Silverware in spring has always been a prelude to greater prizes for Kerry and Jack O’Connor. The four All-Irelands that he has won across three spells as Kingdom boss all came on the back of a League title a few months earlier. So, while he may not have been hugely enthused by his side’s performance as he won his fifth League at Mayo’s expense, the omens are certainly positive at least. “Yeah,” he acknowledged. “The other ones are a bit different though. This one was one where halfway through the League we were fighting relegation, even last Sunday morning I think we were 11-1 to reach the League final. “It's been a strange League. I mean, other years we got out of the traps early and were favourites to win the League from early on. I think this one has been a bit different, we've just eked it out by finishing strong. “The Armagh game was a big game for us at home, because we'd lost our previous two home games so that was the game that probably turned our League, you know. You know yourself, Kerry can be a tough place to play football at times for the players. There's a lot of pressure on them, so they came up with a big performance that night and that gave them the confidence to go to Salthill and get a result there as well.” Ahead of the game, O’Connor spoke of how useful the opportunity to play at Croke Park under the new rules would be and, if his team return later in the year for a high stakes game as expected, he reckons that the scoring requirements will be higher. “You’d want to be getting well north of 20 points, 25-28 points you’ll need to win the big games here,” he said. Mayo manager Kevin McStay lamented that his side “never asked a big question at all”, while referencing the fact that they open their Championship campaign against Sligo next Sunday. He said: “We'll have to have a good look now at that during the week and see why, because the turnaround is fairly fast and we can't be disappointed and thinking back to what's happened in the last few hours. We just have to move it on now.” He added: “We were mad to win it, but the schedule just hurt us a little bit. We're, as you can imagine, very keen on having a go at the Connacht Championship. “Sligo is the first fence and we have to keep them in mind. That's in the background all the time.” To keep up to date with all the latest GAA news, sign-up to our GAA newsletter here.