Inside Track: Brave Mayo deliver one of sport’s greatest days

THERE have been many momentous occasions at Croke Park. We think of the Galway hurlers in 1980; their Offaly counterparts 12 months later; Ger Loughnane's Clare in 1995; and the historic football triumphs of Donegal (1992), Armagh (2002) and Tyrone (2023), but what unfolded at GAA headquarters on Sunday probably topped the lot for sheer emotion.

No county cherishes their Gaelic football more than Mayo, but it's been a tortuous relationship since 1951 when claiming their third All-Ireland title. In the intervening seven-plus decades, players wearing the red and green have known nothing but heartbreak and despair on the sport's biggest day.

Mayo's best team ever had the misfortune to come up against the Dublin six-in-row greats, but they still came desperately close to ending that long famine despite conceding own-goals andonly being beaten with the last kick of the game in one final. Their best chance seemingly dawned in 2021 against Tyrone, but they failed to avail of the opportunity and, with it, you're thinking it's never going to happen for Mayo, at least in the medium term.

With Galway subsequently taking over in Connacht, Mayo were no longer even serious contenders and when they were crushed on home turf by Roscommon in this year's provincial semi-final, there is absolutely nobody who could have envisaged that they would end up as All-Ireland champions for the first time in 75 years.

New manager Andy Moran, one of those great players who almost took Mayo to football's summit, was left shaken by that implosion, but he quickly put that misery behind him, tearing up the script, reshuffling the team and banking on the inclusion of youth to revive their championship hopes.

It was no overnight success. Only for new goalkeeper Jack Livingstone, they would have fallen to Monaghan; while they were in all kinds of trouble early on against Meath in MacHale Park. A more efficient Cork might have taken them to the brink too.

But Mayo somehow came through all those tests and when they hammered Louth in the All-Ireland semi-final, you could see the rising belief in their ranks. They were now adopting a risky high-press strategy on the opposition kick-outs, but it was helping to transform their fortunes.

The only problem was that champions Kerry were waiting for them in the All-Ireland Final. Like the Limerick hurlers, they hadn't been at their best in reaching the decider, but the squad's injury problems were easing, leading to a widespread assumption that Kerry's best performance was about to be delivered on Sunday.

And when they stormed into a 1-5 to 0-1 lead after 16 minutes, you feared Mayo were out of their depth. True, they already had scoring chances, but two-point efforts were either driven wide or dropped short. In a mini-crisis, Mayo needed something – anything – just to stop the bleeding and up stepped excellent midfielder Jack Carney to raise a critical orange flag.

From that juncture onwards, Mayo really became the hunters, with their no-holds-barred press on Kerry defenders a stand-out feature. Ryan O'Donoghue, the Player of the Year elect, set the tone with an awesome display of commitment and accurate shooting. Carney was another hero; while centre-back David McBrien, Enda Hession – who was on an ocean of ball – Sam Callinan, team captain Jack Coyne, and Jordan Flynn were also immense.

And then you have those fearless teenagers – Eoin McGreal, Kobe McDonald, and Darragh Beirne – who made light of their inexperience with significant contributions, not least Beirne's goal after a magnificent run from O'Donoghue and a first-time flick from McBrien. Substitute Tommy Conroy also paid his way, while the indefatigable Diarmuid O'Connor typically ran himself into the ground.

I am thrilled for the likes of O'Connor, his brother Cillian, Paddy Durcan, and Aidan O'Shea that Mayo finally got over the line after experiencing so much agony in their long careers. And wasn't it fitting that Keith Higgins and Colm Boyle – two of the county's finest-ever footballers – were part of the Mayo management team.

The sheer delirium and the emotion on the faces of their supporters after the final whistle was something else altogether. You were almost wishing you were from Mayo in those moments. Fair-minded sports people all over Ireland are just delighted for them. A county's unrivalled yearning for an All-Ireland has finally been quenched and beating Kerry to do it makes the achievement all the more special.

In one swoop, Mayo buried all those unfair tags that they were soft, bottlers, and mentally weak. Their players were incredibly brave on Sunday, fought like terriers, and were not prepared to take a backwards step. All the hallmarks of champions on what one of Irish sport's – never mind the GAA – most earth-shattering days.

Ladies Football

GIVEN the dominance of the Kilkerrin-Clonberne ladies footballers at club level, it's no surprise that the county team has developed into one of the best in the country. The current Galway squad, however, have still to get their hands on the Brendan Martin Cup but I expect that quest to end at Croke Park on Sunday.

Under the management of Daniel Moynihan, the Tribeswomen are in the form of their lives with that thumping of Armagh in the All-Ireland semi-final a real statement of intent. Galway have still a big hurdle to climb and Kerry beat them easily in the final two years ago, but on the evidence of this year's championship the women in maroon look poised to extract revenge. Galway's lone All-Ireland success came 22 years ago when PJ Fahy was at the helm. It's past time for a second one.