News: As Mayo prepares for the county's fourth All-Ireland final appearance in 15 years, the team management are hoping to insulate the players from the worst excesses of the hype in the build-up.

Team selector Liam McHale - who was a senior player in the county's last three final appearances in 1989, '96 and '97 - says the management have already discussed ways of creating the right environment for players over the next four weeks.

"It can get crazy here in Mayo at times in the build-up to an All-Ireland final. You have people looking for players to sign autographs, and telling them they are fantastic," said McHale.

"We have fallen into those traps before and we are determined not to fall into them again. We have talked about it already, and we are looking at ways of preparing differently for the final.

"I don't mean preparing better, because we have prepared well all along this year. But we are looking at maybe getting the players away for a training camp before the game."

With all three previous finals ending in defeat for Mayo, McHale is adamant Mayo will leave no stone unturned in the effort to end a losing sequence stretching back to 1951.

"Team psychologist Aidan Moran will play a crucial role. I am disappointed that we are not scoring 16 or 17 points like we were earlier in the year. We are gone down to about 12 or 13 points," said McHale.

"That's a combination of the standards being higher as the championship goes on, and also the pressure on the young players. We are going to put a lot of work into the forward line, to get them more comfortable, like they were earlier in the year.

"We're happy with the way we have ground out results, and we will continue to work on our own game plan.

"It will be a big ask for us. I knew Kerry would improve as the year went on. I think Limerick were probably a hard team to play against in that they didn't let Kerry express themselves."

The Mayo team selection will be one of the major talking points ahead of the September 26th showdown.

"It's an obvious one that people will say Dermot Geraghty, who came on and did well against Fermanagh on Saturday, is tailor-made for Colm Cooper. There will be a fierce battle between Dermot and Conor Moran for that position," said McHale.

"The show isn't over for Fergal Costello yet either, if he can show some form now. Everyone would love to have their inspirational captain leading the team out on All-Ireland final day.

"At midfield, there will be serious rivalry between David Brady, Fergal Kelly and Billy Joe Padden. I think we won against Fermanagh because of our strength in depth.

"David came in and made a big contribution on Sunday. Austin O'Malley scored a point when he came on, and Damien Munnelly played the one-two for Trevor Mortimer's late point, so we we have plenty of players pushing for places."

McHale expects an open footballing contest in the final: "We will not be playing blanket defence or anything like that. We will take them on man-to-man, straight up," he said.

"We have said all year, if we're going to get beaten let's get beaten by a team who are better than us. Maybe Kerry are that team, who knows. If we are not good enough, we are not good enough, and there's nothing we can do about it.

"Kerry are probably similar to Galway in that they play pure football. We will rise for them. They have won more All-Irelands than anyone else, and they are the standard you have to achieve. I think it will be a fantastic game of football. We will certainly go out there to play football."

Mayo have no injury concerns after Saturday's Fermanagh encounter. The team management were last night back to the grindstone, preparing the under-21s for Sunday's All-Ireland semi-final meeting with Kildare. Nine of the senior panel are involved in that squad, including Geraghty and Munnelly.

McHale is the only Mayo man to have been centrally involved in all three of their recent finals. His sending-off in the 1996 replay against Meath registering as the biggest disappointment of his playing career.