The third round qualifier draw has thrown up a number of intriguing ties, the pick of them being the meeting of Mayo and Armagh.
Last year’s All-Ireland finalists Tyrone have been handed a tricky tie as they must go to Newbridge to face Kildare.
The remaining two ties are evenly matched with Westmeath drawn at home to Clare while there’ll be a midlands derby between Laois and Offaly in Portlaoise.
The four winners will then be pitted against beaten provincial finalists Cork, Cavan, Meath and Galway in round four.
Mayo and Armagh haven’t met in Championship football since the 1950 All-Ireland semi-final which Mayo won en route to their second All-Ireland and they’ll be favoured again next weekend having been granted home advantage against Kieran McGeeney’s resurgent side.
The draw was conducted by former Tyrone star Sean Cavanagh along with GAA president John Horan on RTE’s Morning Ireland and Cavanagh doesn’t believe that Armagh will have any inhibitions about going to Castlebar.
He said: “I don’t think they’ll fear it because they have such a strong, young coming team, they’ll fancy going down.
“The one thing about Mayo is they possibly are a little bit of an ageing team when you look at their team at the weekend and Armagh with young Burns and Rian O’Neill, Jamie Clarke’s still doing it, they’ll fancy their chances to go down there and put up a good performance.”
Tyrone last went to Newbridge in 2013 when they inflicted the first qualifier defeat of McGeeney’s reign in Kildare in what proved to be his last game in charge.
Cavanagh played in that game and commented: “It’s a difficult assignment, there’s no other way of putting it.
“If you look at ‘Newbridge or nowhere’ last year you realise that Kildare are capable of putting up a big performance on any given day so I’ve no doubt Kildare will probably be happier, they’re playing at home, there’ll be a huge atmosphere down there, it’s probably what they need to ignite their season.
“Kildare have the capabilities of upsetting anyone on any given day, they also can be slightly inconsistent but yeah, going down there, it’s a tough one for Tyrone.”
Round Three Qualifier Draw
Mayo v Armagh
Kildare v Tyrone
Westmeath v Clare
Laois v Offaly
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