Final observations and Mayo feelings: Joy is like grief. It only feels complete when shared
IT'S DONE: He might have liked the tap-in goal to put the ultimate seal on it, but likely not. Ending Irish sport's most excruciating curse was plenty good enough for Mayo's boy king Kobe McDonald, as Tommy Conroy's late score seals the deal at Croke Park.
The true measure of the occasion was written on the faces. It has been long established that the beauty of sport is what it does to its people. Ever since the hooter sounded just after 5pm last Sunday, the emotion of it all has been extraordinary to see.
Everyone has a different story. It was told in the various expressions, the physical convulsions, the euphoric nods. There were tearful embraces and salutes and lingering looks to the sky. It was there in Croke Park and its surroundings on Sunday night, it was there in the team hotel on Monday morning and it was there in Castlebar Monday evening.
The road out west on a grey Monday morning was just as revealing. It left us with countless questions. Just how many car horns were going to blow by the end of the week? Where did the roadside children in their green and red colours actually live? How was every bridge draped in bunting and flags? Was it all co-ordinated by some unseen hand?
Michael Moran is the sort of man you know to see. If you’ve ever set foot on the concrete concourse of MacHale Park, there is a chance you’ve passed the veteran steward in the hall. He’s the liftman. The sociable gent who runs people up and down in the elevator behind the main stand, working at every game all year round. This was the wait of a lifetime for a supporter like him.
You see, Michael was born on the 19th of September, 1951, a week before Mayo beat Meath to win Sam Maguire. He is convinced he was crying that day too.
We were struck by a simple thought on Monday as more than 40,000 people flocked to the county’s showpiece stadium to welcome their victorious team home. How many times in your life can you truly say that there is nowhere else in the world you’d rather be? So certain that any offer to be transported to any other location would be declined. How many times can you be confident thousands of others would say the same?
The sea of green and red that stretched out across the pitch was awesome. When we landed in the ground, our first instinct was the press box at the back of the stand. Now dear reader, Mayo might be the place to be, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are few worse media workrooms in the country. The indoor seating area behind angled glass with giant pillars is restrictive on a typical day and there was nothing typical about this.
So we walked across the field and climbed to the roof of the tower on the open stand side. From there, there was no view of the presentation stage. There was, though, a perfect view of the people. That was enough. It was what mattered.
After the demands from an impatient crowd – “We want Sam!” – after every panel member and his club had been read out, after the captain and manager were both interviewed and Robbie Hennelly led the crowd in The Green and Red of Mayo for what felt like the millionth time, Andy Moran approached the stadium announcers and asked if he could have the microphone to say one more thing.
He could see stalwarts in the crowd too. Former team-mates like Alan Dillon, Donie Vaughan, Barry Moran and more. He wanted to acknowledge managers, coaches and former players who paved the way, who continually kept them in contention, who trusted that if they kept turning up, eventually it would work out.
All night long, the respect shown towards those countless individuals who carried Mayo forward was strikingly wholesome. It was clear that the triumph belonged to them, as much as anyone. The faces told you everything you needed to know.
It was there in the face of Finn Clancy as he stood in for his late father, Paul, as part of the tribute to the 2001 Galway jubilee team. The way those who were in the stadium reacted was a true measure of his father's standing.
It was there in the young Mayo supporter’s face as he approached David Clifford just before he exited the pitch in HQ to ask him for his jersey. The child was clutching the hand of the Mayo logistics man Dessie Campbell. Clifford took one look at his hopeful expression and handed over the green and gold.
It was there in Jack Coyne’s face as he climbed the Hogan Stand steps to collect the cup, wearing his usual wristband in the Ballyhaunis black and red. Across it was the name 'Pierce', in memory of his clubmate Pierce Higgins, brother of Keith, who died from motor neurone disease a few years ago.
It was there in Michael Moran’s face as he stopped to greet us on Monday evening. Joy is like grief. It only feels complete when shared.
"Listen, we are the lucky ones," Andy Moran said as he paid tribute to the generations who had carried Mayo to this point without ever reaching the summit. The rest of us are lucky too, to see what it all meant.
Here are eight observations from the Gaelic football championship.
They celebrated it like a goal. Jack Carney turned to thump Mark O’Shea. Eoin McGreal drove both fists into Paudie Clifford. Darragh Beirne punched the air towards the Hill again and again. As soon as Shane Murphy clipped away a left-footed kickout and Jason Foley slipped a pass to Dylan Casey, Mayo descended to hunt and harry.
The way they did it was so similar to Tyrone in 2003. Keith Evans was pulled beneath a white wave when he won a kickout break in the second half. Mayo used that iconic image of Tyrone swarming Kerry in their pre-match analysis.
“We actually referenced it,” Andy Moran told us at the team hotel Monday. “Obviously, Paddy is in the management team and he was a coach in 2003 for Tyrone. But we actually referenced, we took clips out of our game against Louth and then we showed them the Tyrone game. We said, lads there are similarities here in this if we can harness it and bring it.
“Every game, there needs to be a moment that people believe in it. When Ryan turned Dylan Casey with Kobe on his tail, with Jack Carney not following the midfielders going the other way, making it an 8 v 6 up top, all of a sudden our boys took a step further forward. There needs to be a moment.
“That moment, he nearly got Paul Murphy just before it. I thought Paul probably took too many steps, Ryan probably borderline fouled him but the next one, McNally let it go, Martin let it go and we got the free out of it. The whole thing turned after that.”
In the first half alone, four of Kerry’s defenders were turned over (Dylan Casey, Paul Murphy, Mike Breen and Evan Looney). The way Mayo hunted them down was predatory.
The obvious benefit of this high press will inevitably lead to further innovation. There is more value to winning possession high up the pitch. Referees will rarely punish every tackle with cards or blow every infringement. Even if they penalise three out of four, the fourth will still result in a high-value turnover close to the opposition’s goal.
It is why the backcourt rule, a trial law recently suggested by Gaelic football Expert Advisory Group head Kevin McStay, would be foolhardy. Why give teams a reason to drop off a kickout and wait in their own half to trap the opposition? There is a reason the Football Review Committee were so strongly opposed to the idea. As for a limit on hand passes, the same question applies: why do these review groups instinctively reach for restrictions? The stick isn’t always the answer. Sometimes the carrot works better.
That is where the focus should lie. Would Mayo have won the final with a different referee? The way forward is to allow more physicality. Of course, there has to be a balance here too. Martin McNally had a terrific game but gesturing at Dylan Geaney to get up when he was clearly injured was a poor look, even more so when he then stopped play moments later after realising his mistake. Kerry may also take issue with the tackle that left Dylan Casey with a suspected broken nose.
The broader point is the benefit for Gaelic football. Tyrone’s retreating half-forwards with Brian Dooher, Kerry’s big man with Kieran Donaghy, Donegal’s defence, Dublin’s possession game, winners set trends.
Teams will inevitably get better at kicking through the press so they don’t lose the ball close to their own goal. That is how it should evolve. One innovation forces another. The result should be a faster and more compelling game.
Pop quiz. How many players did not kick the ball from open play in the All-Ireland final?
The answer is five. Kerry’s Gavin White and Mark O’Shea did not kick a pass or take a shot. Mayo’s Jack Coyne, Bob Tuohy and David McBrien didn’t either. McBrien has the unusual distinction of scoring in an All-Ireland final without kicking the ball, his point coming from a fisted score.
Possessions are only one metric, telling only part of the story. As they review the decider, will Kerry look at their lack of kickers as a potential weakness? Joe O’Connor and Dylan Casey finished with one kicked pass and one point apiece. Sean O’Brien attempted four kicks, completing two while also recording one turnover and one wide.
By contrast, while Bob Tuohy carried out much of the unseen work, Jack Carney racked up 42 possessions, attempted nine kick passes and scored four points from just two shots.
It was clear that Mayo knew who they wanted orchestrating their attack. Enda Hession finished the game with seven assists. Ryan O’Donoghue had 38 possessions. It says everything about his display that he had five wides or efforts that dropped short, another two turnovers and was still an obvious pick for Man of the Match.
Speaking of Carney’s masterclass, his two-point return now makes for remarkable reading. It is 21 attempts for 22 points, or 11 two-pointers this season.
“The one that stands out for me is Carney,” said Moran. “Carney scored more in this championship than he did through the rest of his career. For me, he was the one that encapsulated the risk-taking. He was the one, I had Jack at U21 in 2020. I met him and it wasn’t… me and Jack get on really well but it wasn’t a comfortable conversation.
“We pointed out his stats and said why aren’t you doing this? Safety all this sort of stuff. He is the guy if you asked me one player who encapsulated it. It is easy to tell a 19-year-old to keep taking shots. But when you are 26 and you have this way of playing and you have to change, all of sudden he scored nearly 20 points in the championship. Four points in the final. He is the guy who encapsulates it all.”
The task for any management team is to consider every detail and work out how to exploit it. Selection, matchups, the throw-in; they have to constantly reassess it all.
For example, in the Connacht championship against London and Roscommon, Mayo lost three of their four throw-ins. In their next five games, they won seven of 10. What changed?
Jack Carney started to jump instead of Bob Tuohy. Tuohy is bigger but Carney has a terrific leap. Just as importantly, Mayo’s reshaping of the team has brought more pace to the middle eight. Paul Towey is a magnet for breaks and won the first throw-in at the weekend.
Carney typically breaks the ball towards his half-forward line. Gavin White’s immense impact from the start of last year’s final was much discussed, so Sam Callinan followed him to the six position and tracked his every step. Mayo also left one player holding the half-back line, on the same side as the opposition’s sideline midfielder, in case they lost possession.
Before each throw-in, Darragh Beirne has a habit of sprinting at full pace towards the crossbar, away from his team-mates. He did it after the national anthem on Sunday and again after half-time. The trigger was designed to ensure he hit the ground running. It paid immediate dividends when he scored within seconds of Ryan O’Donoghue winning the throw-in break, albeit with the aid of two fortunate bounces.
Moran’s desire to get Enda Hession involved in attack meant he instead advocated for Eoin McGreal to mark Paudie Clifford. For the 50-odd minutes he was on the field, the 19-year-old was outstanding. The inclusion of Diarmuid O’Connor on the same wing as Gavin White paid off handsomely.
Before the match, Moran revealed that they plan with Paul Towey that he will either start a game or finish it. They took him off after 25 minutes. By doing so, they forced Kerry to adapt. Jason Foley left O’Donoghue to take Tommy Conroy. Half-back lines don’t typically man-mark, especially not the way Kerry defend. In that new-found space, O’Donoghue thrived.
Of the Kingdom’s 17 scores, the Cliffords either scored or assisted 12. David or Paudie Clifford scored Kerry’s last four points.
David Clifford finished with 1-6 from seven shots. It means that in 2026, he has scored 101 points from play from 98 shots. It is obscene. No other player has reached 50. He also assisted 0-2.
Before the final, we wrote about how teams are now clearly showing him onto his right foot. Our theory was that we should expect him to kick a two-pointer with his non-dominant side now that this is becoming the norm. Then he went out and did exactly that.
Paudie Clifford scored 0-3 and assisted 0-5. The problem for Kerry was their lack of depth on the day. Dylan Geaney is their second top scorer this season with 37 points. He didn’t score on Sunday. Captain Paul Geaney did not come on. The last few years have been about creating a system to help their stars. That evolution must now continue.
Few rules have had as significant a positive impact as the ban on the back-pass to goalkeepers. At the time, there was much concern about how it would diminish the role of goalkeepers and make the position even more unattractive.
And yet, in Kerry and Mayo, they will both celebrate the performances of their goalkeepers after this championship. Shane Murphy’s habit of big saves continued as he denied Kobe McDonald with a full-stretch dive, the ball crashing off his face and flying over. Because of shots dropping short, he ended up with six possessions and dealt with them all comfortably.
Ever since Mayo turned to rookie Jack Livingstone, he has been immense. His ability to disguise his kicks and find a team-mate in that Clifford corner was superb.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, NFL analyst Brett Kollmann and Pardon My Take host Dan Katz were among those to share the clip of Mayo’s post-hooter celebrations. By midweek, it had surpassed 22 million views.
Once again, it was a summer that showed the value of selling the product. To their credit, the GAA have been a driving force in doing that. The embrace of pitchside videographers and behind-the-scenes social media content is only good for the game.
Outside the Mayo dressing room beneath the Hogan Stand on Sunday night, the scene was surreal. A handler with a Harris’s hawk walked past and no one batted an eye. Now, anything is possible.
Shortly after, videographer Mark Forde wandered past with a wide grin. In his hand was a clear plastic sign with a message scrawled across it. He held it up and laughed. It had been used as a prop for a fitting video. Written across it was "Kobe Mc", with a little smiley face. What a way to sign off.
At the start of the season, we made a series of predictions for hurling and Gaelic football. It would be remiss of us not to revisit them now.
Kerry will go back-to-back. .
There will be midfielders or big men left in the three-up as a fast, long kickout option. We saw several teams, including Roscommon and Dublin, use a variation of this. .
There will be more 45s worked short for two-pointers. .
The Leinster championship resurgence will stall. We applied a definition to this and failed miserably. Meath and Wexford were promoted. Westmeath won a stunning provincial title. Yes, only one Leinster team made the quarter-finals, but Wicklow were one of the stories of the summer. .
Jack Coyne will prove to be a shrewd choice as Mayo captain. .
We will see more creativity with how teams swap players over and back across the halfway line in a slow attack. Armagh made this a serious weapon at times. Others attempted their own versions. .
Derry will prove 2025 was a dip rather than a decline. .
Three wins, four losses. A humbling year.
Thanks to anyone who read or engaged with this concept in 2026. It was the greatest season the sport has ever produced.
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