'It's not going to sink in for a few days'

“Unreal is the only word.” 

It is not just a word that Donnacha McHugh used on multiple occasion when speaking to the assembled media after the All-Ireland final, but anyone connected to Mayo was uttering it as the 75-year famine ended last Sunday.

Every emotion was going through McHugh on the pitch and in the dressing room afterwards as the men in green and red (or white on this occasion) defied the odds to slay the Kingdom.

“I actually don't know how to describe it. I don't think it's going to sink in for a few days. You're sitting in the dressing room after the pitch; you're just waiting for someone to pinch you and wake up. But it's just relief, happiness, delight,” said McHugh.

“You're nearly in disbelief. The Mayo fans are unreal, as good as they always are.

“I actually remember Jack Livingstone turned around and gave one to the Hill. You're just thinking 20 seconds, you think we've done it. Just unreal, you're with boys you've battled with for the last few years, and you're just delighted.” 

The Castlebar Mitchels man had the unenviable task of marking Kerry’s generational talisman David Clifford. The Fossa superstar gave McHugh and a few others in the Mayo backline a rough time in the first 20 minutes of the game before McHugh got to grips with him. So what was the message at half-time?

“Enjoy it was the big one to be honest. We probably didn't do ourselves justice in the first 15-20 minutes. 

“Carney there swings it a two to get us off the board and then the boys up top, we got a few turnovers and then you're coming in like there's only a point in at half-time, you're coming in with real belief and then Andy, the positive figure that he is he's just telling you to enjoy the last 35 minutes of the season.

“You have two choices there. We talked about it. You either give up then or you're back against the wall and you get close together and you fight. That day [against Roscommon] didn't do us justice, and we were just going to try and turn it around.

“It’s probably down to a multitude of things, to be honest. You look there at that back line, probably bar McGreal, we've all been around for the last two or three years playing together, so you do have that relationship together.

“It's hard to put down to one thing, probably just fine tweaks and there's no secret ingredient to be honest. We just probably had to look at ourselves and see where we can improve and made the improvements.” 

David Clifford would still be Kerry’s beacon of hope in the final few minutes, with a stunning two-pointer off his weaker foot putting two between them. The fears that Mayo would let their lead slip were palpable as Clifford tried again and again to engineer another two-pointer.

“You're probably just trying to delay him as much as you can. And you're showing him the right foot, and when he does that, sometimes you just have to hold your hands up and say well done, there's not much you can do there.” 

Any doubt that Mayo could let it slip at the end, much less 15 minutes into the game, were never going to enter the minds of this group with the current management team. In fact, McHugh said this is where they believed they could be when Andy Moran was appointed last August.

“[Andy is] just such a positive person. Last year he rang us in August, and he said we'd do it today. He'd been planning that far ahead and just the energy it gives you, the belief for the last six months that we could do it. He's just always telling me you're able to do it, that you're better, that you're as good as you can be. He's just giving me that positive energy.” 

McHugh comes from as passionate a GAA family as any. He was there with his dad as a supporter when Mayo reached finals in 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2021, and he was made up for them, along with clubmates Paddy Durcan, Sean Morahan, Bob Tuohy and John MacMonagle.

“Dad was here in 04 and 06 so I'm just delighted for them really. I'm just delighted for my grandad as well. My grandad was a big GAA man, he's from Sligo but he couldn't be here today, but he used to always say he'd love to see us win it, so I'm just delighted for that really.

“Delighted for all the Mitchels boys. Seanie Morahan and John Mac there driving it on. Bob as well. You can't compliment the boys enough that they didn't get game time all season.

“They're doing stuff in training; they're pushing boys that are playing and they are giving everything they have every week and it's just unreal for them boys to get over the line as well.”