Meeting of Mayo and Louth has the value of novelty
When Mayo face Louth in the Group 1 of the All-Ireland SFC on Sunday, it will be the first championship meeting between the counties since 1950.
The occasion that year was the All-Ireland final, when Mayo won by 2-5 to 1-6 in Croke Park.
That game was the only championship meeting between the counties to date, a statistic that will be amended on Sunday when they meet again at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, Castlebar.
Mayo and Louth enter the game in contrasting shape. Mayo overcame Kerry in their first game with a somewhat surprising 1-19 to 0-17 victory in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney. Louth, the beaten Leinster finalists, lost to Cork by 1-19 to 1-17, meanwhile.
The game will represent Louth's fifth in the championship this year, while for Mayo it will be just their third.
While Mayo's championship campaign got off to a stuttering start with defeat to Roscommon in the Connacht quarterfinal, it followed an impressive Allianz National Football League run that culminated in a Division 1 final victory over Galway.
For the record, Louth's championship results so far this year are: Louth 2-10, Westmeath 1-11 (Leinster quarterfinal); Louth 0-27, Offaly 2-15 (after extra time, Leinster semi-final); Dublin 5-21, Louth 0-15 (Leinster final); Cork 1-19, Louth 1-17 (All-Ireland SFC Group 1). Sam Mulroy is their top scorer on 1-28 (0-17 frees, 1-0 penalty, 0-1 45’).
Mayo's results in the championship this year are: Roscommon 2-8, Mayo 0-10 (Connacht quarterfinal); Mayo 1-19, Kerry 0-17 (All-Ireland SFC Group 1). Ryan O’Donoghue is top scorer on 0-7 (0-4 frees).
Mayo’s 1-19 score against Kerry in round one was their joint-highest yield from their 10 Allianz League and championship games this year (they scored 4-10 against Tyrone in the league).
Louth manager Mickey Harte came up against Mayo four times during his time as Tyrone boss, winning one and losing three. The win was in the 2008 All-Ireland qualifiers, while the defeats came in the 2004 All-Ireland quarterfinal (when they were defending champions), the 2013 semi-final and the 2016 quarterfinal.
The other game in the group pits Munster rivals Cork and Kerry against each other. They are meeting in the championship for a seventh successive year, with Kerry having won five of the previous six. They won last year’s Munster final by 12 points. Their only defeat was in the 2020 Munster semi-final. Prior to that Cork hadn’t beaten Kerry since 2012. It leaves Kerry leading 9-1 from their last 10 championship meetings with Cork.
Since the start of the century, Cork v Kerry has been by far the busiest championship rivalry. They have met 33 times, with Kerry winning 21 to Cork’s six, while there were six draws.
Cork’s win over Kerry in 2020 was their first over their great rivals in the championship since 2012. It ended the longest barren spell against Kerry since going from 1974 to 1983 without a win.
After the weekend's round two encounters, the final round of Group 1 games will see Mayo face Cork and Kerry take on Louth in neutral venues.