James Horan doesn't think Mayo's controversial 2014 All-Ireland SFC semi-final replay loss to Kerry will be a motivating factor against Kerry on Sunday.
That game, which the Kingdom won by 3-16 to 3-13 after extra-time at the Gaelic Grounds, still rankles with Horan who stepped down as Mayo manager afterwards. But given the teams' familiarity with each other since then, he feels it may be irrelevant at this stage.
"A lot of the same players are there, but I'm not sure how relevant that will be," he said in the Irish Daily Star.
"Between league and championship, they've played each other numerous times at this stage. The teams know each other very well, and I think it's going to be another cracking game."
The Ballintubber man is convinced Mayo can beat Kerry for the first time since 1996 when his brilliant lobbed goal was inexplicably missed by the RTE cameras.
"They're absolutely good enough to win it. They've been up and down in games this summer. The Roscommon game (replay) is an outlier because Roscommon were so poor.
"There's still an inconsistency about Mayo, but what a game to show what they're made of. Kerry are goign to perform and be strong so they'll be very hard to beat. If Mayo can play like they're capable of playing, attacking in numbers, they can overwhelm the Kerry defence. Hopefully, that's what they'll do."
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