Kobe McDonald doing his best to process Mayo's landmark win
Kobe McDonald celebrates with Mayo supporters at Heuston Station in Dublin. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
By Paul Keane
They're due to release the Leaving Certificate results on August 21, a date that all of those who sat the exams earlier this summer have circled on their calendars.
Well, most of them anyway.
In the lobby of the Mayo team hotel for the All-Ireland final weekend, in the centre of Dublin, it's not the first thing that's on Kobe McDonald's mind.
"I haven't a clue, to be honest with you," he smiled, when asked if he knows when the results are coming out.
His future is already mapped out, the foreseeable future at least. He will shortly leave Ireland, along with his parents initially, to take up a Category B rookie contract with AFL side St Kilda.
He was a good student, for the record, and had designs on studying PE and Geography at UL with a view to becoming a teacher. But his sporting gifts have taken him down a different path.
He's excited about the challenge but mindful too that it is important to firstly celebrate yesterday's All-Ireland win properly, an All-Ireland win for the ages.
"A bit of a whirlwind," is how McDonald described the hours immediately after the three-point win over Kerry, which ended decades of hurt.
There was the official banquet for starters, which included an interview on national TV, then a first ever trip to a well-known nightclub in Dublin. Then a round of interviews this morning back at the team hotel base. And all conducted with remarkable maturity for a player who, had he been born in January of 2008, instead of December 2007, would have been too young to play senior for Mayo this year.
"That's true," said McDonald, son of Mayo All-Star Ciarán. "I actually had that talk with Paddy Durcan yesterday. I would have been just playing my first year with Crossmolina seniors."
Jordan Flynn, left, and Kobe McDonald prepare to lift the Sam Maguire Cup together. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
He's certainly packed a lot into his solitary season as a Mayo senior. And all of it alongside his brother, Jordan Flynn. At the full-time hooter, the pair of them crumpled in a delighted heap together. Later, they lifted the Sam Maguire Cup, taking a handle each before hoisting it up.
"I suppose we were just kind of computing that us two, as brothers, were after winning Sam Maguire for Mayo after 75 long years," said McDonald. "Look, to have that moment with him, in the middle of Croke Park was stuff you could never have thought would happen at the start of the year. It's a day I'll never forget for sure."
Andy Moran carefully choreographed it all, introducing McDonald to county activity late last year and bringing him along to Portugal for their pre-season training camp.
"I had just joined the panel a week beforehand," said this year's Mayo U-20. "I didn't know many players. There were all the players you had been watching when you were growing up. To have a week with them, every day, seeing each other, you get embedded in the group, which was huge for me.
"Aidan O'Shea, Cillian O'Connor, Paddy Durcan, these boys were absolute heroes for me when I was growing up. To be able to share the dressing room with them, to now share this moment with them, it's very surreal."
Equally, it was surely a treat to enjoy a season alongside McDonald, for all of Mayo's experienced performers.
His eye-catching scores and spinning-finger celebration became a trademark.
"That's been a bit of a running joke," smiled McDonald. "Myself and (Darragh) Beirne have brought in this kind of celebrating. Ryan (O'Donoghue) was saying he'd never done it before - now he even finds himself doing it! Thinking back, I've never been a big celebrator. But something just took hold of me this year when I got a crowd around me.
Kobe McDonald gestures to the crowd during the All-Ireland SFC final. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
"Andy (Moran) always said, if you give the crowd energy, they'll give it back to you. The Mayo people are amazing at that."
That next step for McDonald will be to climb onto the foot of the AFL ladder as a new recruit.
He will join a St Kilda group already containing Cork's Liam O'Connell, who has made nine appearances in 2026, and Meath's Eamonn Armstrong.
The official St Kilda website has included McDonald on its list of senior players, assigning the Crossmolina phenom the number 42 jersey and listing him as a defender.
Having played a key role in making GAA history, he is ambitious to go far in his adopted sport.
"Well look, I want to...there's probably a first team and a second team - I want to be in the first team as much as possible," he said. "I don't want to go there and just blend in. That's not my nature. You obviously strive to be the best, strive to be one of the best at least. But there's no guarantees. I'll try my best and see what happens."
Whatever way it pans out, he will always have 2026, and his All-Ireland win. A landmark win.
"I thought it would sink in this morning," he said, before departing for the homecoming. "I thought I'd realise what we've done but I still find myself pinching myself, I still find myself looking around, the Mayo supporters, the old people, my family, my friends, you know, our teammates.
"I think I spoke in an interview yesterday that me, (Eoin) McGreal and (Darragh) Beirne probably don't understand the magnitude of what we've done. We've never been here before, it's that unknown. I think one day, hopefully in the future, I will realise what we've accomplished."
