By Cian O'Connell

Colm Boyle didn't hesitate when an invitation to return to the Mayo panel for the 2019 campaign was offered.

James Horan's mixture of established and emerging players are busy preparing for the Allianz Football League and Boyle is 'delighted' to be still involved.

Boyle delivered a typically defiant display during Sunday's eventful Connacht FBD League Semi-Final against Galway.

"An easy decision, delighted to be asked in for a trial game, no problem, looking forward to getting going, that gave us a bit of a taste for it," Boyle stated following the game at Tuam Stadium.

"It has been a while since we played in front of a crowd like that, a bit of an atmosphere. A good buzz, Mayo-Galway local derby."

Boyle is excited about the fact that the Mayo panel is now nicely stocked with developing talent ahead of the spring and summer. "Good excitement, good buzz, lads moving well, looking forward to the start of the League in two weeks time, big game against Roscommon," Boyle adds. "It was the same as a National League game now, same intensity.

First 20 minutes both teams were blowing hard, good tempo to it. We got a good start, but we didn't get the scores we needed in the first half, We had them pinned in a lot, but we just weren't getting the return from it. Overall it was a decent performance."

Boyle isn't overly concerned that Mayo have failed to beat Galway in six attempts now. "We would have liked to have won the game, to get to a Connacht final but it didn't happen fair play to Galway they stuck at it," Boyle commented. "We're happy with a lot of aspects of the performance."

Boyle has enjoyed lengthy summer adventures throughout his inter-county career with Mayo so how different was when the green and red were knocked out in Round Three of the All Ireland SFC Qualifiers in 2018?

"You got time to get other stuff done off the pitch, that's where I probably found the time, other things in life got taken care of in six or seven months," Boyle responds.

"It was great from that side of it, the rest did the lot of us the world of good, but it's good to be back, only time will tell down the line whether the rest was a good thing or not."