AN ALL-IRELAND FINAL where Mayo prepare to take on the mantle of underdogs against a blue chip team, in this instance Kerry, is not a novelty.

Whether it was Jim Gavin’s Dublin, Kerry in the 2000s, or even going all the way back to playing Meath and Cork in the 1990s, Mayo have often earned the right to take on one of the leading lights of the time. And throughout those generations, it was often said that the county was just short of a “marquee forward” and that was why they didn’t get their hands on Sam Maguire.

In that regard that 2026 feels different. Kerry are the overwhelming favourites for Sunday’s final, with Mayo getting either a four or a five-point head start from those whose job it is to assess sporting contests from that perspective. But, flipping the traditional script, Andy Moran’s inside forward line is deemed to be perhaps the county’s biggest strength, and the main source of optimism for long-suffering supporters.

And in Moran’s opinion, that’s not something that just happened – that was a change in culture that had to be pushed through.

“There’s a reason why most of our young players want to play number 5 or number 7. You get loads of ball, you get to run, it’s all in front of you, that’s the way we like to play football here in Mayo,” he said.

“But in Kerry they revere the 13, the fella that comes around the corner and can kick the points. They don’t give out to him; they understand at 14 or 15, that he can be a tiny bit lazy, a tiny bit quirky and mavericky, and we would probably in the past have looked down on that sort of person.

Darragh Beirne. James Crombie / INPHO James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

“But I think we’re getting better at it. It’s like the number 10 in Argentina. If that’s the player you want to produce, you’ll respect that player when they’re coming up through the 12, 13, 14s.”

Darragh Beirne, who scored 1-9 in the last two games, is the perfect example of what Moran sees as the benefit of this new approach.

“I heard about Darragh coming up through 14, 15, 16s and we watched him playing for St Colman’s (Claremorris, 2025 Hogan Cup finalists).

“You could see he was a tiny bit different. Darragh’s not a loud guy, he’s a quite unassuming guy until he gets onto a football field, and he plays the football in his own style.

“In fairness to his coaches over the last couple of years, they weren’t telling him to chase back the field. They were telling him, ‘You hold your line, you stay there, we’ll get the ball to you.’ And it didn’t always work for him.”

In practical terms, Moran cited one-hop-one-solo as a possible constraint on the potential development of those type of players, using a fellow Ballaghaderreen player as one of his examples.

“I had the joy of watching Pearse Hanley growing up, I actually coached him. I coached at U14 when I was only about 15 myself! I’ve never seen anything like him, he’d just get the ball and run the pitch.

“I saw Christy Toye doing it in IT Sligo with us too, we’d put him full-back against the wind down in Sligo and he used to just run the pitch. If you constrain them to one solo, one hop, how are they ever going to learn that? I don’t mind it at U8s, yes you have to think about inclusion, but you have to think about how are we going to develop the best players as well.”

Of course, developing players is only half the battle – they also have to be kept here. The moment Kobe McDonald swaps the green and red of Mayo for the red, white and black colours of St Kilda draw’s ever closer, and the prospect of this Sunday’s final being the last ever time that the teenage superstar kicks an O’Neill’s ball for his county is a real one.

Moran says he will continue to make it clear to his mercurial young forward that there is an “other option” to his prospective AFL career, even if he accepts that the die has been cast.

Kobe McDonald. Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO

Earlier this year, Pat Spillane suggested that some “wealthy Mayo businessmen” should try and find a way to keep McDonald at home, but Moran said that “Kobe would have no problem with that, that’s a given,” and that “it’s the professional athlete point of view” that is the lure drawing him to Melbourne.

“I’m never going to talk a young fella out of doing that, it’s his choice,” Moran said.

“Will I put the other option in play? Of course you will, of course you’re trying to do that. But I have a great relationship with his Dad (Ciarán), an unbelievable relationship with his Dad, and I’m very grateful for them to play this year at senior football and we’re just absolutely delighted to have the young kid.

“Ciarán is a very straightforward sort of guy, he will do everything for his boy and he’s dead right. My job is to accommodate them the best I can and help them along.”

The Mayo boss did correct the record when it came to being quoted as saying that St Kilda were “brilliant”, saying instead that “what I mean is, they’re very open. I’d rather if they left him alone, but they’re very open to conversation. We’d love him to play for Mayo now for 10 years and more, I think all football would love him to stay.

“Kobe, for example, would be the top assister on our team. He plays with a freedom, we’re watching the World Cup and all the fellas that are lighting it up are playing with a freedom.

“If you go to a concert and you see your favourite band, they’re expressing themselves, they’re enjoying themselves and they’re putting a show out there. That’s what sport and football and entertainment is about. For me, the young fellas have really brought that to our group.”

All the more reason to lament one of the brightest showmen of the championship so far?

“Well, it wasn’t to be for Ciarán Kilkenny, he was gone. So who knows? I won’t write his script, let’s wait and see,” was as optimistic a response as Moran could muster.