The return of Mayo's prodigal son was the main talking point as Pat Holmes breathed a sigh of relief at having removed a Tipperary side which had never been considered in the All-Ireland equation.

Not one to court the media, but never far from the media glare, Kieran McDonald, the blond bomber from Crossmolina, as he has been dubbed, announced his return to Mayo football in style at Cusack Park.

Since his return to the Mayo panel was announced last weekend, the worry was it might adversely effect the morale of the side. Not so, it would seem, as Mayo put in a team performance which was encouraging, rather than compelling.

There was a huge cheer when Holmes sent for the man whose last game for Mayo was when they went out to Westmeath in last year's qualifier. Hibernation, it would seem, has done him well and he seemed eager for the fray.

But this was no one-man band. That distinction went to Tipperary's Declan Browne, a player who generates as much media attention as McDonald, but for entirely different reasons.

This time, Mayo were not Browned off despite the talented forward scoring seven points, after regularly dipping into the pockets of Kenneth Mortimer in the second half.

Holmes acknowledged the excellent fight put up by the Tipp men, especially after their drubbing last week against Cork.

"It was always going to be a dangerous match for us and one that we had to take very seriously," he said.

He pointed out that Tipperary had nothing to lose and had Mayo lost, a lot of hard work and planning would have been thrown out the window.

Honest as always, the Westport-based bank manager, accepted it was far from a flawless performance, but was unwilling to start naming names.

"We conceded 1-14 and that has to be looked at," he said. However, he also accepted that 21 points was a good score by any standard.

It was a team effort, he agreed, although he was not hiding his pleasure at McDonald's successful return to the team, contributing four points and adding a bit of fizz to an attack that had gone flat in the second half.

James Horan, another whose season is beginning to reflect his talent and ability, mused on his goal opportunity, but said he had made the decision to go for the point.

"I thought we needed the point at that stage as we were just one up," he said.

The Ballintubber man, who nailed five points, and distributed a lot of quality ball, said it was much different game to that against Limerick. It was tougher but there was a lot more space available.

Noel Connelly was another with reason to be happy with his performance, and particularly his return from an injury-hit season. However, he conceded he was worried when Tipp drew level in the second half.

"We went out of it for a while at midfield but David Brady really lifted his game when we needed him and, of course the subs Pat brought in played a big part," he said.

McDonald scored four and made a few scores, and he also converted two pressure frees. He said he also thought Mayo varied their kick-out. "Peter Burke used the short ball to good effect when we needed possession," he said.

Connelly also pointed to the very big pitch and warm evening. "It was hard going out there, very tiring on such a big pitch and Tipperary really put it up to us right to the end but I thought we just had that bit in hand when it mattered most in the last seven minutes."