The Famine is Over! - Banishing The Curse

This is a story about more than football. 

It is one of hope, dreams, resilience and dealing with adversity. I've never seen the outpouring of emotion that erupted from a sporting win. Grown adults and younger folk broke down crying with happiness while friends, families and strangers alike hugged and danced with tears of joy in the Croke Park stands. The losing supporters stayed to embrace the moment with their opposition supporters, some of those crying too with happiness for the victors. 

For generations, Mayo GAA supporters have carried the heart-wrenching weight of so many near-misses, disappointment and heartbreak. For 11 All Ireland finals and two replays, they had gone home from finals not having won - often after great expectation and hype, compounding the level of disappointment. The hope and dreams had been shattered so often that some of their most ardent fans had given up hope. After a couple of final losses in the 90's, a story of a legendary "curse" started doing the rounds in the Mayo public. It gathered legs and gathered traction within the mainstream media, that seemed to stand between the county and All-Ireland success. 

The story goes that the victorious Mayo team of 1951, while passing through Foxford during the All-Ireland celebrations, failed to pay due respects to a passing funeral. Enraged, a local priest was said to have cursed the county team, that while any member of the 1951 team lived, Mayo would never win another All-Ireland. It remained unbroken for 75 years — despite the team reaching the final on eleven occasions, drawing two and playing replays. Over those 13 finals, they had either completely collapsed on the day or been undone by a series of other unfortunate events. In the time since, generations of Mayo people have lived and died. More information on the curse through a BBC radio documentary here.

In many of these finals, significant leads were thrown away as the game neared the end. In others, they didn't play at all and were well beaten. In 1996, when having led by 6 points, a freak point by Meath's Colm Coyle bounced over the bar from a 70m kick at the end of the game reinforcing the concept of the dreaded curse coming to pass. The replay was just as bad as Meath came from a 6 point deficet to win the game in the last few minutes. Kerry prolonged the torture with big wins in the finals of 2004 (eight points) and 2006 (thirteen points).

Mayo were hot favourites to beat Donegal in 2012 final. After that losing 2012 final, a priest, Fr Padraic Costello was called in to lift the curse and end the misfortune for the 2013 final against Dublin. While Fr Costello was sceptical about the curse, to be on the safe side, he gave the squad an official blessing at the exact place on the bridge over the River Moy in Foxford, Co Mayo where it was allegedly imposed. They lost again by a point to Dublin.

Again in 2016, they failed to win when dominating the drawn final, while fundamental errors and failure to take chances when presented could easily be put forward as reasons why they were yet again unsuccessful. They lost again in 2017, 2020 and 2021. The hurt was real.

After a Connaught semi-final loss to Roscommon in 2026, there was nobody considering that Mayo could contend this year. Manager Andy Moran changed up his team somewhat and went for youth. They stayed off broadway for a while and slowly began to build momentum with wins against Monaghan and Meath. A win over Cork saw them into a semi-final against Louth where they were very impressive to reach the final. Still, nobody gave them a chance.

Manager Andy Moran gave a masterclass in management from here to the final. He took on the media in immediate aftermath of this game, deflecting pressure and attention from his players, asking the media straight outright if there was anybody in the room who thought they could win the final. The silence was deafening and Mayo entered the final with zero outside expectation or pressure.

Inside the camp, Andy Moran gave a totally different impression with his players. He is known to be an extremely positive person. He filled his young players with belief as he had been doing all year, with many of whom having never experienced the heartbreak of previous finals. He played on the exuberance of youth, challenging his players to just go for it, affording them a high level of psychological safety, ensuring them it was okay to make mistakes.  This ensured players played without fear, were expressive in their thoughts and operated with a 'challenge mind-set' rather than a'threat state'.

In the aftermath of the final, both Ryan O'Donoghue and Darragh Beirne gave telling interviews. Man of Match O'Donoghue explained their focus from the front 3 being on forcing turnovers high up the pitch, to put Kerry on back foot. Their goal was to get a high tackle count in the forward division, and if they did that, the scores would look after themselves. Their fans fed off this and there were massive roars of approval after a couple of turnovers in first half that resulted in scores for Mayo. This set the tone for their win. They were not taking a backwards step. 

Beirne, spoke about how Andy Moran backed him earlier in the year - that he was there to play and not just make up the numbers as a 19 year old. He spoke of the freedom given by Moran to go and express himself and back himself in his first final. It resulted in him scoring 1-3 in the final.

Aidan O Shea, stalwart of 6 losing finals spoke after about their mental approach. He spoke about how Andy told them to keep swinging at two pointers, to keep going for them even if they missed, and that some of them would land over. They were to back themselves, be brave and have a go. It didn't matter if they made a mistake but that if they got enough shots off, enough of them would go over.  This was reflected in fact they were the highest two point scorers of all teams in the country before the semi final with 25 two pointers to that point. 

It was telling that after Mayo missed some good chances early in both halves, their forwards kept shooting without fear from distance - and in the second half of both halves, this paid off massively with Ryan O'Donoghue and Jack Carney both daring to be brave, scoring two pointers when the game was close coming down the stretch.

18 year old super star Kobe McDonald burst on the adult football scene this year, yet was struggling somewhat in the first half. Moran didn't take him off when he could. He backed his talent, and the pay off was huge with McDonald scoring a crucial 3 points in the second half. When interviewed later by RTE's Marty Morrissey, he was nonchalant about playing on such a big occasion, suggesting it was just another pitch with 2 white posts at either end of the field. He too mentioned the freedom of expression afforded to him by Andy Moran

There were emotional scenes of unbridled joy in Mayo at their homecoming celebration. They will celebrate this for the weeks and months ahead. There is no winter when you win an All-Ireland.

Are you interested in learning more about sport psychology, leadership, mental skills training and winning culture? Take a look at my new online course where you can learn how effective use of sport psychology can enhance your coaching and athlete performance. 

Keith Begley is a member of the Chartered Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (CASES) and an Accredited Performance Psychology Consultant with the Irish Sport and Exercise Science Association ISESA.​

Andy Moran Pre Match Interview

Andy Moran Post Match Interview