Captain Coyne is Sports Personality of the Year

The 2026 Western People Mayo Sports Awards banquet, held in association with Coca-Cola/CPS Ballina will be held in Breaffy House Hotel on Friday, November 13, 2026. The evening will include a drinks reception, four-course dinner, awards presentation and entertainment. Tickets are priced at €75 and can be obtained from the Western People by contacting Nicola Lawrence at 086-8293435 or nicola.lawrence@westernpeople.ie.

Sports Personality of the Year: Jack Coyne

It takes a particular type of person to become captain of any team. You need leadership qualities, self-motivation and the respect and trust of your teammates. You must be prepared to lead by example, take responsibility when things get difficult and put the interests of the team ahead of your own. And being able to write epic acceptance speeches is a nice bonus too!

In picking Jack Coyne as his captain for 2026, Andy Moran made a very good call.

It shifted leadership responsibility from the older cohort of players towards those in their mid-20s, many of whom would grow into leadership roles in different ways during the year.

Jack Coyne did it from the get-go.

Mayo’s only All-Star nominee in 2025, Jack had the on-field stripes at the time. But even more so off the field. His teammates saw a leader, not a follower. A man fastidious in his attitude and application. A setter of standards.

Some questioned the choice of captain after a couple of games in the championship when Jack struggled on his immediate opponent.

But real leaders don’t shirk when the going gets tough; they stand tall.

And when Mayo got to Croke Park, Jack Coyne showed what he was made of. In the three biggest games of the year, he was back to his best. In the final, Dylan Geaney was many people’s nod at one point for Footballer of the Year. He got very little change from the Ballyhaunis man.

But as good as he was on the field, Jack Coyne has written himself into history for his splendid acceptance speech as Mayo ended a 75-year wait.

It oozed with class, emotion, connection and pride.

He brought everyone in the county into a collective embrace and pointed the way forward for the new dawn by imploring us all to stick our chests out and be proud to be from Mayo.

How could you feel any other way on that great day, listening to one of your own deliver one of the most memorable and evocative speeches Croke Park has ever heard?