Joe Brolly: The Moran method

Everyone in Mayo is going around smiling like the magic mushrooms are starting to kick in.

A fortnight after the final I went down to the recycling centre on the Killala Road. The lad at the bottle bank was wearing a Mayo jersey. (Everyone here is wearing Mayo jerseys). “What do you think of that Joe Brolly?” “Can you not think up your own sentence?” I said. He laughed. You can’t annoy them any more. “Busy last week?” I said. “Joe, Our busiest time is Christmas and the New Year and we empty this container once a fortnight. Last week we were emptying it three times a day.”

The cars still have the Mayo flags flying at the front corners like the ambassador’s limousine. The houses are still festooned. But things are calming down. Slowly, the euphoria is being replaced by contentment. The people are in the early stages of being able to talk about something else.

When Jimmy McGuinness introduced the first major strategic and tactical overhaul of the ancient game in 2011 and ‘12, it worked brilliantly, like Japanese knotweed. With lightning speed, every club and county and junior team and U14 team became choked. Soon, the game was unwatchable. By 2023 we were in Gaelic football’s first extinction event. We could have asked David Attenborough to voice over a documentary about it.

Jim Gavin rescued the game but no one was paying proper attention. Except Andy Moran. It is of course correct that when you win, everything was right. Think of how many spoofers have made their names by being the sports psychologist for Usain Bolt or Roger Federer. Send them to Leitrim footballers and see how they get on. Now, for example, Paddy Tally is being hailed as the game changer for Mayo. Even by our postman. In 2025, he was the Derry manager. When he took over, we were two time Ulster and reigning National League champions. His record? Played 11, won none, drew two. We were relegated from Division One with one draw and six losses. We were knocked out in the first round in Ulster (only losing by ten points) then dumped out in the qualifier stage of the All-Ireland series without winning a single game.

One well known county manager said to me after the final, “Managers are redundant now. Anyone can win an All-Ireland.”

I know what he means but I disagree. Andy did things his own way. One of the things that stands out is the players describing what he told them at half time in the final. “Go out and enjoy yourselves in the second half.” This is not something you will find in any coaching manual or biography.

Enjoy the day

In my first year with Dungiven seniors, we were on our way to the championship semi-final. I was 17 and in exuberant mood in the back seat of the great Colm McGuigan’s Ford Granada as we bounced at high speed across the mountain to Ballinascreen. “I’m really going to enjoy this today,” I said. Colm half turned and said, “**** up Brolly you silly hoor.” We won and went on to win the championship. Although I thoroughly enjoyed it all, I didn’t mention that to Colm.

Mayo’s triumph was based on Andy’s unique appreciation of the new rules, his singular conviction that they would win by being the first team to fully take advantage of the ‘no back pass to the keeper’ rule. This vision looked like a disaster for the first two thirds of the season, when they were whacked by Kerry, Donegal and Roscommon, but he persisted with it and when the players finally immersed themselves in it, they became the most adventurous, most exciting team in the game.

Kerry, like Mayo’s other opponents in the latter stages, would have watched the tapes and thought about it in the abstract, but when they actually experienced it, it was an overwhelming shock. This is because for 14 years, the entire footballing life span of the Kerry players, they were used to working the ball out of their defence under no particular pressure. Mayo’s trick was that they learned, under Andy’s relentless determination, to tackle ferociously (the ferocious bit is simply a matter of choice) without worrying what was behind them.

So, they hunted Kerry down. Kerry’s corner backs won short kick outs and when they turned to stroll out as usual and stroke lovely passes here and there, they had a man in their face and soon two. Clifford stood in 50 metres of space with his hand in the air roaring for the ball but his team mates couldn’t see him as it was all they could do to protect the ball.

Like Cork and Louth before them, Kerry crumbled.

They hadn’t practised for this because no one had ever done it to them before. Jack O’Connor could have attached electrodes to the Kerry players’ testicles at half time and it would have made no difference. They were experiencing a culture shock. Andy had planned and rehearsed a new culture. Kerry were stuck in the old one.

The second best thing about the final was that Mayo played with such adventure and risk, creating an electrifying spectacle that will be remembered as long as Gaelic football is played.

The best and most important thing is that Andy has created a new template for the game. In 2011, Jimmy created a dystopian template that threatened to destroy it. In 2026, Andy has created something inspirational and dramatic, something that will give us untold pleasure and enjoyment. On Friday night, I was at the Ballina v Castlebar championship game. Both teams played a high press. In the second half, Castlebar eventually broke Ballina with theirs, finishing the game with a 1-3 flourish to knock the champions out.

I never thought I would say this. Three cheers for Andy Moran.