Mayo were yesterday crown 2026 All Ireland Senior Football Champions after defeating Kerry 1-20 (23) to 1-17 (20). The win ended a 75 year wait to add another All Ireland crown, They lasted tasted victory in 1951. This win now ends all the near misses of the past in particular since the late 90s and 2000’s where they played in several finals and came out on the wrong side of the result.
To see the raw emotion on the faces of the Mayo support would certainly have moved even the most staunch of Kerry supporters yesterday. The win yesterday was long sought after and is reward for Andy Moran and his backroom team that never wavered in their own belief that this day might come.
Men like Ryan O Donoghue, Jack Carney, Kobe Mc Donald , Darragh Beirne lead the way and not forgetting the Mayo rear guard who worked tirelessly to assist the front 8 in their quest for victory yesterday.
Jack Livingstone in goal did well after a shaky opening 15 minutes, his kick outs from that point were on the mark and they worked hard to stifle the Kerry attacks and battled hard in the middle and this then insured that the Mayo attack could flourish and they worked their way into the game and stuck to the game plan.
That then say them worked the ball quickly up the field and then go for 2 pointers and if they didn’t come off which happened in the opening period, they worked it back to reset there attack.
From a Kerry perspective, they will firstly know they were beaten by the better team on the day as hard as that will be to accept from some quarters.
Jack O Connor will know he got certain things wrong yesterday tactically and when the chips were down he was slow in turning to his bench to try and turn things around. Hunger and desire were key factors in the Mayo victory along with a never say die attitude.
Having seen certain sporting hoodoos broken in the past number of years, adding Mayo to that list was something special. Yet again over the past fortnight in the Hurling and Football we have seen the best of Irish culture through the prism of sport.
The GAA is much maligned on occasion but again yesterday, you saw real and genuine passion and emotion from the Mayo support, some have said they never thought they would see the day Mayo would win another All Ireland after the win of 1951. Many near misses and opportunities have come and gone in the past 75 years but yesterday Mayo put an emphatic stop to all that winning by 3 points.
From a Kerry point of view, It will be an interesting autumn and winter as is often the case as to where they go to next. Plenty of talk has already happened and will continue for most of the next week as to what happened but I don’t think anyone would begrudge Mayo there moment yesterday.
Mayo are the 2026 All Ireland Senior Football Champions and these are the men who created history yesterday evening in Croke Park :
Mayo: Jack Livingstone; Jack Coyne, Donnacha McHugh, Eoin McGreal; Sam Callinan, David McBrien ,Enda Hession; Bob Tuohy, Jack Carney , Diarmuid O’Connor, Paul Towey, Jordan Flynn Darragh Beirne ,Ryan O’Donoghue, Kobe McDonald
Subs: Tommy Conroy came on for Paul Towey, Matthew Ruane came on for Bob Touhy, Rory Brickenden came on for McGreal , Conor Loftus came on for Diarmuid O’Connor, Paddy Durcan came on for Sam Callinan.