![\"10](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0024701b-614.jpg\"\/)
\nBrian Fenton celebrating a goal during the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final<\/p>\n
In Brian Fenton’s playing days, Mayo were Dublin’s big rivals.<\/p>\n
In that era where the Metropolitans were All-Ireland contenders, Kerry (twice), Donegal and Tyrone were the other counties to lift the Sam Maguire.<\/p>\n
And yet it was the games between the sky blues and the green and red which, to some extent, defined the era.<\/p>\n
The 2013 final, the two semi-finals in 2015, the two finals in 2016, Dean Rock’s winner at the death in 2017, the Dubs at their peak in 2019 with the 12-minute blitz, the covid final of 2020, and finally Mayo being the first side to beat Dublin in 45 championship games in 2021.<\/p>\n
\nBrian Fenton celebrating a goal during the 2019 All-Ireland semi-final<\/p>\n
Both counties are in action this weekend but from what we’ve seen so far in championship, neither looks likely to reach July, in footballing terms.<\/p>\n
The 27\/28 June is the quarter-finals weekend this year; what odds on one or both missing out?<\/p>\n
“It’s time for action now,” Fenton said his former side on this week’s RT\u00c9 GAA Podcast.<\/a> <\/p>\n “Similar to Kerry, if we can get Colm Basquel, Con O’Callaghan, Lee Gannon back. It’s time for those boys, now, to strap up and get the pain killers into you.<\/p>\n “Not that I’m advising that! But get on the pitch, and see what we can do. Get those lads on the pitch because you’ve two weeks.<\/p>\n “Lose and lose again, and your summer is over, you’re gone in the blink of an eye.”<\/p>\n Dublin are set to face Louth in Croke Park on Sunday.<\/p>\n The Dubs were comfortable winners when the sides met in the Leinster semi-final just four weeks ago.<\/p>\n \n Louth were flat that day, a trait that was visible in the Dubs’ performance in the provincial decider two weeks later.<\/p>\n “I was so impressed with Dublin on the day (against Louth) and that’s why I gave them every chance in the Leinster final,” Fenton continued.<\/p>\n “They’d proven to us that they were still there and the leaders had stood up.<\/p>\n “But then lack of ideas, lack of leadership, they were areas of concern in the Leinster final.<\/p>\n “Louth will be quietly confident. In the semi-final, they came out not to lose the game, rather than to win in.<\/p>\n “Defensively, at one stage, they turned Dublin over and ‘Horse’ (Gavin) Devlin was giving it loads that they had turned the ball over.<\/p>\n “I was like, ‘if this is your game plan, fair enough, but go out on the front foot and get your game right at the other end of the pitch.’ That’s very important for Louth this weekend.<\/p>\n “Louth are in a good position. They haven’t played since they played Dublin last. You’re watching, you’re learning, you’re reviewing, you’re correcting things.<\/p>\n “So Louth have been in a really strong position. They probably got a friendly in somewhere.<\/p>\n “They’ve watched the Dublin game from the Leinster semi-final and said, ‘if we tweak this and change this against a Dublin team who are not in a great place coming out of the Leinster final.’<\/p>\n “Louth are probably in the stronger position and it’ll be much, much closer than we saw in the Leinster semi-final – it could go either way.”<\/p>\n After winning five games in the league, and only missing out on a place in the final on the head-to-head rule, Mayo looked to be in good stead for an assault on the Connacht championship.<\/p>\n They saw off London with relative ease, but Roscommon proved to be a bridge too far for Andy Moran’s men.<\/p>\n Their second chances are running out as they prepare to face Monaghan in Clones this weekend.<\/p>\n “You’re hoping for a statement, a big reaction to their flat second half (against Roscommon),” Fenton said.<\/p>\n “They did a lot right in that first half against Roscommon and they’re not a million miles away.<\/p>\n “There’s great fight in Mayo, I should know more than anyone. You think you have them beaten out the gate, and they just fight back. You think they’re gone away for two or three years, and they fight back.”<\/p>\n Reputation can only get you so far, and even at that, it’s not clear if the same sort of fight is present in this Mayo group that the squad of half a decade ago possessed.<\/p>\n For Fenton, there are areas that they will have been targeting in recent weeks.<\/p>\n “Mayo will want to fix their kick-out, it malfunctioned in the second half against Roscommon,” the seven-time All-Ireland winner continued.<\/p>\n “They’ll have done rep and rep; they’ll be sick of kick-outs by the time the game comes around.<\/p>\n “Both sets of fans have little expectations, but great expectations at the same time.<\/p>\n “Andy Moran can frame it that way. There’s one competition done, ‘here’s one we can have a full crack at. We’ve had eight weeks to prepare, we’re going all in.’<\/p>\n “Just do classic, crazy Mayo!”<\/p>\n Was the defeat to Roscommon a blip or did the league give us a false sense of where Mayo are at? We’ll find out over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n Listen to the RT\u00c9 GAA Podcast on the RT\u00c9 Radio Player<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>, and email us at sportpodcasts@rte.ie<\/p>\n Watch Mayo v Monaghan in the All-Ireland Football Championship first round on Sunday from 3.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to Saturday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n Watch The Saturday Game from 9.50pm and The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow a live blog on all matches on the RT\u00c9 News app and on rte.ie\/sport<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Brian Fenton’s playing days, Mayo were Dublin’s big rivals. In that era where the Metropolitans were All-Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-471367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"26](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/00247028-614.jpg\"\/)
\nAndy Moran will be hoping his Mayo team can find their league form for the rest of the year<\/p>\n