To hell with fashion! It may be passe to express even the remotest enthusiasm for anything connected with the league but David Brady doesn't care. The bottom line is that he is excited about a league final, an April Sunday in Croke Park, a chance to win a national medal. Yes, the championship is paramount but he can divorce himself from that great obsession for an afternoon.

"Playing for a league title beats running around a field," he sums up.

"Any player who can't enjoy the thought of playing a final at Croke Park has no business in the game. We set out to do well in the league, we have accomplished that but we didn't really expect to be here. Now win or lose, we will be back training on Tuesday night. But we can enjoy this for what it is. I'm glad we are here and I'm happy that it is against Galway. The rivalry will give the thing another dimension. It should be a great occasion."

It is for some reason heartening to hear this from a player who has been at the engine room of the momentous stories of the last half-decade involving Mayo and finals and near misses. There is bravery in his openness. It would be much easier, after all, to cloak his thoughts in non-committal observations about how nobody will remember the league come September.

But that would not be David Brady's style. The midfielder wears his heart on his sleeve and knows what his mouth is for. He is a born conversationalist, on and off the field. Sometimes, he knows, he speaks when silence might be more prudent but such is his nature. Brady has been a part of Mayo for so long that it is hard to fathom that he is only 26. This season he finds himself, almost to his bemusement, as one of the senior figures on Pat Holmes' impressive young side, "without so much as a grey hair on my head." Just three years ago, he was one of the upstarts on a team of veterans.

Although there has been a lot of rhetoric spent of late on the rebirth of Mayo football, Brady's interpretation is less dramatic. "I feel we were always on a roll. Mayo has always had good under-21 teams and the senior team challenges consistently. I think the biggest development in this county has been with the School of Excellence. You can really see the young players coming through at minor and senior level. Last year was a mediocre year for us at senior level but we were in transition. We still are. But Pat Holmes is doing a tremendous job and the players are responding to him. But really, there has been no great overhaul. The attitude in the dressing-room is the same as it was in 1996. We are a team that gets on well. And the will to win is still there."

That spirit though has been painfully sundered on famous days before. Brady has long tired of hearing about Mayo's All-Ireland finals' curse, weary of the nonsense about ghosts. Spooks don't kick points. Opponents do. That is why Mayo teams have lost some big matches. In that context, it was, he says, important to see Crossmolina win the club All-Ireland but it hardly represented a transformation.

"It gives a lift to Mayo football and naturally it was something that the entire county celebrated. But it doesn't change my attitude to Croke Park. I love playing there and every time, we have gone out with the conviction that we will win. That's how it will be tomorrow. And we could win. But we could also get beaten because we are playing one of the best teams in the country."

He says he will be oblivious to the sighs of same-old-Mayo if their neighbours do lift this title because he is positive that the result of the match won't affect the overall mindset of the team. Brady is delighted to see so many youngsters coming through. The old perception that youth is a hindrance in Gaelic football is, he reckons, dead.

"It used to be said that a young fella was too light, too weak. That's gone. This is an athlete's game now. Fellas don't be hanging around waiting for a belt."

And Brady himself is the embodiment of the new player, a strong, high-fielding midfielder with natural ball skills. The prospect of Galway appeals to him, especially with Michael Donnellan now operating around centrefield.

"I haven't seen much of Galway but the papers are certainly giving Michael rave reviews. They can't all be telling lies. He is a fine footballer and is a man who will undoubtedly cause trouble. But one player can't win a game either. Look, we'll have our work cut out for us and playing Galway will be a learning experience."

And for the Mayo faithful, it might also be instructive. Brady admits he is sometimes left stunned by the supporters' commitment to the team. "I've met people who have not missed a league game in the last 13 years. Now, I've been around six years as a player and I've been to the back of some beyonds, I can tell you. And they could name every venue we've been to over twice that time. I'd be asking them if they're right in the head."

He is joking, of course, but the point is serious. Days that are fruitless in the grand scheme of things still matter intensely to many who follow Mayo football. Try telling those followers that the league doesn't matter.