THE YEARS DREW on. The All-Ireland final defeats mounted. Mayo returned time and again.
Because of the era, they became the first GAA county to become cyber-bullied. We resist the label that they were victims, because they never saw themselves as such.
But it was an era when technology put computers into the palms of our hands.
The societal experiment of Twitter started off fun, became less fun, and finished as it is now, occasionally brilliant at times of mass exuberance. Mainly though, a dark hole and waste of time, emotion and energy.
Media outlets used it as a barometer of success. This thinking went from the very bottom, lo-fi bedsit podcasting, to national newspapers and state broadcasters. The more eyeballs on a piece, a tweet, a clip, the more value it had.
Some media performers got the assignment instantly. The reaction Joe Brolly received in 2013 for his damning criticism of Sean Cavanagh on Conor McManus was unlike anything before. It did good numbers before we used it as discourse.
Mayo were a frequent target of his. In the wake of Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly leaving the management in October 2015, the criticisms turned personal and across all available platforms.
When a guest on Eamon Dunphy’s ‘The Stand’ podcast in December 2017, Brolly got right into it about Mayo.
“There is an element of the team that are celebrity losers. They are quite happy to function in that environment where they’re also-rans,” said Brolly.
“Four All-Irelands and they haven’t won one and they’ve lost by a point, and they’ve lost by a point and they’ve lost by a point. That’s because of that culture that’s in the group, that it really doesn’t matter if you win it or you don’t because in the end it’s about their lifestyles.
“It’s about my brand-new Audi A4. I mean it’s nauseating to look at their Twitter accounts.”
It wasn’t just media commentators.
Fergus Connolly had worked with Jim Gavin and the Dublin footballers when they had repeatedly come up against Mayo.
In an interview with Paul Kimmage, he said, “Mayo will never win an All-Ireland! I’m fucking telling you!
Write this down! Put it in block capitals! AS LONG AS I’M ALIVE MAYO WILL NEVER WIN AN ALL-IRELAND.”
People seemed entirely comfortable in saying things that were grossly unfair, or entirely inaccurate.
Dr Dave Hickey, who had also been part of Gavin’s backroom, said before the 2020 All-Ireland final between Mayo and Dublin: “Mayo win all the All-Stars awards and the player of the year and all this sort of crap but they always do because they’re such a tragic outfit. Andy Moran getting player of the year — he played half a game in every match.”
**
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Observing it dispassionately, there was a theory out there that what Mayo needed, was less Mayo.
Less gung-ho stuff. Less emotion. Ration out the Saw Doctors and have a few more cold showers to temper the hype.
They could have a lantern-jawed Ulster man. They had Mickey Moran and John Morrisson before, but in the new era they wanted someone who knew their way around a blanket defence, and treat the half-back line like greyhounds tethered to breeze blocks.
A lantern-jawed type like Tony McEntee, say. Or Jim McGuinness. A sober individual acting as a firewall against the dreaded hype.
Instead, they got Andy Moran. They couldn’t have gone any more Mayo if they’d tried. He was on the pitch for many of the failings of the previous decade and he didn’t shy away from his relationships and deep friendships with his teammates.
And there was a suspicion too. Moran had the Mayo U20s in 2020 and went into senior management with Leitrim. He had three seasons there and gained a lot of credit for their promotion in 2024, but any criticism he might have faced for their Connacht championship loss to New York in 2023 was drowned out by the feel-good story of the Exiles.
He then had a year in Gabriel Bannigan’s backroom team in Monaghan where the soundings were good, but still a suspicion he had a bit to prove as a senior manager.
As Monaghan selector with Gabriel Bannigan. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
It didn’t take long for Moran to become the target made flesh. After they lost the Connacht semi-final to Roscommon by 10 points, Brolly was on his case, writing, ‘My view then, and my view now, is that the 2015 players’ coup was the end of this group. Nothing good came of it, just the permanent stench of a bad culture: Excuses, an absence of self-criticism, a delusion of being special.’
Anyone that has met or spoken to Moran is not likely to leave the encounter detecting any conceitedness or delusion. For over 20 years he has been a public figure, later moving into business with his gym, ‘The Movement’ in Castlebar.
His autobiography was a most unusual read. Usually, the narrative with most sports stories is a plot inching ever closer to the big triumphal scene when hats are tossed into the sky and a cup is lifted.
Instead, we got an account of when things don’t end as Hollywood would wish and intense self-reflection.
Self-pity didn’t feature. He was locked into this thing. For whenever it might happen.
But it would happen.
**
In 2021, Mayo finally managed it. It took Diarmuid O’Connor’s outstretched leg to keep a Rob Hennelly free in play, the ball being worked back for a Kevin McLoughlin point, but they had beaten Dublin.
They beat the team that had done six-in-a-row and they did it fair and square. As the camera scanned Croke Park for all the familiar emotions associated with Mayo, it landed on Moran and his wife Jennifer.
The two of them were jumping for joy, absorbed in the moment. Can you think of other coaches that would be so expressive? Or instead choose to set their face in a certain way, like they are studying complex algebra.
In choosing Moran, Mayo chose life. They chose to embrace attacking wing-backs. Defences that can suddenly spring wide open with an acre in front of the goalkeeper uncovered – such as it was for David Clifford’s goal. They chose having the odd stinker and off-day.
But they also get something else into the bargain. They get a guy who is averse to self-pity. One that has spotted the pitfalls and painfully knows what the losing dressing room on All-Ireland final looks and feels like.
It remains a curiosity that given the cross-pollination of coaches now, only Eugene McGee and John O’Mahony have won All-Ireland titles outside their native counties.
That’s not to say that natives do not need to be challenged.
In taking on the Mayo job, Moran was able to convince Paddy Tally to come along.
Paddy Tally. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
From the steps of the Hogan Stand, Jack Coyne said that Tally had said there was only one thing he was coming down to Mayo for.
Strolling from the dressing room to the hospitality suite in Croke Park with a brace of beer bottles in each hand, Tally radiated achievement.
This is a man who has now won All-Ireland titles with Tyrone (2003), Kerry (2022) and Mayo.
There is no other training-ground coach that has that unique record. Tally also coached the Down team under James McCartan to the 2010 All-Ireland final and managed St Mary’s College with their small pick to the Sigerson Cup in 2017.
In gaining Tally, Moran was gaining a serious bank of knowledge on Kerry – what they like, what they don’t like, what they think of Mayo.
When he left Kerry to take up the job of managing Derry, it was keenly felt. It was noticeable how many Kerry figures approached him and had a quiet word.
It was an inspired appointment.
The very first time Moran met with the extended panel of players was critical. You don’t need instant buy-in from everyone – that’s impossible – but you need to set a mood.
As Aidan O’Shea explained, “I think Andy challenged us straight away back last August when we met for the first time. (He said) You know, why not? Why not challenge us?
“He showed us the All-Ireland final and different bits and bobs of players and asked, why couldn’t Jack Carney be that?
“Or why couldn’t Jordan Flynn be that?
“So, I think it was kind of like that: why not?”
In years gone by, Mayo players might miss an early chance and feel the ground swallow them up. That wasn’t going to be a theme here.
“We kind of said over the last few weeks,” explained O’Shea, “Just keep swinging those boys. There’s a chance there. Swing. Have a go. And by God, they did it today.”
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Wait and see. There will be a Roger Bannister effect on the upcoming club championships and many an outsider will cite Mayo as their inspiration.
As for a whole other host of county managers such as Gabriel Bannigan, Mark McHugh, Mark Dowd with counties are never fancied, 2027 is their year. Nailed on.
**
At the final whistle on Sunday, the coolest man in the stadium was Andy Moran.
Every man has the right to celebrate and mark sporting successes whatever way they want. Some head off in a sprint. Some do a knee-slide along the sideline.
The first thing Moran did was head straight for his opposite number, Jack O’Connor, to shake his hand. It was noticeable that Moran did more talking in this exchange.
Jack has been there before, but Moran had much more experience of losing on All-Ireland final day.
Right at the end, before all the celebrations, before he met Jennifer and their children Charlotte and Ollie, he was covering everything off. Sober and restrained, doing the right thing.
The track record of managers who win the All-Ireland championship is of men who embody the George Bernard Shaw quote, that of The Unreasonable Man, who does not accept things as they are and, therefore, all progress depends on The Unreasonable Man.
Andy Moran is nobody’s idea of an unreasonable man. And yet he is an All-Ireland winning manager.
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From punchline in the clickbait age to All Ireland champions - Andy Moran's triumph
THE YEARS DREW on. The All-Ireland final defeats mounted. Mayo returned time and again.
Because of the era, they became the first GAA county to become cyber-bullied. We resist the label that they were victims, because they never saw themselves as such.
But it was an era when technology put computers into the palms of our hands.
The societal experiment of Twitter started off fun, became less fun, and finished as it is now, occasionally brilliant at times of mass exuberance. Mainly though, a dark hole and waste of time, emotion and energy.
Media outlets used it as a barometer of success. This thinking went from the very bottom, lo-fi bedsit podcasting, to national newspapers and state broadcasters. The more eyeballs on a piece, a tweet, a clip, the more value it had.
Some media performers got the assignment instantly. The reaction Joe Brolly received in 2013 for his damning criticism of Sean Cavanagh on Conor McManus was unlike anything before. It did good numbers before we used it as discourse.
Mayo were a frequent target of his. In the wake of Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly leaving the management in October 2015, the criticisms turned personal and across all available platforms.
When a guest on Eamon Dunphy’s ‘The Stand’ podcast in December 2017, Brolly got right into it about Mayo.
“There is an element of the team that are celebrity losers. They are quite happy to function in that environment where they’re also-rans,” said Brolly.
“Four All-Irelands and they haven’t won one and they’ve lost by a point, and they’ve lost by a point and they’ve lost by a point. That’s because of that culture that’s in the group, that it really doesn’t matter if you win it or you don’t because in the end it’s about their lifestyles.
“It’s about my brand-new Audi A4. I mean it’s nauseating to look at their Twitter accounts.”
It wasn’t just media commentators.
Fergus Connolly had worked with Jim Gavin and the Dublin footballers when they had repeatedly come up against Mayo.
In an interview with Paul Kimmage, he said, “Mayo will never win an All-Ireland! I’m fucking telling you!
People seemed entirely comfortable in saying things that were grossly unfair, or entirely inaccurate.
Dr Dave Hickey, who had also been part of Gavin’s backroom, said before the 2020 All-Ireland final between Mayo and Dublin: “Mayo win all the All-Stars awards and the player of the year and all this sort of crap but they always do because they’re such a tragic outfit. Andy Moran getting player of the year — he played half a game in every match.”
**
Observing it dispassionately, there was a theory out there that what Mayo needed, was less Mayo.
Less gung-ho stuff. Less emotion. Ration out the Saw Doctors and have a few more cold showers to temper the hype.
They could have a lantern-jawed Ulster man. They had Mickey Moran and John Morrisson before, but in the new era they wanted someone who knew their way around a blanket defence, and treat the half-back line like greyhounds tethered to breeze blocks.
A lantern-jawed type like Tony McEntee, say. Or Jim McGuinness. A sober individual acting as a firewall against the dreaded hype.
Instead, they got Andy Moran. They couldn’t have gone any more Mayo if they’d tried. He was on the pitch for many of the failings of the previous decade and he didn’t shy away from his relationships and deep friendships with his teammates.
And there was a suspicion too. Moran had the Mayo U20s in 2020 and went into senior management with Leitrim. He had three seasons there and gained a lot of credit for their promotion in 2024, but any criticism he might have faced for their Connacht championship loss to New York in 2023 was drowned out by the feel-good story of the Exiles.
He then had a year in Gabriel Bannigan’s backroom team in Monaghan where the soundings were good, but still a suspicion he had a bit to prove as a senior manager.
It didn’t take long for Moran to become the target made flesh. After they lost the Connacht semi-final to Roscommon by 10 points, Brolly was on his case, writing, ‘My view then, and my view now, is that the 2015 players’ coup was the end of this group. Nothing good came of it, just the permanent stench of a bad culture: Excuses, an absence of self-criticism, a delusion of being special.’
Anyone that has met or spoken to Moran is not likely to leave the encounter detecting any conceitedness or delusion. For over 20 years he has been a public figure, later moving into business with his gym, ‘The Movement’ in Castlebar.
His autobiography was a most unusual read. Usually, the narrative with most sports stories is a plot inching ever closer to the big triumphal scene when hats are tossed into the sky and a cup is lifted.
Instead, we got an account of when things don’t end as Hollywood would wish and intense self-reflection.
Self-pity didn’t feature. He was locked into this thing. For whenever it might happen.
But it would happen.
**
In 2021, Mayo finally managed it. It took Diarmuid O’Connor’s outstretched leg to keep a Rob Hennelly free in play, the ball being worked back for a Kevin McLoughlin point, but they had beaten Dublin.
They beat the team that had done six-in-a-row and they did it fair and square. As the camera scanned Croke Park for all the familiar emotions associated with Mayo, it landed on Moran and his wife Jennifer.
The two of them were jumping for joy, absorbed in the moment. Can you think of other coaches that would be so expressive? Or instead choose to set their face in a certain way, like they are studying complex algebra.
In choosing Moran, Mayo chose life. They chose to embrace attacking wing-backs. Defences that can suddenly spring wide open with an acre in front of the goalkeeper uncovered – such as it was for David Clifford’s goal. They chose having the odd stinker and off-day.
But they also get something else into the bargain. They get a guy who is averse to self-pity. One that has spotted the pitfalls and painfully knows what the losing dressing room on All-Ireland final looks and feels like.
It remains a curiosity that given the cross-pollination of coaches now, only Eugene McGee and John O’Mahony have won All-Ireland titles outside their native counties.
That’s not to say that natives do not need to be challenged.
In taking on the Mayo job, Moran was able to convince Paddy Tally to come along.
From the steps of the Hogan Stand, Jack Coyne said that Tally had said there was only one thing he was coming down to Mayo for.
Strolling from the dressing room to the hospitality suite in Croke Park with a brace of beer bottles in each hand, Tally radiated achievement.
This is a man who has now won All-Ireland titles with Tyrone (2003), Kerry (2022) and Mayo.
There is no other training-ground coach that has that unique record. Tally also coached the Down team under James McCartan to the 2010 All-Ireland final and managed St Mary’s College with their small pick to the Sigerson Cup in 2017.
In gaining Tally, Moran was gaining a serious bank of knowledge on Kerry – what they like, what they don’t like, what they think of Mayo.
When he left Kerry to take up the job of managing Derry, it was keenly felt. It was noticeable how many Kerry figures approached him and had a quiet word.
It was an inspired appointment.
The very first time Moran met with the extended panel of players was critical. You don’t need instant buy-in from everyone – that’s impossible – but you need to set a mood.
As Aidan O’Shea explained, “I think Andy challenged us straight away back last August when we met for the first time. (He said) You know, why not? Why not challenge us?
“He showed us the All-Ireland final and different bits and bobs of players and asked, why couldn’t Jack Carney be that?
“Or why couldn’t Jordan Flynn be that?
“So, I think it was kind of like that: why not?”
In years gone by, Mayo players might miss an early chance and feel the ground swallow them up. That wasn’t going to be a theme here.
“We kind of said over the last few weeks,” explained O’Shea, “Just keep swinging those boys. There’s a chance there. Swing. Have a go. And by God, they did it today.”
Wait and see. There will be a Roger Bannister effect on the upcoming club championships and many an outsider will cite Mayo as their inspiration.
As for a whole other host of county managers such as Gabriel Bannigan, Mark McHugh, Mark Dowd with counties are never fancied, 2027 is their year. Nailed on.
**
At the final whistle on Sunday, the coolest man in the stadium was Andy Moran.
Every man has the right to celebrate and mark sporting successes whatever way they want. Some head off in a sprint. Some do a knee-slide along the sideline.
The first thing Moran did was head straight for his opposite number, Jack O’Connor, to shake his hand. It was noticeable that Moran did more talking in this exchange.
Jack has been there before, but Moran had much more experience of losing on All-Ireland final day.
Right at the end, before all the celebrations, before he met Jennifer and their children Charlotte and Ollie, he was covering everything off. Sober and restrained, doing the right thing.
The track record of managers who win the All-Ireland championship is of men who embody the George Bernard Shaw quote, that of The Unreasonable Man, who does not accept things as they are and, therefore, all progress depends on The Unreasonable Man.
Andy Moran is nobody’s idea of an unreasonable man. And yet he is an All-Ireland winning manager.
Sometimes the good guys win.
**
Check out the latest episode of The 42′s GAA Weekly podcast here
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All-Ireland Andy Moran GAA Mayo winners