A day in the sun Mayo badly needed

Well, wasn’t that just mighty for the heart and the soul?

No national football competition has provided so much recurring fun since the rollicking 2010 senior football championship as this year’s U21 championship has — although last year’s U21 campaign went pretty close — and last Saturday in Ennis, we got a final that encapsulated all that was good about it.

It was full of thrills, its spare of spills, and even more scores. And yet for all the flair and skill on view, there was just as much grit and fight as well. At various times, both sides — for Cork made a magnificent contribution to this game and this competition throughout as well — had to show considerable resilience and poise to come from behind, such as like when the Rebels had to bounce back from a sticky patch after half-time in the Munster final against Kerry, and Mayo did so spectacularly against Roscommon and Dublin.