Thanks John - you didn’t mention the Indo - Brolly’s self serving piece and Breheny’s half hearted acknowledgement of Mayo’s incredible win for the ages - neither is or has been a friend of Mayo for years. They got their comeuppance!

Reading through some of the non domestic stuff here in the kitchen with a cup of tea and the dogs head in my lap and the energy today is vastly, vastly different from this time last week heading up the road to Croke Park in the car. Very uneasy, prickly.
It's been replaced by a wonderful, deep seated satisfaction and relief topped off by a large dollop of gratitude.
Ahhhhhh.........it's just great.

Finally got back to blog after a whirlwind week of celebrations. This blog has been a godsend for Mayo fans over the years to muse over our up and downs in our quest for Sam. Willie Joe and all the crew provided an amazing platform for us to discuss all aspects of Mayo football. No words can describe what we achieved last Sunday. I have attended Mayo matches for the last 50+ years and never experienced anything like it. Such an uplifting performance by all the lads. Thinking of all those great supporters today who never got to see us lift Sam. As Andy said, we are the lucky ones.

It's the party nobody wants to quit, but the older I'm getting, the more dishevelled and haggard I become after a couple of nights out. I've a face like lobster's arse according to herself. Time to face reality!

Keith Higgins diary has tipped me back over the edge !!!!

Incredibly I also saw an article posted on Bluesky from a Brazilian newspaper covering the story… also made the Bild in Germany and New Zealand TV… the GAA owe a lot to Mayo football for the free advertising!

Similar complexion here
@Ever the optimist.
I went a step further and got my first tattoo in Castlebar to honour and mark the occasion.
While I didn't go full ''Jordo'' on it,it wasn't something I envisaged doing as I hang on to the tail end of my fifties but hey... Andy gave us permission to go a bit nuts.
Really enjoying the newspaper coverage this morning and it's amazing the number of people coming out about their Mayo connections...we seem to be hot at the minute!

John, that’s a fantastic round up. Of the coverage. It seems a day doesn’t pass but some media outlet has another angle on it. I’m smiling at John Mullane on RTE lamenting hurling’s woes, whatever they are, and wishing Kilkenny would win an All Ireland - for the good of hurling!

Cahir O’Kane has had some good stuff throughout the week too in the IN.

Watching in a Boston bar with my sons and a friend, as we entered the 68th minute, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I had gotten that sinking feeling that I’ve had 13 times before.

I went outside, and turned on Midwest radio.

Lo and behold I then discovered the TV feed was about 60 seconds behind the live action. I tuned in outside right when Jack Carney kicked the long pass out to McBrien.

I heard them win on MidWest and then reentered the pub as Seanie O Se was kicking his 2 point attempt

It was pure magic

It’s been a week since we last won the All Ireland. Even the mighty Kingdom have been waiting 53 weeks. Indeed every team has been waiting longer than us.

2hops, a brave monumental thing to do, your tattoo, I mean. You must be fairly fit alright to sit through that without the blood pressure shooting through the roof. I'd be afraid I'd be facing a death squad if I ever did likewise. Fair play.

This time last week. Little did we know the outcome that would take place in 2 hours time. Its been some week since. Just went back on blog there to the article on the defeat to Roscommon in April and the despair in the comments section amongst Mayo supporters, things were looking bleak. If someone had said that 3 months later, we'd be All Ireland champions, youd be laughed at. Its been an unbelievable turnaround.

https://www.mft.ie/happy-christmas-14/#comment-533221

I'm not a man to brag but I will when I have to.......

Western People cover photo and Jack Coynes speech are hard beat. A perfect front page for a perfect result. What a week. What a team. What celebrations. Maigh Eo Abu.

What a week. My first GAA memories are from the early 60s and the Galway 3 in a row and ever since I've been wondering what it would be like if we were to win it again. My imagination didn't do reality justice because this was just so special.
Well done to the Rossie ladies earlier today and hopefully Galway's girls can complete a brilliant week for Connacht.

I’m watching the entire game again today (RTE Player have it, three and a half full hours). As it approached half time, I did wonder, God, what if it ends differently….

Joe Clarke...You can watch the game on YouTube with commentary from Martin Carney and Stephen Grealis..It's brilliant...

Impressive international coverage amc........but our historical achievement (bar small 'diary' mention) failed to impress the Sligo Weekender !

A week on and I'm still struggling to process it.
Mayo are the All Ireland Senior Football Champions!

It might sink in next week. It seems that after all those near misses we got our happy ending after all.

A few thoughts

I wondered if we had enough dogs in the team. I needn't have worried. There were a whole pack of dogs on the loose last Sunday.

I loved Andys comment said with steel in his eyes along the lines of 'we'll enjoy it for a while and then we'll go after it again next year'

Maigh eo Abu

I'd always said over the years it would be great to beat Galway in an all ireland final but I have to say I was wrong. There's no better way to win an all ireland than beating kerry by being the better team and no controversy like sending off or penalty or bad refereeing. Come onnnn̈n

Just watching highlights again. My wife and sister in law keep catching me watching it... I'm still finding it hard to let it sink in. It's phenomenal. Love the youth, the passion, the aggression and determination and the older brigade getting their shot at glory.
Had 94 year old woman in church today with her Mayo colours on and we gave the green and red of Mayo a blast.
Been up and down the Reek on Reek Sunday -aka the day we won the All Ireland, and also on Thursday to say thank you. My daughter joined me on Thursday and we wore the colours, brought the flag and thanked God...at last.
So much good will and love and positivity for the Mayo success. Soak it up and prepare for more.
Beaming heart. Thanks to all who simply make Mayo and being from Mayo so special. Maigheo abú 💚❤️💚
Ps .. congrats to the Galway women. The West's awake!!!

Final rewatch for a bit done now. What a week.
What
A
Week

@Regina, I think I’ll do that too! I heard the last two minutes of it with Stephen breaking down and saying “Martin, I cannot cope”

This is the best ‘What is says on the Newspapers’ ever. 👍🏻

Just reviewed what I said when Andy’s appointment was announced.
Hoping for a PodStar whenever they’re announced.

Food4thought says:
August 11, 2025 at 10:17 pm
Link copied!
Andy Moran is a winner. Period. He is a huge positive force and knows how to play forward play the right way.I’m excited to see us play direct football.Our forwards will certainly be better with his guidance.With Boyler and Tally we should defensively sound too and importantly ,defensively counter attacking. I am delighted with this and the manner it has been executed has been exemplary. Kudos to the county board!
If we give him 5 years I am confident we will get it done. I am confident if we ever get to an All Ireland Final under his guidance then at least we won’t be afraid to win it.
These are great decisions imo.

How ye all,
Best week of my life!
I was in at the graveyard today visiting my grandparents and it was only the amount of mayo flags and match programmes left on graves that brought it all home, thinking of all the,brothers, sisters, sons and daughter's and Mayo people who never got to see it. Who would we be without them? Thinking of all who had gone before us. More than football, up Mayo

By God the club championship is going to have a festival feel.
Belmullet - Knockmore might have thousands at it.

@Yewtree, I had observed the flags in the graveyard also. It, perhaps more than anything else, highlights the depth of feeling that Mayo football evokes. Placing a Mayo flag on the grave of the mum or dad who held your hand when you were first introduced to a crowded McHale Park on Connaught Final day.

Well John . Short of actually kicking a point yourself I am not too sure what more you could have done. The Blog has been a refuge for us all since the dark times of Longford at least and your results archive will serve the county long after we are all gone. Many thanks for everything . I’ll praise the other lads like Rob and Mike over on the discord but here on this patch is where I would like to extend my thanks to you.

You have done the County some service.

With all of the focus on players and their respective home-comings over the past week, one person whose name has been absent and hasn’t been mentioned at all is Michael Plunkett.
Had he left the panel before the final?

JoeT1480, you were on the ball, but Seamus Thornton was a hopeful prophet back in 2025!

https://www.mft.ie/mayo-football-podcast-bonus-episode-chatting-to-andy-moran-and-boyler/#comment-529767

I am still stunned by it all.

Great minds etc etc.... being brothers probably has a bit to do with it....

Stevie Grealis and Martin Carney are going to have to charge for a subscription service at this rate, their stock has gone through the roof

And wasn't it 'Jordan Kearns'?...that had started to pee people off with his 'crystal ball' predictions only a few short weeks ago, but in fairness I think he thought this year was too soon but reckoned we won win it in year 2 & 3 of Andy's term...well Jordan,''they're not laughing now'' ,so we still have year 2 & 3 to look forward to.

Sharing this piece from Bernie Comaskey I enjoyed in the Westmeath Examiner.

https://www.westmeathexaminer.ie/2026/06/14/you-cant-be-serious-2/

You Can’t Be Serious

‘Me and my best friend Jack’ (Part 2)

On Sunday 17th September 2017, I took my Mayo grandson, then aged ten, to his first All-Ireland football final. I remember writing the following week’s YCBS relating the story of the feelings we both experienced in the course of that game and the ‘downer’ that followed. I wrote it under the heading of ‘Me and my best friend, Jack.’

Jack, with the naivety of a ten year old and his limitless faith in his granddad, felt certain that Mayo would win. Fifty thousand Mayo supporters also dared to believe one more time … but not with quite the same conviction as my grandson! Jack, decked out in his new Mayo top, (a present from his mother) was too young to realise that being a Mayo fan had more to do with heartbreak, hard luck, pain and disappointment than any other emotion.

Once again, Mayo came up short by a single point to the great Dublin team; 1-17 to 1-16. Near the end, a questionable call by the referee gifted Dublin a score and with that, a big Mayo man behind us …up until that point reasonable and measured - but now seeing it all drifting away one more time, he ‘lost it’! He stood up and lit up the place with some choice language. As the aggrieved supporter sat down, Jack, with a quiver in his voice, leaned over to me and delivered this gem: ‘Grandad, if I was allowed to swear, that’s what I’d be saying now!’

I brought Jack to Croke Park again last Sunday. A lot has changed in those nine years. A much larger Jersey and the grandfather now has to look up at the grandson. Yes, things much different this time around; and while we were heading for Dublin Jack’s mother had her cherished Mayo flag waving gently from her grave in Killulagh.

The commentators, the pundits, the Kerry people, the neutrals; and in truth, most Mayo supporters could see nothing other than another sad Mayo day. That was in the head; but the hearts kept pumping hope into the hundreds of thousands of sports lovers and exiles all over the world who craved to see just one Mayo win. Mayo had become everyone’s favourite second team. But after what happened to my other favourite team, Galway hurlers the previous Sunday I feared the worst.

Jack and I sat in the same two seats as in 2017. We were getting constant messages including one from a great Mayo friend who travels from abroad for every Mayo visit to Croker. I used always meet Mick after the matches and there wouldn’t be a word out of him due to disappointment. He will tell you that I always said the same thing. ‘We’ll stay at it ‘til we get it right!’ And yes … Mayo stayed at it.

The records will show that despite the dire predictions, the weight of history and daunting odds; on the last Sunday of July 2026, after getting it wrong for 75 years, Mayo finally got it right!!

As a Westmeath man, my greatest days in Croke Park were naturally those involving my own county, but I have never experienced anything like Mayo’s victory last Sunday – and I have been attending All-Irelands since 1961. Apart altogether from a great football match, there was something almost spiritual about the day. I have never been aware of so many people praying during a match or as many crying afterwards … and fair play to the tremendous sports generosity of the Kerry fans who remained until after the presentation.

What do I mean when I say spiritual … well I’ll tell you. If you think this was ‘just a football match’ you are missing more than a point and you know nothing about Mayo.

When my late friend, Ballaghadarreen man John O’Mahony was honoured along with the Galway silver jubilee team before the match; his wife Geraldine, standing in for ‘Jonno,’ received the loudest applause up to that point. In his post match interview, Mayo manager, Andy Moran, disclosed that on 68 minutes in the match, he looked up to heaven and asked ‘Jonno’ to help them over the line.

GAA President Jarlath Burns said in his presentation that Mayo had prayed for years for deliverance to ‘Our Lady of Knock’. On the morning of the match - which also happened to be ‘Reek Sunday;’ that wonderful Westport priest, Fr Kenny, carried a Mayo flag to the top of Croagh Patrick for mass. Hundreds of candles were left burning; not only in Mayo, but across the world. Who is to say that all of the above didn’t help the cause; but if divine intervention was the key we, in our house, know the real reason for Mayo defying what was to have been an inevitable big beating.

Jack’s mother spent all of her adult life in Mayo. She loved Westport and that town took her to its heart and loved her in return. They can say whatever they like but we know that Olga fixed this one for Mayo. Ask me or my best friend, Jack …!

Don’t Forget

Doubt makes the mountain which faith can move.

P2

Jack and I sat in the same two seats as in 2017. We were getting constant messages including one from a great Mayo friend who travels from abroad for every Mayo visit to Croker. I used always meet Mick after the matches and there wouldn’t be a word out of him due to disappointment. He will tell you that I always said the same thing. ‘We’ll stay at it ‘til we get it right!’ And yes … Mayo stayed at it.

The records will show that despite the dire predictions, the weight of history and daunting odds; on the last Sunday of July 2026, after getting it wrong for 75 years, Mayo finally got it right!!

As a Westmeath man, my greatest days in Croke Park were naturally those involving my own county, but I have never experienced anything like Mayo’s victory last Sunday – and I have been attending All-Irelands since 1961. Apart altogether from a great football match, there was something almost spiritual about the day. I have never been aware of so many people praying during a match or as many crying afterwards … and fair play to the tremendous sports generosity of the Kerry fans who remained until after the presentation.

What do I mean when I say spiritual … well I’ll tell you. If you think this was ‘just a football match’ you are missing more than a point and you know nothing about Mayo.

When my late friend, Ballaghadarreen man John O’Mahony was honoured along with the Galway silver jubilee team before the match; his wife Geraldine, standing in for ‘Jonno,’ received the loudest applause up to that point. In his post match interview, Mayo manager, Andy Moran, disclosed that on 68 minutes in the match, he looked up to heaven and asked ‘Jonno’ to help them over the line.

GAA President Jarlath Burns said in his presentation that Mayo had prayed for years for deliverance to ‘Our Lady of Knock’. On the morning of the match - which also happened to be ‘Reek Sunday;’ that wonderful Westport priest, Fr Kenny, carried a Mayo flag to the top of Croagh Patrick for mass. Hundreds of candles were left burning; not only in Mayo, but across the world. Who is to say that all of the above didn’t help the cause; but if divine intervention was the key we, in our house, know the real reason for Mayo defying what was to have been an inevitable big beating.

Jack’s mother spent all of her adult life in Mayo. She loved Westport and that town took her to its heart and loved her in return. They can say whatever they like but we know that Olga fixed this one for Mayo. Ask me or my best friend, Jack …!

Don’t Forget

Doubt makes the mountain which faith can move.

OMG....
I'm going to have to tune out for a few days after that one.

Captain Gallagher, thank you for sharing that. That's beautiful.

JoeT1480, that's gas! Great minds obviously run in the family!

Living outside the county for 50yrs I'm envious of all the exuberant and joyous celebrations that are everywhere across the county and the media.However I have reveled in the well wishes from my adopted county and acquaintances from further afield.Some "schaudenfreudes" are avoiding me.Listening to my grandchildren break into the "Green and Red" gives an inner glow. The priest at Mass mentioning us in his sermon and my grandson whispering"Grandad he said Mayo!" Hopefully I will get "home" soon and say welcome back Sam.

Captain Gallagher...
Powerful

Knottedhankie, I have had similar experiences since I arrived back in Cork last Wednesday. Red and green balloons in my porch. congrats cards in my letterbox..endless what's apps. text messages and phone calls and then, to cap it off ,the great JBM saw me in the street and even though I don't think he knows my first name, he knew I was from Mayo and he had to tell me how happy he was for us. Of course , he was only just turned 19 when he starred in the 1973 final. Happy Days indeed!

Club championship will have huge attendances because our county will mad for football after mayo winning and kids and people will be mad to watch rod, Jack carney, darragh beirne etc etc play again

“Moses”
A burning bush in Ballaghaderreen beckoned Andy.
“Come back from Ulster and lead your County”
Eleven final defeats, with curses and plagues,
Had bedevilled Mayo teams for seventy-five years.
In his first season 2026, with the Managers mantle,
Andy retained wily veterans from previous battles.
He scoured the land for talented young pretenders,
and fashioned them into unlikely contenders.

Some early skirmishes disappointed the masses.
Odd pundits were doubtful and passive:
“While Andy is one of our own and not a pariah -
we are not sure if he is the great Messiah”!
With disciples, Boyler, Zippy and Tally,
Andy forged a battle plan – “high press-
No let up – keep swinging all you can!
Work rate, be a full seventy minutes on the go:
honour the Green above the Red of Mayo.”

Meath and Louth were favourites - perhaps unduly!
Mayo avenged ’96, Ferdia, and the brown bull of Cooley!
O’ Connors legions from the Kingdom still
remained standing. Yerra! All their heroes –
from O Sullivan Beara to Michael Healy Ray,
were full of confidence on All Ireland Final Day.

Kerry had warriors and All Stars of great might:
the Cliffords, the Geaney’s and Gavin White!
The battle raged on Croke Park’s green sward,
hard and tough, yet nothing foul or untoward.
Mayo, led by their Captain, Jack Coyne, and
General Ryan ‘O Donoghue held fast and true.
Then Darragh, Koby and all the lily-white crew,
tackled ferociously, ever tightening the screw.

When the hooter sounded and the final whistle went,
Mayo was the team in glorious ascent.
The Kingdom were beaten their back-to-back dream suppressed,
while Mayo had achieved their long-standing quest!
Mayo folks were ecstatic – success at last.
They wept for their deceased, loved ones who had passed.

Thunderous acclaim on the Hill and the Hogan,
The Nally, Cusack and Davin,
Mayo folk jigged as if they were in heaven!
Andy, our modern-day Moses -
managed his forces with humour and calm,
and he found the long lost “Holy Grail”
“Mayo for Sam.”

Sean Hallinan

New column up on Patreon, this one from Anne-Marie. My one from last week is available now here on MFT.

This stat in Ciaran Kirk's article blew my mind:

"The number of matches where the final result would have been changed by the removal of two-point shooting is surprisingly low under the new rules; just nine out of 110 games in the last two years. The team most involved in those nine games? Mayo."

I sent the Youtube clip of the last two minutes to an Austrian friend yesterday, the one with the MWR commentary. He had a spell as a professional soccer player, and the first thing he said was, "I've seen this one already".

I have also seen it pop up on social media in French, Italian and Spanish.

We have made it globally.

Dia dhuit! Willie Joe and a Mayo posters.
I just want to wish you a very happy autumn and winter on the celebrations of winning your historic Sam against us.
Yes, I'm disappointed, but, I'm willing to sacrifice this occasion to Mayo and for the greater good of the game and neutrals around Ireland in giving universal hope? And therefore in pushing us here in Kerry to try harder and come up with counter measures for the future
A bloody nose is good, competition is good and its great to be challenged and pushed, otherwise standards will not improve.
I know, we'll be back, as we always do.
Enjoy! the celebrations, I love your county and your people. I taught up there for 20 years, so i know it well and your many friends.

Mayo needed this more than we did.

You most deserve this time.

I've already ordered your white historic Mayo jersey!!

Enjoy! folks.

Micko. Well said and i know you meant it all.see you next year.

No doubt; you are most welcome! indeed. As a proud, Thoroughbred Kerryman, while I'm disappointed we lost, especially after losing to the Galway Ladies on Sunday, I was up at it, one of the worst games of football, I've ever attended, Galway weren't much better, eventhough they won it, in the overall scheme of things, it's for the greater good of the game, Mayo won, we didn't deserve to win it anyway if we did based on our performance.
Ryan O' Donoghue, I've always been a big fan of. I reckon he's nailed on for POTY, they'll never give it to David again, Kobe - YPOTY.