Andy Moran's All-Ireland-winning Mayo management team back for Sam Maguire defence

BACK FOR MORE: Mayo's manager Andy Moran celebrates. Pic: James Crombie/Inpho

Andy Moran’s Mayo All-Ireland SFC winning management team will be back en bloc for the defence of the Sam Maguire Cup next season.

Paddy Tally, Colm Boyle and Keith Higgins, who doubled up as U20 manager this year, will again assist Moran in 2027.

In his first season in charge, Moran guided Mayo to a most famous championship success having assisted Gabriel Bannigan in Monaghan the year before and managed Leitrim for three seasons between 2022 and ’24.

Mayo is the third All-Ireland winning team that Tyrone native Tally has coached after Tyrone in 2003 and Kerry in ’22. The former Derry and Down manager was also part of the Down coaching set-up that reached the 2010 All-Ireland final.

Moran’s former team-mate Boyle was announced alongside Tally as his assistants when the Ballaghaderreen man was handed a three-year term in August 2025.

Higgins was primarily focused on the U20s this past season, which was his first in charge. 

They topped the Connacht SFC group table with four wins from four but lost the final to Roscommon after extra-time in April and after that linked up with Moran.

This year’s goalkeeping coach was former Donegal No1 Paul Durcan, while Conor Finn was head of athletic performance with assistance from Barry Solan.

Moran has spoken of the need to find time to get a pre-season workload into the players amid the celebrations. “Your mind switches very, very quickly,” he said last month. “It's a real funny one. What winning the All-Ireland does that losing the All-Ireland never did was (wonder) what receptions are on next week? Where do people want the cup around the world? Team holidays, All-Stars.

"Where do you fit these things in around and try and get a training load into them so they’re ready for the last week of January next year for the National League.

"You’d love to say you can down tools and enjoy it but, as a manager, I don’t think you get the same level of gap as you would have from playing."

Mayo’s opening championship match next April will be in Ireland having visited London this year. 

Their challenge game against Kerry in London on November 28, eight days after the return of collective senior inter-county training, is expected to get the go-ahead in the coming weeks.

Mayo head out on their team holiday to Barbados the day after the All Stars on October 30. The football nominations will be revealed this Tuesday.