MAYO HERO RYAN O’Donoghue has opened up about the impact of his missed penalty in the 2021 All-Ireland final, saying it tormented him for the next five years.
Mayo are All-Ireland champions now with their powerful number 14 doing more than anyone else, on final day against Kerry and throughout the season, to make it happen.
But speaking as he received his PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month award for July, the Belmullet man revealed exactly how low he felt after that penalty miss and how it haunted him right up until the recent Sam Maguire triumph.
Mayo trailed Tyrone by two points in the 42nd minute of that 2021 final when O’Donoghue struck a penalty off the post and wide, the Red Hands eventually escaping with a five-point win to prolong Mayo’s long wait for Sam.
“There wasn’t a week that went by where it didn’t enter my head and I’d get angry, I’d get upset, I’d be asking ‘Why did I do that? Why this? Why that?’” said O’Donoghue.
“I would never have admitted that before the 26th of July last, I would never have admitted that to anyone, bar Andy Moran, actually. From whatever time it was, 5.14pm on Sunday the 26th of July, I don’t care what happened in 2021 now.”
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The tale chimes with the difficulties encountered by former Limerick hurling captain Declan Hannon who won his first All-Ireland in 2018, five years after a poor semi-final performance against Clare which he struggled to shake off.
O’Donoghue said that, in his own case, it wasn’t the execution of the penalty that affected him, rather his fragile emotional state afterwards.
“I didn’t deal with it (well) after the penalty miss – the game for me was over, looking back on it,” said the 28-year-old. “I was still thinking about it. I don’t know how many times I touched the ball after that.
Cillian O’Connor and James Durcan console Ryan O’Donoghue after the 2021 final. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
“It was about learning how to deal with things going wrong. Fast forward to the 2026 final, I dropped the first ball short into Shane Murphy’s arms and then the next one I put it over for a two-pointer.
“It was about learning to deal with things, working with sports psychologists on how to deal with mistakes quickly and going on to the next task.”
Boss Moran, who took over Mayo after the 2025 season, was one of the few O’Donoghue confided in about how much 2021 had affected him.
“I won’t go into too much detail because it was a very tough conversation,” said O’Donoghue. “He was the one who actually came to me. It was after the Roscommon game and…yeah, I’ll leave it at that.”
Moran had plenty of tough chats throughout Mayo’s landmark season, dropping big names but also convincing others, including David McBrien, to return from Dublin and to base themselves in the west despite not having any work.
“It was a whole commitment thing from him – were you in or were you out?” said O’Donoghue. “He had a lot of hard conversations with a lot of lads. It was up to us then whether we bought in or not. To every single man, from one to 41, they bought in, whether it was moving home from Dublin, changing jobs, the list goes on. So yeah, there was a ruthless streak there and some boys missed out but everything he did now was right. If the All-Ireland final hadn’t gone so well, maybe people are saying he didn’t do it right, but everything he’s done seems to have worked.”
O’Donoghue’s personal journey to All-Ireland success is a remarkable one, having previously excelled in boxing and soccer. The tireless and prolific full-forward won an All-Ireland boxing title at just 11 and, later, played soccer for Sligo Rovers. He believes it has all stood to him.
“Definitely, first of all the boxing, like, the training I have done since I was 11, 12, 13 years old, getting up at six in the morning and running before school with my Dad behind me in the Berlingo van, going to school, running home from school to eat my dinner, then going for a nap and then running back in for training from 7pm to 9pm in Belmullet,” said O’Donoghue.
“The Broadhaven Bay Hotel used to have a sauna at the time, I’d run back out to the hotel and sleep in the sauna to lose some weight, until Dad seen me lying there, pulling me out of it, and I’d do that Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I was only 33 kgs at the time. That stood with me forever.”
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'There wasn't a week that went by where it didn't enter my head, and I'd get angry'
MAYO HERO RYAN O’Donoghue has opened up about the impact of his missed penalty in the 2021 All-Ireland final, saying it tormented him for the next five years.
Mayo are All-Ireland champions now with their powerful number 14 doing more than anyone else, on final day against Kerry and throughout the season, to make it happen.
But speaking as he received his PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month award for July, the Belmullet man revealed exactly how low he felt after that penalty miss and how it haunted him right up until the recent Sam Maguire triumph.
Mayo trailed Tyrone by two points in the 42nd minute of that 2021 final when O’Donoghue struck a penalty off the post and wide, the Red Hands eventually escaping with a five-point win to prolong Mayo’s long wait for Sam.
“There wasn’t a week that went by where it didn’t enter my head and I’d get angry, I’d get upset, I’d be asking ‘Why did I do that? Why this? Why that?’” said O’Donoghue.
“I would never have admitted that before the 26th of July last, I would never have admitted that to anyone, bar Andy Moran, actually. From whatever time it was, 5.14pm on Sunday the 26th of July, I don’t care what happened in 2021 now.”
The tale chimes with the difficulties encountered by former Limerick hurling captain Declan Hannon who won his first All-Ireland in 2018, five years after a poor semi-final performance against Clare which he struggled to shake off.
O’Donoghue said that, in his own case, it wasn’t the execution of the penalty that affected him, rather his fragile emotional state afterwards.
“I didn’t deal with it (well) after the penalty miss – the game for me was over, looking back on it,” said the 28-year-old. “I was still thinking about it. I don’t know how many times I touched the ball after that.
“It was about learning how to deal with things going wrong. Fast forward to the 2026 final, I dropped the first ball short into Shane Murphy’s arms and then the next one I put it over for a two-pointer.
“It was about learning to deal with things, working with sports psychologists on how to deal with mistakes quickly and going on to the next task.”
Boss Moran, who took over Mayo after the 2025 season, was one of the few O’Donoghue confided in about how much 2021 had affected him.
“I won’t go into too much detail because it was a very tough conversation,” said O’Donoghue. “He was the one who actually came to me. It was after the Roscommon game and…yeah, I’ll leave it at that.”
Moran had plenty of tough chats throughout Mayo’s landmark season, dropping big names but also convincing others, including David McBrien, to return from Dublin and to base themselves in the west despite not having any work.
“It was a whole commitment thing from him – were you in or were you out?” said O’Donoghue. “He had a lot of hard conversations with a lot of lads. It was up to us then whether we bought in or not. To every single man, from one to 41, they bought in, whether it was moving home from Dublin, changing jobs, the list goes on. So yeah, there was a ruthless streak there and some boys missed out but everything he did now was right. If the All-Ireland final hadn’t gone so well, maybe people are saying he didn’t do it right, but everything he’s done seems to have worked.”
O’Donoghue’s personal journey to All-Ireland success is a remarkable one, having previously excelled in boxing and soccer. The tireless and prolific full-forward won an All-Ireland boxing title at just 11 and, later, played soccer for Sligo Rovers. He believes it has all stood to him.
“Definitely, first of all the boxing, like, the training I have done since I was 11, 12, 13 years old, getting up at six in the morning and running before school with my Dad behind me in the Berlingo van, going to school, running home from school to eat my dinner, then going for a nap and then running back in for training from 7pm to 9pm in Belmullet,” said O’Donoghue.
“The Broadhaven Bay Hotel used to have a sauna at the time, I’d run back out to the hotel and sleep in the sauna to lose some weight, until Dad seen me lying there, pulling me out of it, and I’d do that Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I was only 33 kgs at the time. That stood with me forever.”
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