Former Mayo star Seamus O’Shea sees the midfield battle as being key in determining who will be crowned All-Ireland champions next Saturday week

James Horan’s Mayo side get set to contest their second Sam Maguire Cup decider in-a-row when they take on Ulster champions Tyrone at Croke Park in nine days' time.

Having watched the Red Hands’ extra time victory over Kerry last Saturday, O’Shea said he was impressed by their prowess around the centre of the field and expects some interesting match ups at headquarters.

“It’ll be important,” the Breaffy clubman told GAA.ie. “I watched the Tyrone-Kerry game again and I’ve been impressed by the two guys in midfield. They’re solid and they get the job done.

“Morgan hit them with a few good kick-outs when they isolated them up the wings. Their match-ups, whether it’s with Matty (Ruane) and (Conor) Loftus or Matty and Diarmuid (O’Connor) is a bit different in that David Moran and Jack Barry were a little defensive the last day, allowing them to sit back a little bit.

“The Mayo lads won’t do that so it’ll be interesting to see how that match-up works out. But yeah, I imagine they’ll have a plan for Matty because he’s been such an important player for us.”

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