sport

List of teams Mayo could play in first round of qualifiers

Published 19:00 13 May 2018 BST

Home sport

Another long road ahead for Mayo.

Stephen Rochford's side were defeated by Galway in the Connacht Quarter final on Sunday afternoon and now they will be plunged into the deep-end of a treacherous qualifier run, starting at the very bottom in Round One on June 9. Now this team have shown us up time and time again over the last few years for being stupid enough to write them off so it's not worth the risk in doing that this time around. It does like an ominous task now, however, when you consider the potentially season ending injury suffered by Tom Parsons in Castlebar, the suspension on the cards for Diarmuid O'Connor's recklessness and the fact that this summer's restructure means they've many more games to play to make it to September.

But these lads from the west have stared down similarly harsh situations in the past and come out roaring so they deserve more than our obituaries now. They will begin their redemption mission at the very bottom rung of the ladder on the second Sunday in June in Round One of the qualifiers. In the first round, all of the beaten teams in the preliminary rounds or quarter-finals of the provincial championships (bar New York) compete. The round 1 draw is open this year, which means that if two teams have played each other in a provincial match they can be drawn to meet again. This means that Mayo's have 15 potential opponents in Round One. The worst draw would undoubtedly come from Ulster, in the losers of the Tyrone/Monaghan quarter final.