In one of the greatest upsets in Gaelic football history, Mayo has beaten Kerry in the All-Ireland football final in Dublin to break a 75-year title drought and end what some people call “the Mayo curse”.
Whether the curse was hokum, a story or a real psychological issue that had simply bedevilled generations of Mayo footballers, the victory by 1-20 (23 points) to 1-17 (20 points) at Croke Park immediately drew a line under three quarters of a century of heartbreak and became one of the biggest headlines in Gaelic games history.
And one of the stars of the unlikely victory is a footballer who many think could be a generational talent although he has only just finished school, and is headed to the AFL.
The story goes that after beating Meath at Croke Park in the 1951 All-Ireland final, a jubilant Mayo team travelled home to the western province of Connacht on the back of a truck, celebrating the whole way.
While passing through the village of Foxford though, the players passed by a funeral that was taking place.
The local priest apparently took a dim view of the players continuing to celebrate while the funeral was taking place, placing a “curse” on the county, that it would not win the title again until all the team that played that day had died.
After 1951, it took the Mayo senior team 38 years to return to the All-Ireland final. In total, before this year, it had played in 11 All-Ireland finals since 1951 and lost them all.
In 2016, Mayo conceded two own goals against Dublin, forcing a draw and a replay, which it lost.
The last of these finals, in 2021, came a few weeks before the final playing member of the original team, Paddy Prendergast, died aged 95.
The team did not make it back to Croke Park for the All-Ireland final until Sunday’s decider against defending champions Kerry, who were trying to extend their record by winning a 40th All-Ireland crown.
So this year was the first opportunity to win the biggest game of the season since the elements of the “curse” had been met.
Things did not start well, with Kerry superstar forward David Clifford burying a shot in the net in the 15th minute.
But Mayo fought back to be a point down at half-time, 1-8 (11) to 0-10 (10).
Manager Andy Moran had backed young talent, with 18-year-old Kobe McDonald and 19-year-old Darragh Beirne key to the team’s success.
McDonald, who was selected by St Kilda late last year as a Category B rookie and is expected to head Down Under shortly to join the team, would score three points in the final
Beirne’s brilliant finish scored Mayo’s only goal that sparked the county’s run to victory.
Rollercoaster ride to All-Ireland title for Mayo
It had not been an auspicious start to the football season for Mayo, as it was beaten by 10 points by Roscommon in the Connacht provincial championship. The team in red and green was all but written off for the All-Ireland.
Andy Moran (right) got stuck into the media for laughing at long-suffering fans’ celebrations. (Getty Images: Sportsfile/Ramsey Cardy)
It entered the All-Ireland Championship series still looking shaky, beating Monaghan by a point before a single-point loss to Tyrone left it on its final chance.
Mayo bounced back with a win over Meath to reach the quarter-finals, then downed Cork at Croke Park to make the last four.
The semi-final turned out to be a one-sided affair against Louth, with Mayo winning by 17 points. But the run was expected to end against Kerry. The questions started after the semi, with Moran asked if fans would lose the run of themselves celebrating given the county’s horror record in finals.
Moran hit back hard.
“You laugh at that, lads. I don’t laugh at that,” Moran said at the press conference.
“I find it very, actually, dismissive, if I’m being honest. I think it’s a bullshit question. I think it’s a disrespectful question.
“Our county has been starved the last four or five years. If they [fans] go a bit nuts, let them.”
He then set his sights on the football reporters present.
“You’re going to go to a game tomorrow. Every single one of ye, you’re going to write that Kerry or Dublin will go to win the All-Ireland final, right? Right?
“Does anyone here think we’re going to win the All-Ireland final? No. Thank you.”
Kobe McDonald has just finished school, but the Mayo young gun now has an All-Ireland medal and is set to come to the AFL. (Getty Images: Sportsfile/David Fitzgerald)
When the final siren went on Sunday, it set off emotional scenes at Croke Park among the 80,000-plus crowd.
The Saw Doctors’ hit The Green and Red of Mayo, written by a group of Galway musicians about what Mayo means to the people, blasted out of the speakers at the stadium as joy mixed with disbelief for the fans.
After the game, McDonald, like his teammates, was elated and he was trying to focus on the now, rather than what’s next.
“Look, to be honest I’m not thinking about Australia right now. I’m just going to soak in every minute of this. To give the people of Mayo something to celebrate, it’s special,” he told Irish broadcaster RTE.
“I know every team probably says it but we’re like a family. When we’re in training three days a week it’s like 40 brothers.
“We know every single person in there has each other’s back and whatever is being said outside the group doesn’t affect us.”
Gaelic games, football and hurling, are amateur sports, and there has been plenty of debate over the years about the loss of talent to the AFL.
The rest of Mayo, and quite possibly the rest of Irish Gaelic games, hopes that McDonald stays with Mayo and doesn’t take his skills to Australia.
But whatever happens from here, McDonald and the rest of the team have written their names in Irish sporting history and moved their county forever beyond the ghosts of losses past.
A huge crowd of Mayo supporters travelled to Dublin and were overjoyed after their team’s shock win. (Getty Images: Sportsfile/David Fitzgerald)
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