Andy Moran was not in the least bit surprised to see his Mayo side overwhelm Kerry in an absorbing 2026 All-Ireland SFC final.

Moran, the mastermind of his county’s first Sam Maguire Cup win in 75 years, was fully confident that his ravenous young charges were good enough to dethrone holders Kerry … which they duly did in sensational style.

“We took a heavy hit early on in the season but it allowed us to reset,” he said in an interview on RTE after the final whistle. “I’m kind of half-sick talking about it: I thought we had a really good chance coming in if I’m being honest. We beat Louth in the semi-final and Louth beat Dublin and beat Armagh – and they were the two teams Kerry beat.

“We were coming in here, we’d done a hundred sessions throughout the course of the season. We just thought our medical team has the boys in such good shape and bar Stephen Coen there, and Darren McHale didn’t play for the full season, we nearly had a full hand … and Diarmuid Duffy the shoulder

“We were in such a good place coming into the game I thought. It started a bit shaky, no doubt about it. But I thought for the next 40 minutes of that game, from about the 18th minute on, we were just sensational.

“I try to say it in the media room a lot. It’s a new game and we discovered when I was in Monaghan last year that the two-pointers are so valuable. Playing against the likes of Kerry, Dublin and these guys it keeps you in the game if you can hit them. Today we took on a lot but we maybe got 50 per centand it made a big difference.”

Tweet

Most Read Stories