By Cian O'Connell

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Four teams remain in the hunt for Sam Maguire. Dublin, Tyrone, and Kerry claimed provincial titles; Mayo travelled a long and winding road, but the only thing that matters is that they are playing Championship football deep into August.

Aidan O'Shea's dynamism versus Derry, the O'Connor's goals against Clare, and the sheer stamina displayed to survive scares against Cork and Roscommon.

The Quarter-Final replay win over the Connacht champions offered a reminder of Keith Higgins' dash.

Throughout the adventure Mayo have shown encouraging signs, but a complete performance is what manager Stephen Rochford craves.

"Exactly," Rochford instantly replies. "And look, there's no doubt, when you go in the back door, the positive is you're getting games.

"But there's no doubt, it rattles your confidence. And we would have put a lot of focus, a lot of energy into the Connacht championship. And for one reason or another, we didn't get across the line against Galway.

"We stuttered against Derry; created a lot of scoring opportunities that day, but didn't convert anywhere near what we should have, never mind to win the game.

"So, games coming thick and fast in some ways doesn't allow you too much time to over-focus on it. Or get yourself too down. There's another challenge coming once the draw is made on the Monday, and in some ways that moves you on and turns the page."

With matches arriving thick and fast there isn't too much scope to address issues, but Rochford felt that something was stirring in Mayo throughout the summer.

"You could see in training actually that we're going a lot better than what we're showing here on the field," Rochford remarks.

"And at that time I could throw you patches within those games where we were saying, 'Right, that's what we're looking for; that's what we're doing.'

"But we're not delivering it for 70 minutes, unlike the other three teams that are left in the Championship.

"I said it after the game that, in some ways, people were asking us was it frustrating, the talk of a top three or whatever, and you're not being considered in that? You know, maybe we hadn't earned it as much as the other three."

Rochford played for the Mayo minors at GAA headquarters the last day his county defeated Kerry in a Championship fixture in the 1996 All Ireland SFC Semi-Final.

The former Corofin boss acknowledges that only a top class performance will suffice. "Mayo as a football community, we haven't beaten Kerry in 20 years," Rochford states. "This group has been close, but that doesn't mean anything going into 2017.

"We need to be in fifth gear on Sunday, there's absolutely no doubt in that.  

"But in that what I see in this group, they do really stand up to that challenge. And while we'll go in as the underdogs, we're not going to go up there in any sense of fear.

"We've got a healthy group, don't have anybody as such on the physio table. So we'll go with a certain level of confidence, but totally understanding that we're coming up against the form team in the Championship."  

When Kerry and Mayo collide there usually isn't any shortage of sub-plots with Donie Buckley's involvement adding an extra layer of intrigue.

Kerry native Buckley is a selector for Mayo and Rochford acknowledges his significant influence in the west. "Obviously there will be some personal element when you play against your own home county," Rochford admits.

"He's still very much a Kerry man, in fairness to him. But Donie is too long in the tooth to get distracted by the emotion of it being against Kerry.  

"He sees this, no more than ourselves, as being an almighty, almighty challenge. But at the same time it's a stepping stone to an All-Ireland Final, and that's what it is.  

"He has a little bit of inside knowledge on Kerry, you could say. But the reality is he's been with Mayo for the last five years and you don't hear too much, I don't think, down in Kerry these days around what's happening in the camp or anything like that.

"There will be a bit of personal motivation, but it will be nothing that will either be discussed or be a focus point for himself or us."