New attacking belief puts Mayo in rude health

At the end of the league, you can get a pretty good lie of the land. Right now, it’s clear that Donegal and Kerry are a good bit ahead of the rest, but Mayo can take comfort in the fact that they are the best of the rest.

A third-place finish in his maiden campaign will suit Andy just fine. Sure, it would have been lovely to be challenging for a big pot last Sunday, but Mayo were probably just as well to let Donegal and Kerry at it.

I believe that Mayo could beat either team later in the summer, but to beat them last Sunday and again in the championship is unrealistic. A high-octane, well-orchestrated ambush in a quarter-final or semi-final later in the year is where I would be focusing. Another trimming at the weekend, à la Letterkenny or Tralee, would have done nobody any good.

Even Kerry’ footballing virtuosos’ confidence will have taken a bit of a bashing after last Sunday’s hiding in HQ. I have been on the end of a League Final massacre at the end of what looked like a promising campaign, and it totally derailed our championship aspirations.

No, Mayo were just fine at home watching on TV last weekend. In fact, going by some of the players’ social media accounts, they took the chance to get away to sunnier climes at the end of a tough league run. Even better.

Qualifying for a league final would not have allowed much wiggle room as regards taking a break pre-championship. After living cheek by jowl for the last five months and playing games almost weekly, a break from one another is about the best thing players and management can do before cranking it up again for the summer.

In the good old bad days, when I was playing intercounty football and before the condensed calendar, I used to hate the break between the end of the league and the opening round of the championship. I found it interminable. It could often run to between six and eight weeks, depending on your final league position and your Connacht Championship draw.

Believe it or not, we used to be sent back to the club for a week or two to play the first round of the club championship. That seems incredible now with our new streamlined, neatly packaged split season and it was a nightmare for players whose seasons had more peaks and troughs than the Welsh valleys.

After beating forty shades of shite out of each other in club championship at the weekend, we would rock up to county training on the Tuesday night for our second pre-season of the calendar year. S&C coaches would be salivating at the prospect of a month without any competitive matches and would create another block of torturous running. Physically it was difficult, but facing into that was even harder mentally. You wouldn’t believe the number of injuries county teams used to pick up between the end of the league and the start of the championship during that punishing fitness block.

About three weeks out from your championship opener, you would play some fairly pointless, trivial challenge matches, with 30 players togged out and used over 75 or 80 minutes.

I remember marking the rapid Joe Higgins from Laois in Ballyhaunis, and playing alongside Ciaran McDonald as we opened a new pitch in Meath in 2008. We also opened the pitch in Tallaght, Belmullet versus Cavan.

In another “friendly” against Donegal in Markievicz Park, I jogged on for the second half to mark the teak-tough and filthy-dirty Neil McGee, who welcomed me by trying to break my fingers. After that, I was more judicious about who I offered my hand to before games began. I couldn’t help but chuckle when McGee said after Sunday’s game that Caolán McGonagle was picked to mark David Clifford because “he’s a bit of a dog”. Pot, kettle.

On a different occasion, I recall scrapping with Dermot Earley as we played Kildare in the Curragh post a Carton House mini-camp circa 2009. At 5 ft 7¾, picking a fight with the Herculean 6 ft 3-inch Earley was not my wisest move. I need to pick my battles.

Anyway, truth be told, I really did not enjoy that period of the season and I’m not sure many did. Don’t get me wrong, the current schedule is extremely taxing for intercounty players, with games at least fortnightly and sometimes weekly, but the balance between competitive matches and training is much more favourable. For club players too, knowing you just have to be right for August is a huge help in planning both training and life.

Ahead of what should be a routine outing in London, Mayo are in rude health. There was some criticism for reverting to type and using some of the older players, but Mayo still used 36 players in the league—more than any other Division 1 team. A huge Mayo contingent being involved in the latter stages of the Sigerson Cup probably scuppered plans to blood more young players earlier in the league, but their involvement in the blue-ribboned intervarsity competition is positive for Mayo football too.

What is most pleasing about Mayo’s season thus far is their attacking verve and swagger. Mayo have kicked 26 two-pointers this campaign, having only managed a meagre 11 in 2025. Overall, Mayo have scored 26 more points in 2026 than in 2025. This suggests that the players are getting to grips with the new rules after some teething problems in their first year.

It also points to strong forward coaching. It is no coincidence that Monaghan were the country’s top two-point scorers in 2025 and Mayo are towards the top of that chart this season. The common denominator? Andy Moran.

While I’ve noticed more patterns and combinations in attack, the biggest difference, I believe, is the licence and freedom Mayo’s forwards are now getting. As a forward, you don’t want to be overcoached. You don’t want to be thinking too much about rules or instructions when you’re about to take on your man or pull the trigger. What you do want is your coach’s blessing to have a go—to play it as you see it, to be brave, and to know that if it doesn’t come off, you won’t be berated for not sticking rigidly to a blueprint.

The greatest weapon a forward can have in their arsenal is confidence and if there is anyone who can engender that in his players, it’s the ever-sunny Andy.

In the NFL this season, Mayo have recorded their highest league scoring tally of all time. Moran’s Mayo are a really entertaining team to watch—and for that, we should be grateful.