OUR VERDICT: Dubs to see off the Mayo challenge

D is for destiny. D could also be for disaster. We have reached the last game of the year and to the entire GAA world it looks like another All-Ireland for Dublin. 

The Dubs hold all the aces. As a team they have better players, better management, a better bench, more self-belief and are playing better. 

So what can go wrong? Well first off the Dubs will have to have their feet firmly grounded after their epic win over the Kingdom in the last game, a game that will be woven into the beautiful tapestry of history between these two giants. 

Then lastly they will have to negate a team that has always troubled them in the past. 

I’ve said previously that Mayo hold no fear of playing the Dubs, as they would always feel that beating them was within their grasp. 

This Mayo team has been hiding in the long grass all year and they have found themselves in another final playing poorly and this can only focus their minds to the challenges that the Dubs will bring this Sunday. 

The games between these are in many ways similar to the Dubs v Kerry, highly entertaining and enjoyable spectacles that can swing like a pendulum. 

They are generally tight affairs with the team that makes the least amount of mistakes usually winning. 

For Mayo to win they must cast off the wet blanket they seem to be playing under this year to have any chance. 

They also need all their big players like Keegan, Higgins, the O’Shea and the O’Connor brothers and Andy Moran along with the rest of the 15 to perform to have any chance. 

Mayo are battling tradition now on both sides with Dublin now expecting to win All-Irelands, while Mayo are expected to lose them.

I can’t fathom how deep the scar tissue those involved in Mayo football must have and it’s to their credit that they keep coming back for more each year. 

I would worry about them in this particular match as they look like a team that has reached the end of the road having gone to the well too many times, and the last team you want to be facing when playing like that is Dublin. 

The difference between the Dublins and Kerrys of this world and everybody else is both Dublin and Kerry teams are judged on winning All-Irelands and multiple ones if possible. 

The others target the province first and then see what happens. The two heavyweights do not get bogged down in provincial games and use them as training and practical sessions for later in the year.

I think these players from Mayo are destined to come up short again like their predecessors before them. 

I take no solace from my belief that Mayo football for all its energy and style lacks vision and realism as they still haven’t accepted that they just haven’t been good enough to date to win Sam and until they do they will remain the bridesmaids. 

They do have a puncher’s chance of beating Dublin but I firmly believe that it’s this Dublin team’s destiny to achieve back-to-back Sams and seal their fate as the best Dublin team of all time.

I feel that Mayo will play a double sweeper to keep the game tight. If they play open football they can trouble the Dubs as they have the conditioning and strength to match them, but they will be torn to shreds at the back by the Dublin forwards. 

I hope Mayo get carried out on their shield and not cower behind a wall of extra bodies back. Either way the Dubs should beat them and beat them well. Dublin to win by five to eight points. 

• Vinnie Murphy won a senior All-Ireland medal for Dublin in 1995.