Rory McIlroy mantra was on Mayo minds during victory over Kerry

Colm Boyle said there are "no underdogs anymore" in football. "It's almost surreal to say that but any team can beat you."

Colm Boyle: "I said it to Andy a good while ago, Mayo are going to win the All-Ireland at some stage. If we don't do it as a management team, someone will do it after us." Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie

Mayo selector Colm Boyle says Rory McIlroy's fearless pursuit of back-to-back Masters titles, and in particular his 'keep swinging' mantra, was one of the inspirations behind their own breakthrough success.

Mayo's quest for an All-Ireland title, and McIlroy's pursuit of a green jacket, were arguably the two most compelling sporting stories from an Irish perspective across the last 15 years.

McIlroy, who got married in Mayo in 2017, finally got over the line at Augusta in 2025, retaining the title last April, and Mayo ended 75 years of hurt just last Sunday.

Fittingly, it was a McIlroy mantra that helped Mayo to see off Kerry and, in particular, to convert the four two-pointers that ultimately decided the game. In old money, before two-pointers, the game would have been a 1-16 to 1-16 draw.

Mayo only converted four out of 14 two-point attempts - five went wide and five dropped short - but inspired by McIlroy, who said his mantra after firing a second-round 65, to take a six-shot lead into the weekend last April, was simply 'keep swinging', Mayo refused to relent.

"Andy actually referenced it before the semi-final, it's a phrase from Rory McIlroy, from one of his Masters wins," said Boyle of the mantra. "He (McIlroy) just said, 'Look, no matter what, I'm going to keep swinging today'.

"Now did we swing a bit too much at times on Sunday? I think our two-point shots were four from 14, so maybe we shouldn't have swung at certain times, but that's a mindset thing.

"The boys had the confidence to go for the shot. When you're under pressure in front of 82,300 people and you're still willing to take on the two-point shot, that's the key thing. And obviously when you can nail them, it's great.

"I think Jack Carney's one in the second half was huge. It's a habit of mine, especially in Croker, because you can't generally see if the ball is going over, so I always look at the player, once the player takes the shot, just to see his reaction. I just looked at Jack and as soon as he hit it, the finger was up, he knew it was over the bar.

"What a feeling that must have been for him. He's been unbelievable for us, I think he's hit 11 two-pointers this year in the Championship. So he's definitely picked up the mantra of keep swinging, that's for sure."

Colm Boyle said Jack Carney's two-pointer in the second half of the All-Ireland final against Kerry was "huge". Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

And yet as epochal as it all was, and the unprecedented celebrations that have since unfolded, former Mayo half-back Boyle was also struck by just how 'normal' it felt, beating Kerry to end the curse.

"This was always going to happen," he said of breaking the famine. "It was going to happen at some stage. I know people think that it's never going to happen. But I said it to Andy a good while ago, Mayo are going to win the All-Ireland at some stage. If we don't do it as a management team, someone will do it after us.

"It's just happened now and it feels...in a weird way, it feels normal. Which is probably a mad thing to say when we haven't won it in 75 years and we've never experienced this before. But it just feels normal.

"Sunday just felt like a normal game. The boys were so unbelievably calm in the morning in the hotel. I said to Andy, around 11 o'clock, that I didn't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"And don't get me wrong, for the first 15 or 20 minutes we were rocking a bit in terms of the way we were playing. We needed to stay in the game, we needed to fight, but my God, once we got to grips with it, the boys just gave a magic performance."

Boyle, a key figure for Mayo during the near-miss years of the 2010s, senses that opportunity is knocking now for a whole host of heretofore 'chasing pack' counties.

"There's no underdogs anymore," he insisted. "It's almost surreal to say that but any team can beat you. Someone referenced to me a few weeks ago, where do Mayo sit in the power rankings? Power rankings is the biggest load of nonsense ever. They're a complete load of nonsense. Any team from, like, 14 down to one can beat each other, if one team is not on it on any given day. You probably saw that with us and Kerry, who were probably just slightly off what they can be, and us probably playing to our maximum ability, and we take Kerry down.

"I think what we've done now just elevates it all again, because I think teams are going to go, 'all bets are off now'."