What is it about Mayo? The players change, the management changes, one generation moves on and another takes over. And even when all that happens, they still look like a Netflix documentary waiting to happen.How they ended up only beating Monaghan by a point on Sunday is madness. It has to be very worrying for them. They scored 1-17 in the first half and still needed Kobe McDonald to catch the very last kick-out of the day to get out of Clones alive. Give all the credit you like to Monaghan for not lying down, but the reality is that Mayo won’t be going very far in the All-Ireland if they keep making it this hard for themselves.The camera cut to Andy Moran after Kobe kicked the ball away when the hooter went. He seemed as baffled as the rest of us as to how that game had got so close. He looked like he didn’t know whether to celebrate or to get the players into the dressingroom to eat the head off them. They only scored five points in the last 25 minutes. Mayo have all the tools to compete. They have plenty of big boys around the middle, so they always have a chance when the kick-outs are up for grabs. They’re not short on physicality and they’re not short on skills. Ryan O’Donoghue and Kobe both have an X-factor that they’ve lacked in other years. To cap it all off, they’re bringing experience in off the bench with the likes of Aidan O’Shea, Paddy Durcan and Diarmuid O’Connor.So if you take all that together, Mayo should have a good enough formula to do well. It definitely should have been enough to make Sunday more comfortable than it turned out. Kick your two-pointers, build up a score, make the kick-out battle 50/50 at worst and then send in the old soldiers to put manners on the game at the end. But in Clones, that old Mayo drama kicked in again.Monaghan’s Stephen O’Hanlon brushes past Stephen Coen of Mayo during Sunday's championship match in St Tiernach's Park, Clones, Co Monaghan. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Everybody knows by now what Monaghan are going to bring. They have a brilliant attitude about them that screams, “we don’t give two you-know-whats”. No situation scares them or makes them feel sorry for themselves. But even though you have to admire that about them, there’s still no excuse for not recognising what they’re about from a purely footballing point of view.Monaghan try to get themselves into games by creating two-point chances around the arc. Everybody knows who their threats are – Jack McCarron and Conor McCarthy coming from right to left, Micheál Bannigan and Dessie Ward going the other way, and Rory Beggan from frees. They changed it up when young Bobby McCaul was on the pitch by going more direct and looking for goals, but they were still six points down when he went off injured. Mayo had three weeks to get ready for Monaghan. They also had the huge advantage of being able to see Monaghan play an Ulster final that included extra-time in Clones. Not to mention the fact that the way Monaghan build their attacks was basically masterminded by Andy Moran himself last year. And they still nearly coughed up a 12-point lead in half an hour of football.I know these things can sometimes happen with the new rules, but that lets Mayo off the hook a bit too handily. They’re not consistent enough. They go to sleep too easily. They bite too quickly on the tackle. They get pulled out of shape at critical moments.For example, McCarron made space for a two-pointer with a shimmy that took two players out of it. Stephen Mooney’s goal came when he made two fellas run into each other as they went to tackle him. They were both classy scores in their execution, but you can’t be a serious team and get done like that twice in the space of 90 seconds.Paudie Clifford of Kerry has a shot blocked by Finnbarr Roarty of Donegal during last month's All-Ireland SFC round-one match at Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney, Co Kerry. Photograph: James Lawlor/Inpho Now they have Tyrone in Omagh in the next round. I don’t doubt that they have the players to go there and win – they did it last summer when the mood was far darker in Mayo than it is now. But I’d be more confident for them if they had been more clinical against Monaghan. As ever with Mayo, it’s a case of strapping in now for a bumpy ride ahead.All in all, you’d have to say the draw on Tuesday morning didn’t throw up a load of show-stoppers. Cork will give Donegal a better game than a lot of people are predicting – they’ve done better against them in recent years than Kerry have. The Dubs got the draw they needed away to Cavan. And I’d feel a bit for Westmeath, who will probably find Galway that bit too slick and clever for them.In Kerry, it’s fair to say there was a sigh of relief when Kildare came out of the hat. At a time when there’s so many injuries in the camp, you need a game that looks to be manageable without having to rush fellas back. There’ll be people in Kildare who are still sore with Jack O’Connor over his time there, but Jack won’t mind that.Far more pressing for him will be the physio’s report. Can we get Seán O’Shea back? Or Gavin White? Or Tom O’Sullivan? Or Shane Ryan? Has Paudie Clifford a full 70 minutes in him? Has Joe O’Connor? Has Brian Ó Beaglaoich? Can Paul Geaney play a role? These are significant players who are needed back on the pitch pronto. Kerry will be confident they’ve enough to get past Kildare without some of those names. But it’s knockout football now and the next game after Kildare is one week later. The All-Ireland quarter-final is a week after that. For every team now, there’s no time to waste.