Johnno has announced the team for Sunday (it’s on the Mayo GAA site) and, keeping with his selection policy to date in the league, it’s one that shows very little change from the last outing. Here is the team:

David Clarke; Tom Cunniffe, Billy Joe Padden, Liam O’Malley; David Heaney, Trevor Howley, Keith Higgins; James Gill, Ronan McGarritty; Peadar Gardiner, Alan Dillon, Trevor Mortimor; Conor Mortimor, Austin O’Malley, Andy Moran.

There are only two changes from the starting line-up against Laois, with Ronan and Trevor Mort unsurprisingly holding their places, to the exclusion of Conor Moran (with David Heaney slotting into the half-backs) and Mickey Mullins. James Gill keeps his place at midfield, as do BJ and Alan Dillon, both of whom came off injured against Laois and who were rated as doubtful earlier in the week.

Kerry also named their team today (here’s Setanta’s report) and they’re not experimenting all that much either, except where injuries and long-term absentees have forced Pat O’Shea’s hand. Here’s the Kerry line-up:

D Murphy; M Ó Sé, T O’Sullivan, P Reidy; T Ó Sé, T Griffin, A Ó’Mahony; M Quirke, S Scanlon; D Walsh, E Brosnan, A Maher; D O’Sullivan, K Donaghy, B Sheehan.

Listed among the subs are luminaries such as Darragh Ó Sé and Mike Frank Russell.

Some interesting tussles to look forward to there, with Andy Moran given the task of outfoxing Marc Ó Sé, Trevor Howley facing Eoin Brosnan and Trevor Mort lining out against Tomas Ó Sé. That latter pairing could be a bit sparky, I think. Most focus, however, will be on how our full-back line – which has been less than impressive in the three outings to date – fare against a very strong Kerry full-forward unit. Liam O’Malley will have his hands full with the speedy Darren O’Sullivan, while Tom Cunniffe will be equally hard-pressed to contain Bryan Sheehan. And, of course, BJ gets to grapple with Kieran Donaghy.

I think I can feel that nervous twitch starting to come on again …