Mayo manager Stephen Rochford joined Tuesday's OTB AM after the draw for first round of the All-Ireland qualifers was made earlier this week.
His side will face Limerick as they look to get their season back on track after the loss to Galway in the Connacht Championship.
"Look the reality is that any of the teams that were in the draw this morning - they're all starting from the same point," he told Ger.
"They're all after coming off a disappointing performance or result in the provincial championships so I'm sure there'll be plenty of external noise saying 'Mayo will be favourites' but that was the same against Derry last year and Fermanagh the year before and we struggled over them games because when you're so invested in the provincial championship and you're really trying to edge out that winning performance - your confidence goes on a little bit of shaky ground.
"That's the one thing about the qualifiers as well - it allows you to try and build that up."
Despite running Dublin close over the last two years - losing by a point in successive All-Ireland finals - Rochford and his management team have come in for criticism over social media but he has learned how to deal with it over time.
"You try to remove yourself from it as much as possible but Mayo's a small enough county. My job with AIB means I'm in the public eye a bit - you hear a bit, you get a couple of letters sent to the house to offer that sort of 'insight' but it is what it is. Life is tough.
"I was talking earlier about playing Cork in my first game back in the national league back in 2016 and we got a real tanking below in Pairc Uí Rinn and as much as you think you're ready for this - that step up is massive!
"And, there's plenty of commentators saying 'This is the end of that team' and all that - and that was probably a bit more difficult to handle at that time but I'm well removed from that now insofar as I understand our own group a lot more and I've seen them at the coalface delivering under that element of pressure but dealing with it on the field as well. They're a great bunch of guys and I really, really trust them.
"We can only control what we do within the four walls of our dressing room and our pitch and we look to try to change that narrative but we've no control over it.
"When I was involved with Corofin, I would have probably had more of a social media presence. One of the learnings is when you go into that to step back. It's (Twitter) unfiltered, and I say this with a little bit of tongue-in-cheek: 'Everybody's an expert!'
"I was talking to somebody last winter and 10 years ago there was typically four or five mainstay GAA correspondents in the media - now we have maybe 105,000 correspondents or experts but that's just the way life is!" he added.
Catch Tuesday's full OTB AM Podcast here:
