CHAOS SUITS MAYO - HORAN

bring on people that he wanted to have a look at maybe with an eye to starting in the final. Diarmuid would have fitted that bill because of his lack of game-time and he didn’t bring him on and Bernard Brogan didn’t get game-time either.’ Horan will have to put his Mayo team loyalties aside on Sunday, given that he will be in studio as an analyst on Sky Sports Arena. He agrees with Jim Gavin that Dublin didn’t perform up to scratch in last year’s final and says Gavin’s logic is hard to argue against — that the champions will need to produce their best ever performance under his tutelage to secure an historic three-in-a-row. ‘It will take Dublin playing at their ultimate. I see some people saying 80 per cent, but again I think that’s rubbish.’ Horan doesn’t see Mayo’s management producing another rabbit from the hat in terms of team selection after the Aidan O’Shea at fullback experiment against Kerry but feels the more ‘chaos’ to the game, the more it suits the challengers. ‘They add more of a dynamic, more chaos to a game, when you do that,’ said Horan. So I think Mayo will try that, just to shake it up. Not let Dublin do what they want to do. Make the big decisions they don’t want to make.’

JAMES HORAN thinks it would be a mistake for Dublin to start mercurial attacker Diarmuid Connolly in Sunday’s All-Ireland football final against Mayo. The gifted St Vincent’s player was sidelined for a major part of the summer after picking up a 12-week suspension for laying a hand on a match official against Carlow and was only introduced in the 70th minute of the semi-final versus Tyrone. And former Mayo manager Horan thinks it will suit Jim Gavin’s reigning champions to hold one of their most talented forwards in reserve — insisting any sideshow with his nemesis Lee Keegan won’t be a factor. ‘I think he will be a guy that will drive the Hill crazy when he comes on and maybe that’s where Jim is thinking now,’ said Horan. ‘I don’t think it’s because of or anything to do with Lee, or that Lee will pick him up if he does come on or start. ‘I don’t think Diarmuid will start. I think when you saw the amount of game-time he got against Tyrone, there was definitely something in that. If Jim was looking further ahead... that game against Tyrone was well over in the first half. ‘It was a shot to nothing to