Conor Counihan has insisted that Mayo are the "form team" going into Sunday's Allianz Football League final.

While Cork are favourites to win their third Division 1 league title in-a-row, their manager believes Mayo have been the more impressive team en route to the final.

He told the Corkman: "You would have to say that Mayo are the form team, even if we did get a result against them up in Castlebar a few weeks ago. While we showed good resolve in coming from four of five points behind to pull that game out of the fire with 14 men in the second half, we were fortunate to win it by a point, and Mayo have been very consistent otherwise, not alone during the league so far, but over the course of the entire season last year.

"I mean they beat us in the league and in the quarter-final of the championship last year, and their display in the league semi-final two weeks ago was of a very high standard.

"The fact that they gave Kerry a sizeable lead on two separate occasions and clawed their way back into what was a tense struggle against a very experienced team showed a lot of mettle and a lot of bottle.

"We would have been pleased with our own level of consistency considering this will be our third consecutive final, but it's all about performing to our potential on Sunday, and we haven't done that as often as we would have liked in the campaign this season." Tweet

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