Mayo manager James Horan says his team is improving at a rate of knots

James Horan and Mayo are hoping to cause a huge upset

When James Horan returned as Mayo manager in late 2018, he said he had come back to win the Sam Maguire Cup.

The Connacht county had more than its fair share of heartbreak in recent years, but 24 months ago it looked like Father Time had finally caught up on the current group.

But in his two seasons at the helm, Horan has brought in new faces and re-energised the squad.

"It's a different team, a different set-up, a different environment," he said.

"We're absolutely enjoying what we're doing, there's a freshness to us. We're improving at a rate of knots, we hope to improve again before Saturday. We're looking forward to the challenge and not worrying about consequences or outcomes too much, we're just enjoying being able to play football and give people a bit of joy from time to time.

"It's a very different group we have with lots of new guys and new ideas trying things, so it's very exciting from that side of things."

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And the players that have come in have strengthened his hand.

"I think we've more options this year than we've had before," he added.

"Mark Moran had a knock, he's coming back from injury, he has scored heavy for us this year. We've some other players, Ryan (O'Donoghue) has come in and done well, Tommy (Conroy) is scoring heavy for us. We've more options and some to come off the bench as well. Darren Coen came on the last day and he was a heavy scorer in Mayo club football this season. So we have more options in very simple terms which is a great place to be in.

"More so than any other year we have a lot of players that are very close to the starting 15 and 26. You see our 26 has changed pretty much in each game, we have a good pool to select from. As we have done all year, the next couple of sessions will shape some of that."

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Kieran Donaghy, Jim McGuinness and Peter Canavan discuss if Mayo can win the All-Ireland Championship for the first time since 1951

'Calm and low-key' build-up

James Horan knows all about All-Ireland final day, having been there before as both a player and manager. But there will be significantly less hype in the county this time around, as the team prepare for their showdown with Dublin.

"It's definitely more straightforward for us," he said.

"Going to training, training, going away from training, there's no involvement with other people and with Covid there can't be people around or whatever.

"It's very calm and low key and it's like any training in December, there isn't too many people standing out in the cold. So it does make it more straightforward and maybe easier to plan and less interference with players and the ticket scenario and partners and where they are sitting. And look that typically doesn't become too big of an issue, but it is always knocking around in the background and there is none of that this year, so it does streamline it a bit."

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Mayo swatted Tipperary aside in the semi-final

What needs to go right?

The last time the two rivals met in championship football, Dublin put in a stunning second-half display to swat Mayo aside. The Sky Blues trailed at half-time, but ran out 10-point winners.

Horan feels they can learn from that match.

"We'll look at a couple of key things and there was a lot in that game last year that we did quite strong," he said.

"There's some good elements in it but there's some things that we got caught at so you learn from that as well. We've got to reflect on that but we won't spend a huge amount of time there because there's so much time we want to put on our strengths so we'll be focusing on that as well."

But ultimately, the Connacht champions will be focusing on their own strengths, rather than spending too much time worrying about Dublin.

"We'll be looking to do the stuff that we're strong at for longer in the game," vowed Horan. "It's as simple as that.

"Sometimes teams can try to do something that they haven't done before and that can backfire on you. We have a very good idea of what we're trying to do and how we're trying to go about it, and we'd be very confident in the threat that can pose for whoever we play. We're looking at getting better and better at that. That's where our focus will be."

Watch Dublin vs Mayo live on Sky Sports Mix from 4pm Saturday.