Moran willing to tailor Mayo's tactics game by game

As a player, Andy Moran was on the Mayo football seesaw more than long enough to understand that there are highs and lows, and even though the border with Galway wasn’t the one that tended to be the most relevant frontier to him as a Ballaghaderreen man, he knew that beating the Tribesmen is never a small thing, regardless of the time of year.

“Was it the be-all and end-all coming up here, it wasn't. But Galway have beat us four times in-a-row, if you include the FBD last week. So we had to stop that rot at least,” was how he described the importance of the fixture.

And the added effect of putting a bit of high-octane fuel into the increasingly rampant 2026 Mayo football bandwagon?

“I'll tell you, if they (Mayo fans) weren't back today, we'd have no chance. You're playing Galway, the sun is shining. It feels like a summer's day. I don't think we'll get a better day in Salthill for the rest of the year in terms of wind. If they didn't come today, I don't think they were ever going to come!” 

If this is the level of entertainment that’s going to be provided, they’ll keep coming. The county might be known for having a loyal and broad fanbase, but any contest that ends 3-18 to 2-18 will entice plenty of casuals to come along for the ride as well.

“We’re a work in progress, we’re far from the finished article but we’re trying to do the right things and trying to play the right way, the way that suits our players. Some days, we're going to go well, on other days, it's not going to work so well,” he said.

“Today, it wasn't chaotic for a long time and then it suddenly got chaotic. Jesus, an awful lot to work on, an awful lot we did well. I enjoyed the way we played the ball and we tried to do what we were trying to work on. But yeah, we were 11 points up at one stage and they nearly got a back only for a few saves”.

Rob Hennelly’s saves were certainly crucial, as were goal-line interventions from Sam Callinan and David McBrien, and Moran maintained that as gaelic football evolves in the new rules environment, Hennelly is ideally poised to thrive.

“I think the new game suits Rob, you’re back in goals and you're a goalkeeper,” was his view.

“You'll still have (Niall) Morgan coming up, (Ethan) Rafferty, you'll still have Rory (Beggan) coming up for Monaghan. But I think 90% of the keepers are going to be staying on the line. Keepers need to be kickers and good shot-stoppers, that's what Robbie is. We followed an awful lot of Raheny during the 2025 Championship, he was hitting big scores there and he was playing really well. It was an automatic to ask him and then he was good enough to make himself available.” 

In terms of not asking Hennelly to produce Man of the Match heroics in every game, the Mayo manager was clear that the first and most important job is to ensure that teams don’t go on a run of dominating the kickout battle, as happened for Galway midway through the second-half.

“Once a team gets momentum on you, it's so hard to stop the momentum. We know the kick out is so important to Galway in the way they like to play,” he said.

“Obviously, they'd like to have (Céin) Darcy and they'd like to have John Maher and Matthew Tierney in there. The kick out is so important to the way you want to play.

“You can't get the ball forward without it and if you lose it, they're running down your throat. Once we started losing our own kick outs, (Connor) Gleeson started getting a bit on his kick out. It swung, the game turned and we had to bring Jordan (Flynn) off there at a vital time, just on a last warning, we had to take him off. It kind of swung the game in their favour.” 

Other enforced personnel switches didn’t help, including the withdrawal of Eoin McGreal.

“We were very disappointed for Eoin, he started outstandingly well. I think it showed how well he started when his man scored three points directly straight away when he went off. I think that affected our flow. He's an outstanding player with huge pace.” 

Moran himself would have played with several defenders who were in the same vein – at their best in a one-on-one battle, doubly so when they had the chance to bomb forward and put their direct opponent on the back foot. The fare in Salthill suggested that template could well be followed under Moran’s tenure.

“We were probably aggressive in our defence. Is it sustainable for a season? It all depends on who you're playing against, I think,” was how he assessed the suggestion that this might be the blueprint for Mayo 2026.

“We'll address every time we're playing against each opposition. We'll see what the right way to go about it is.” But as long as this continues, there will be plenty of others there to see as well. Starting this coming Sunday in Castlebar.