Former Mayo manager John Maughan said a few years ago when discussing the impact of the qualifiers on the All-Ireland series that whereas the likes of Tyrone and Kerry could pace their seasons with a view to hitting August with their A games up and running, it was more difficult for his county.

"Maybe because Mayo haven't won an All-Ireland since 1951 we have great respect for the Connacht championship," he told The Irish Times. "And provincial games do mean more to us than they do to Kerry and Tyrone. Mayo and Galway fight like tigers in the province."

Tomorrow they’ll be crouching again in the jungle of Pearse Stadium if that’s not too melodramatic a way of describing a rivalry that has been one-way for the past seven years since Galway last beat their neighbours in the championship.

Mayo have written more hard-luck chapters than anyone could have imagined without actually closing the book on their apparently endless quest for an All-Ireland. Under James Horan in recent years they had been to two finals, two semi-finals plus extra time in a semi-final replay.

The new management of Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly are the latest to try to organise a happy ending, and this year's story opens with the familiar, maroon-clad rivals.

It’s a strange relationship, in some ways like a cycling or athletics race. Mayo make all the running, but it’s Galway who have emerged from their slipstream to win Connacht’s only All-Irelands in the last 50 years.

David Brady, pundit and former Mayo All-Ireland footballer, says playing Galway provided him with his bitterest memory in football, the 1998 Connacht championship first round. Mayo had lost the previous two years' All-Ireland finals and that year, in those pre-qualifier days, found themselves out of the championship by the end of May.

By the end of September the coveted Sam Maguire was on its way across the Shannon in the company of Galway.

“Aidan O’Shea did a clip there during the week about his first experience of Mayo-Galway and it was my worst experience,” says Brady. “I saw it in their celebrations, the belief it had given them. They were thinking, ‘You know what? This team has been to two All-Ireland finals. We can do this.’

“Credit to them. No fuss – they did what they did all year. They played football. We were the standard-bearers. They needed to step up to our level and they did. It wasn’t great for us: Mayo showed Galway the way to win an All-Ireland even though we couldn’t show ourselves.”

Elusive

Although the elusive All-Ireland title has so far not materialised despite the efforts of Horan’s management since 2011, the county has been competing at the very top level.

Galway, in contrast, have not been punching their weight at senior level despite healthy vital signs as detected in underage and club All-Irelands. The biggest contrast though is in delivery at senior level.

In the 26 years since John O’Mahony took Mayo back to a first All-Ireland final since the heyday of 1951, the county has contested seven finals and five semi-finals and still Sam Maguire is a stranger.

Galway on the other hand have been to just three finals and one other semi-final, but the All-Ireland has twice been on their bus home. It mightn’t be quite the narrative of the Prodigal Son but it is still an impressive economy of effort.

O’Mahony managed both of those successes in 1998 and 2001 but despite two terms in charge of his own county was unable to improve on his achievement in 1989. He says the counties have different outlooks.

“It’s quite a contrast. Mayo over the years have been more likely to see beating Galway as the be-all and end-all, whereas Galway tend to set sights differently. Mayo become more anxious as they move into the later stages but Galway get better.

“With local derbies you’re never sure what to predict but Mayo are going for five-in-a-row, which would be historic and they always tend to get through Connacht. Galway, though, don’t have a huge interest early on and traditionally take off – if they’re going to – in the later stages.”

Reluctant

Brady echoes Maughan’s view that the intensity of the rivalry in Connacht can be detrimental and that Mayo as a county has been temperamentally reluctant to look beyond provincial defeat and assess new possibilities.

“I totally agree with John Maughan. Mayo people don’t look at it as a journey but as a must-win against Galway and they look on it as a catastrophe when they lose. There’s no positivity about ‘let’s learn from this defeat’. I don’t think Mayo have ever learned from a defeat. We don’t look at the ups and downs and say we’ll come back stronger.”

There hasn’t been any need for such introspection in recent years. Mayo have trampled through Connacht and established themselves as one of the teams to beat in the championship.

It’s a long time though since Galway troubled the crowds in late August or September but there is this belief in the county that if they can get on the main road, it could lead anywhere, although their team is inexperienced and at present based in Division Two of the league.

Alan Mulholland guided Galway to All-Ireland success at minor and under-21 level and last year concluded three years as senior manager before handing over to Kevin Walsh. He was on the receiving end of Mayo's desire to establish a winning habit early in the provincial championship when his young side was walloped by 17 points at the same venue that hosts this weekend's match.

"Mayo's achievement in reaching All-Ireland finals means that realistically you'd expect them to have one eye on Croke Park when they're playing in the Connacht championship in recent years," he says. "But there's no let-up in their intensity when they play Galway. Then again, they're the most consistent county in the country over the past five years and they've also got very good players. That helps.

Proud

“I notice that Mayo people living in Galway are fiercely proud of where they’re from. It’s complicated, like all those sort of relationships. Mayo people live here and work here and a lot of them go to college in NUIG, which means togging out in a maroon jersey. It’s not surprising they love beating Galway.

“I’d say in Galway we love winning things, rather than beating Mayo specifically, but we’ve been a long way off that in recent years and 2001 is a long way away, even though I feel we’re just one breakthrough from getting to the top table.”

For Brady the relationship is simply an expression of the universal phenomenon of local rivalry.

“It’s because they’re your neighbours and they’ll always want something to sing about and you don’t want to give them that opportunity.”

The time for running up and down the octaves is done. Rehearsals are over. It’s showtime for the GAA’s great western opera.