Andy Moran enjoying 2026 Mayo adventure
Mayo senior football team manager Andy Moran pictured ahead of the All-Ireland SFC Final.
Click here to listen to the full interview with Mayo senior football team manager Andy Moran.
By Cian O'Connell
"I think it has been the same for everyone," Mayo manager Andy Moran says about a dramatic 2026 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship.
Mayo and Kerry collide at Croke Park on Sunday in the decider, but it has been an eventful stint sprinkled with chaotic matches. "Even when you're looking at the semi-finalists - everyone of them had taken a good defeat, and I mean a good defeat, along the way," Moran adds.
"That's Dublin, Louth, ourselves, and Kerry. Even going into the semi-final weekend, it was an unusual Championship.
"With all these Championships, they take a rhythm, they take a pace, and over the next couple of years you'll see adjustments by teams. We're all just kinda learning the system.
"That goes for every single team in the country. Some of the favourites in the Championship were knocked out very early because that pace maybe just wasn't timed right. It's something we all need to learn as managers over the next couple of years."
Momentum has been generated by Mayo during a sequence of Championship victories over Meath, Cork, and Louth.
A new wave of talent is emerging. "We tried to get them in early," Moran explains. "When you've an awful lot of young players, you've fellas playing Freshers football, fellas playing Sigerson football, then you've the U20 Championship.
"It wasn't until we got to the Roscommon game, and our U20s were knocked out that Wednesday, it wasn't until we got there that we felt 'okay, we've got everyone together now'.
"You see the emergence of Eoin McGreal, Kobe McDonald, Darragh Beirne, but not only that Hugh O'Loughlin from the Sigerson, Conal Dawson back in the 26 from the Sigerson, Cian McHale, and you've more lads there from the UL team, Seán Morahan and these guys that are really pushing.
Andy Moran pictured following Mayo's emphatic All-Ireland SFC Semi-Final win over Louth. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
"We didn't feel we had all of them together until that five week break we got after the Roscommon game which we needed."
Mentioning sabbaticals, is Moran good at switching off from footballing matters? "I remember James Horan saying a famous line 'even when you're not there, you're there'," Moran says.
"Your phone rings, you can't be going to the cinema and be off the phone for three hours or something like that. You need to always be available to the players. Switching off now and me wouldn't be easiest thing.
"I think all inter-county managers are the same. If you're going to be successful at this thing or if you're going to try to push yourself to your limits, I don't think there is an off button you can do.
"It's the same as having your own business. You can't be switching off. You need to be able to take that call when the phone rings."
Growing up in Ballaghadereen, Moran had plenty of positive sporting influences. "We were very lucky," Moran reflects.
"My generation in Ballaghadereen had great influences from Brian Tansey to Frank Kelly to John O'Mahony to John Gaffney.
"These guys were all involved in football, soccer, handball. Not only did the show us how to play sport, but showed us how to behave. We didn't always stick to their principles and behave the way we should have.
"We knew what was right and wrong, that's why we had such a fruitful upbringing when we were younger, and it's why a lot of us got into coaching and management afterwards - because of these influences."
