When someone asks you that question that we all get as Mayo supporters, you know the one, “how do you do it?” or “how do you keep putting yourself through it?” you’ll no doubt bristle and try to hide your disdain like I will have to do in the coming days.

In fairness, the question will probably come from someone with minimal interest in two things, firstly Mayo football and secondly, your answer.

In some cases, I’ll probably let the county down with my answer just for the sake of politeness. Some sort of line like ”sure we are suckers for hope” or “we have a nice young team, nothing to lose and we’ll win it one of these days.”

That should sort it out and in a social situation where the people around me don’t want a long dissertation on the challenges of breaking free from the pressures of the past, when you’re already underdogs in a sport dominated by two counties with much bigger populations, traditions and only sprinkles of resistance from the other 29 counties outside of Mayo.

I have to be honest though, as annoying as the question is, I do find myself asking it in a different context every so often. It isn’t that I ask myself “how do we do it?”  it’s just that I’m constantly infused with energy by the way that we do it. The way that we keep coming back

I mean the 2026 season might be the most dumbfounding example of them all in that regard.  We’re losing our generational talent to Australia, we have been flailing around from year to year without a big win and yet in one four-week spell underpinned by defiance and a breathtaking new wave of attacking football, we have burst back into yet another final. We just will not stop trying.

So my full answer to someone who says “How do you keep doing this to yourselves?” is as follows.

Well my friend, to quote one Andy Moran, I think that is a bullshit question. I think you ask that as someone who has clearly never pondered to themselves what the purpose of sport is. How critical human traits such as perseverance and resilience can be explored and developed through the prism of games and competition. How sport can provide us with a framework to understand the pull between satisfaction and frustration, between obstacles and solutions between what is possible and what is not possible.

We have the best sporting story in the world in Mayo, there is simply no other battle like it.

I do think we over-sell ourselves on what it will be like when we finally get over the line. Words like nirvana and immortality are offered and seem measured to our excitable minds right now but cows will be milked the day after the final, shops will open, laptops will open up in box rooms and cement mixers will grind into action. The wheels will keep turning.

The problems will still be the same too.

Tyrone should be our target – they are innovating, scrapping under 14 development squads in favour of using the clubs to nurture that age grade. They are driving a focus on schools football and ensuring more people with football playing and coaching backgrounds are in administration positions.

Mayo will continue to push on with a Centre of Excellence that might not be the perfect fit, money will be a challenge and our best players will be on the radar of AFL scouts. Win or lose, that won’t change.

Yet the reason why the question is bullshit is that it presumes that we all live in this one singular timeline. It completely disregards the fact that generation after generation keeps coming with a new wave of people ready to put their shoulder to the wheel for Mayo football. They go again each year.

A poster on MFT named John Martin commented this week that he remembers a lot of the period from 1951 to 1981 quite well. Mayo had just three Connacht titles in that 30-year span. Those are the Mayo people who deserve the admiration for their resilience more than any of us. When emigration was rife and the results of their endeavours were not there, how did they keep doing it?

Since the 1980s, the act of keeping on going is easier. We have had our moments of  “I can’t do this anymore” for sure but if we falter, there’s always a whole new generation with less burden and a sense that they might bring a different story.

For the young folk on Hill 16 in 2026 read the generation of 2012 who were there for the final with Donegal. Some of those young lads were on the field winning an All-Ireland for Mayo at minor level a year later. Some of the young women were playing for the Mayo senior ladies team in a final in 2017. They were there and proud and fully aware that Mayo belonged right there battling the best.

The breakthroughs in 2004, 1996 and 1989 were the exact same. Young players infusing talent into the squad, even younger people coming to Croke Park for the first time with family or friends. Each wave feels that their story is fresh.

How do you keep doing it? You ask. Sure half of us are only getting started.

We all are saying one thing about this final. The 2026 season feels different than anything that has gone before. I think it might simply feel that way because Mayo haven’t yet really had one of those breathless, highlight of the year type of victories.

It’s genuinely worth considering the fact that this time, that era defining performance could still be in them, and for once, unlike every other year, the timing might be for it to emerge on All-Ireland final day itself.

I’ve come up with a list of ten great Mayo victories in the past 30 years that left an indelible mark on the story of the championship season and had us all dreaming of seeing Mayo lift Sam in the days and weeks afterward. You can make your own list and it’ll probably be similar but on my list there are three wins over Dublin, two over Kerry, two over Tyrone, topping reigning champions, Cork, Donegal and Galway at different junctures too. All in the last 30 years. Iconic games and moments, just not aligning with the All-Ireland final day. Maybe this time will be different.

I can’t say with any certainty that Mayo will win this year but I can make a case for every single player to have his best game of the year because the two Croke Park visits this year have shown them all in a brilliant light. I hope that ends with Jack Coyne lifting Sam on the steps of the Hogan in brilliant white jerseys.

Do you know what will happen after that? He’ll hand the cup to the lad beside him and walk back down those steps to get on with what’s next. Call that nirvana if you must but I just call it Mayo being Mayo and luck finally catching up with us.

How do we do it? How could we not?