed well but nothing came close to the display put on by Kerry in Tralee as they decimated Galway.

How bad must it be to be David Clifford’s younger brother? Paudie put in one hell of a display in his own right (scoring 1-2) but big brother David’s haul of 3-6 made the headlines.

Kerry’s goals alone were enough to beat Galway on the day (the Tribesmen only scored 0-11) and manager Padraic Joyce has a job on his hands getting his side ready for Roscommon this weekend.

While it will be something of a dress rehearsal for their Connaught championship semi-final later in the summer, they don’t want to be going into it on the back of relegation to Division 2 either.

Perhaps he can use some of Peter Keane’s backhanded comments after the game: "That result could have gone the other way just as handily."

Classic yerra-ism. You have to wonder if Kerry are in on the joke at this point, or if they even care.

*You can read Stuart's full column every Tuesday in our print edition.