In one of the greatest upsets in Gaelic football history, Mayo beat Kerry in the All-Ireland final in Dublin, breaking a 75-year title drought and ending what some called the “Mayo Curse”.
Whether the curse was a joke, a story or a real psychological problem that simply baffled generations of Mayo footballers, the 1-20 (23 points) to 1-17 (20 points) victory in Croke Park immediately capped three-quarters of a century of heartbreak and became one of the biggest headlines in the history of the Gaelic game.
And one of the stars of this unlikely victory is a footballer who many believe could be a generational talent, although he has just left school and is heading to the AFL.
The story goes that after beating Meath at Croke Park in the 1951 All-Ireland final, a jubilant Mayo team traveled home to the western province of Connacht on the back of a lorry, celebrating all the way.
However, while driving through the village of Foxford, the players passed a funeral in progress.
The local priest was apparently skeptical of the players continuing to celebrate during the funeral, placing a “curse” on the county that it would not win the title again until the entire team playing that day was dead.
Mayo’s 70-year wait continues amid Ireland-wide ‘curse’
After 1951, it took Mayo’s senior team 38 years to return to an All-Ireland final. Until this year he 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 the team lost.
The last of these finals in 2021 took place just weeks before the last playing member of the original team, Paddy Prendergast, died aged 95.
The team did not return to Croke Park for the All-Ireland final until Sunday’s crunch match against defending champions Kerry, who were attempting to extend their record by winning a 40th All-Ireland title.
So this year was our first opportunity to win the biggest game of the season since the elements of the “curse” were overcome.
It didn’t start well, with Kerry superstar striker David Clifford firing into the net in the 15th minute.
But Mayo fought back to lose one point at the break with the score 1-8 (11) to 0-10 (10).
Manager Andy Moran has championed young talent, with 18-year-old Coby McDonald and 19-year-old Darragh Beirne key to the team’s success.
MacDonald, who was selected by St Kilda late last year as a Grade B recruit and is expected to head Down Under to join the team soon, will take three points in the final.
Beirne’s brilliant goal scored Mayo’s only goal to start the county’s winning run.
Rollercoaster ride to Mayo’s All-Ireland title
It was not an auspicious start to the football season for Mayo as they lost by 10 points to Roscommon in the Connacht Provincial Championship. The team in red and green was practically written off from the Irish national team.
Andy Moran (right) was in the press for laughing at the celebrations of long-suffering fans. (Getty Images: Sportsfile/Ramsey Cardy)
He entered the All-Ireland Championship series still looking shaky, leading Monaghan by one point before a one-point defeat to Tyrone left him with one last chance.
Mayo bounced back to defeat Meath to reach the quarter-finals and then beat Cork at Croke Park to reach the quarter-finals.
The semi-final proved to be a one-sided affair against Louth, with Mayo winning by 17 points. But the fight was expected to end against Kerry. The questions began after the semi-final when Moran asked whether fans would lose the opportunity to celebrate given the county’s abysmal record in the final.
Moran hit back hard.
“You guys are laughing at this. I don’t laugh about it,” Moran said at a news conference.
“I find it very dismissive, to be honest. I think this is nonsense. I think this is a disrespectful question.
“Our county has been hungry for the last four or five years. If they (the fans) go a little crazy, let them.”
He then turned his attention to the football reporters present.
“Tomorrow you will go to the game. Each of you will write that Kerry or Dublin will go to win the All-Ireland final, right? Right?
“Does anyone here think we’ll win the All-Ireland final? No. Thank you”.
Kobie MacDonald has only just left school, but the Mayo youngster now has an All-Ireland medal and is set to come to the AFL. (Getty Images: Sportsfile/David Fitzgerald)
When the final siren sounded on Sunday it caused emotional scenes in Croke Park among a crowd of more than 80,000.
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 stadium speakers as fans were filled with joy mixed with disbelief.
After the game, MacDonald, like his teammates, was in high spirits and trying to focus on the present rather than what’s next.
“Look, to be honest, I’m not thinking about Australia right now. I’ll just soak up every minute of it. To give the people of Mayo something to celebrate is something special,” he told Irish broadcaster RTE.
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“I know every team probably says this, but we’re like a family. When we train three days a week, it’s like 40 brothers.”
“We know that every person there supports each other, and whatever is said outside the group is none of our business.”
Gaelic games, football and hurling are all amateur sports and there has been much debate over the years about the loss of talent in the AFL.
The rest of Mayo, and quite possibly the rest of the Irish Gaelic games, are hoping Macdonald stays with Mayo and doesn’t take his skills to Australia.
But whatever happened next, MacDonald and the rest of the team etched their names into the history of Irish sport and forever moved their county beyond the ghosts of past defeats.
A huge crowd of Mayo supporters descended on Dublin and were overjoyed after their team’s shock victory. (Getty Images: Sportsfile/David Fitzgerald)