'That's what we're using the League for' - Andy Moran post-Mayo win

THERE were a flurry of numbers in the air in MacHale Park on Sunday evening when Andy Moran spoke to the press.

Fourteen different Mayo scorers, ten league points on the board, almost 40 players given game-time in the campaign, five debuts on Sunday and eight changes from the previous week's outing in Kerry.

Moran had all the appearance of a man satisfied with how the campaign panned out. 

“If you gave Mayo fans 10 points at the start of the league they'd have bitten your hand off. This can't be just a one-year project – we have to be looking towards the future.

"We've used 36 or 37 players over the course of the league and 32 of them have got a start. We had four or five debuts again today and that's what we're using the league for,” he stated before pointing out the changes his management team made over the course of the seven-game campaign.

“When we played Dublin we had six changes from the Galway game. We had four changes every other game, we had six changes for the Kerry game and eight changes today.

"You have to give the young lads the best chance to perform and that's what we've tried to do.”

What impact will yesterday's result have if and when the two sides meet in the Connacht Championship in five weeks time?

“Today's match was utterly immaterial to what might happen here in five weeks. It was a bit of shadow-boxing. Roscommon had nine changes and we had eight,” he added before being asked about the previous week's heavy defeat in Kerry.

"We weren't too stressed about last weekend if I'm being perfectly straight with you. We got to eight (league) points, we made six changes last week going down to Kerry.

"We knew it was experimental and if Kerry get a run on you, you've no chance. I think other people got more excited than we did."

Young defender, Diarmuid Duffy was beside his manager in the press-conference and said he enjoyed playing in a side littered with youth and experience. He explained it was particularly good to see Cillian O'Connor kick a two-pointer late in the game.

The Ballinrobe man was then asked about how he found his first league start in the senior jersey.

“The game was fast. There was a lot of space out there – sometimes a bit too much space in the full-back line, more than we would have liked. There's a lot of stuff for us to work on especially in defence, but it was good to be out there.”