The day the curse was broken!

THERE’S 05:38 on the stop-clock: Mayo are three points down in the 2026 All-Ireland Final, nevertheless very much in the game. Unlike in the 1996 replay against Meath, they still have 15 men on the field. Back then star player Liam McHale was red-carded after just six minutes following a mass brawl. 14-man Mayo lost by just one point. At 07.24, Mayo get off the mark with a fisted score.

For 75 years, the All-Ireland Football Championship had been a maze of misery for Mayo. In fact, since 1989 the men from the West had fought their way through the championship thicket a total of 11 times, emerging blinking into the sunlight only to see before them another team make its way up the famous steps to collect the Sam Maguire Cup.

The current Mayo manager, Andy Moran, himself came up short six times as a player in All-Ireland Finals. It sounds like failure but getting so, so close, so many times must count for more than just scar tissue.

At 14:38, David Clifford offloads to Seanie O’Sé in the upper right corner, then looks disinterested before putting on the afterburners as O’Sé drops a perfect fist-pass into his path. Clifford approaches the goal from an acute angle, draws the keeper with his trademark bounce and smashes the ball into the empty goal. It seems so easy that you’d scarcely believe it would be his last goal of the day.

2006 and Mayo—then under Mickey Moran of Derry—beat Dublin in a semi-final in a game for the ages. Stylish, fast, with Ciarán MacDonald on song, Mayo were considered a decent bet for the final. Kerry, for the second time in three years, crushed Mayo’s hopes yet again and the team finished the season at what Keith Duggan called a ‘subdued gathering at Castlebar’s Welcome Inn.’

“Mayo need to develop a meaner streak,” the experts said.

Tide turns

With 25:31 on the clock, the game takes a decisive turn. The referee changes tack and begins rewarding rather than penalising Mayo’s high-pressing tackling. A bewildered Eoin McGreal holds onto the ball coughing up a 21-yarder in front of the posts.

In the face of the white-shirted onslaught, Kerry begin to crack. Seemingly snow blind, Mayo give them no time to see the long option to safety. And the Westerners don’t stop shooting either. Missed chances are evidence of ripe opportunities, rather than nails in the coffin. There’s only a point in it at half-time.

At 38.42 it’s heavy metal fussball played like a Jurgen O’Klopp might have wanted it. Number 6, McBride, intercepts on the edge of his own small arc and feeds Ryan O’Donoghue who goes off like white-hot metal through a tub of Kerrygold. Twenty seconds later and its McBride racing through on the Kerry 21-metre line to flick to Darragh Beirne who shoots high into the goal. A two-pointer from Carney puts Mayo five ahead.

There’s never really been a Devon Loch moment for Mayo. A time when they’ve been so far ahead that defeat seemed impossible, yet happened all the same. One of the greatest disappointments was the 2021 defeat, after beating Dublin in the semi, only to fall to Tyrone in a gut-wrenching loss.

Tyrone featured again in 2026. Defensive maestro, Paddy Tally, was with the Kingdom long enough to anticipate where the holes could be found. And he mentioned how too many Kerry players had had too little game time to get back up to speed.

It’s 61.10 and Ryan O’Donoghue arcs over a two-pointer. Whatever Mayo supporter dared to think, 30 other counties began thinking this was the day the torment would end.

At 64.14 David Clifford mirrors Jack Carney’s first-half two-pointer, before brother Paudie knocks over a single. 30 ‘neutral’ counties look away.

Home straight

Paudie Clifford brings it back to a two-point gap at 68.43 and the pressure is intense.

If you lose a 14th final, does the agony really amplify? How can it can significantly worse than before? Is it not merely a continuation of the same dull pain?

Keith Duggan wrote about Mayo’s football heartache in House of Pain published in 2008. Surely a follow-up might be due?

There’s two points in it at 69.23 and Kerry are working the arc. The ball is funnelled back to O’Sé. He kicks and the ball begins its parabola into the air over the players. All eyes look to the sky. The ball lands on the edge of the small square and Mayo gain possession.

The ball is carried forward and Tommy Conroy takes the safer option of a solitary point, but a goal would bring the teams level.

At 69.55 Mayo are fighting like demons to keep Kerry from launching a final attack.

Finally, 70.00 and the hooter. Nuclear button. Bedlam. And forwards all over Ireland quietly curse Andy Moran for the high energy, high-pressing tactic he has reintroduced to the game.