For Tyrone, Saturday evening presents a golden chance to take a significant step towards the last eight when they welcome Mayo to Omagh in Group One.
With the Red Hands basking in the glow of their win over Donegal and their latest All-Ireland triumph at Under-20 level, Malachy O’Rourke’s side are firm favourites to dispatch a Mayo side for whom the past couple of weeks have been turbulent.
Having fallen to Cavan in their opener, manager Kevin McStay stepped back to deal with health issues before an extraordinary meeting of the county committee on Monday which followed recent reports of the board’s financial situation.
Also at that meeting, GAA president Jarlath Burns condemned “bullying, intimidation and threats” directed at Mayo county board officers.
With McStay stepping back, Stephen Rochford leads Mayo against Tyrone in what is a rerun of the 2021 All-Ireland final, which was won by the Ulster county.
“A lot of things have gone against Mayo and that’s usually when they’ll give you something so Tyrone need to be on their game but I can’t see anything other than a Tyrone win,” said McConville.
“Mayo have history in this regard. They’ve been written off previously. The performance against Cavan was so alarmingly poor so there’s a lot of work to be done.
“But Tyrone have the ability to keep the scoreboard ticking over. I don’t think Mayo have that.”
In Group Three, Down hope to make it two wins from two when they welcome Leinster champions Louth to Pairc Esler.
Having comfortably dispatched Clare last time out, victory over Louth would leave Conor Laverty’s Mournemen in a commanding position before facing Monaghan at a neutral venue in the final round of group games in a fortnight.
