Moran urges Mayo faithful to go all in on latest odyssey

Mayo enter every All-Ireland Football Championship with the scars and baggage of a groom jilted at the altar, but Andy Moran is an old romantic when it comes to the big days, and he's refusing to play down the magnitude of his county's latest quest to land the Sam Maguire.

The Green and Red meet Louth this Saturday evening at Croke Park (6pm throw-in) in a fascinating last-four battle.

There will be lots of chatter about the heavyweight match-up between Dublin and Kerry on the other side of the draw, but both Louth and Mayo are tip-toeing their way through a summer that could wind up being incredibly special.

Moran, attempting to lead Mayo to their first All-Ireland decider in five years, wants supporters to get excited, to embrace the opportunity before them and leave previous heartbreaks in the past.

"You're old enough to remember the four-week wait between quarter-finals and semi-finals and semi-finals and finals," he told RTÉ Sport's Marty Morrissey. "With that gone, you've only got two weeks now. There hasn't been really time for the excitement to get going.

"And that's the beauty of sport. That's the beauty of football. That's the beauty of hurling and the games that we produce. Fans are allowed to get excited and that's what we should be promoting. Does it go over the top at times when you win or when you lose? Of course it does. But that's the nature of the sport we're in. I wouldn't change it for the world if I'm being honest.

"The emphasis for us really is just to make sure that everyone is healthy, everyone has done enough work, everyone is ready to go and they're willing to fight on Saturday."

"Since the new rules came in... anything can happen in these games."

Mayo, driven by the youthful exuberance of Darragh Beirne and Kobe McDonald, were excellent the last day out when then beat Cork 0-23 to 0-18.

They responded really well to a gut-wrenching Round 2A loss to Tyrone in Omagh, when Niall Morgan struck a late two-pointer to swing it.

A ship-steadying win against Meath was followed by that slaying of the Rebels and now Mayo are looking to take out a Louth side that continues to impress.

"I thought that game in Omagh was as good a game as we were involved in this year," said Moran. "It was a really close game. Going into the 68th minute, I think we were a point up and we were in a really good position. But unfortunately, Niall Morgan kicked a two-pointer and got the better of us.

"But listen, the lads just got back to work. I think they got great confidence out of that game. The way they played, the way they performed up in Healy Park, which is not an easy place to go, I think we just got huge confidence from that game.

"Since the new rules came in... anything can happen in these games. It really is a new game in terms of what the two-pointers have brought to the game, what the open spaces of 11 v 11 has brought to the game. That's just emphasised even more when you go to Croke Park.

"It is what it is. I just think the new game has thrown up a lot of variables that weren't there before."

Mayo are in a good place right now, but so are Louth. They were superb in their quarter-final victory against Monaghan, defying the eighth-minute sending-off of Seán Callaghan to march on. Moran is braced for a massive challenge against a team that has come of age.

"I think they're fulfilling the potential that they had there for a long time," he said of the Wee County.

"They've put great structures in place around their centre of excellence, their underage and there's a good population there in Louth. I think they're really just fulfilling their potential.

"We're trying to concentrate on ourselves but you can't take away from the fact that Louth have done brilliant over the last couple of weeks as well.

"They have a really strong bench, but we think we have as well. We think we have good players that we need to make sure that we're not just concentrating too much on Louth, that we need to concentrate on how we want to play the game and how progressive we want to be with it as well in terms of our kick-out and our forward play.

"Yes, you have to worry about the opposition all the time but you have to make sure that you have the best plan in place for your players as well.

"You just need to be able to compete and win that midfield battle if you're going to win the game.

"Whoever wins that fight around the breaking ball around midfield is going to be successful."

Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship semi-finals, Louth v Mayo on Saturday from 5.30pm and Dublin v Kerry on Sunday from 3.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow our live blog on all matches on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on RTÉ Radio 1

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