Where to from here for Mayo's three beaten finalists?

There’s no feeling like winning a county final, memories forged that will be thought and reminisced of for years and decades to come. Those plays that will be remembered, the clutch moments when every touch of the ball is pivotal, and that shrill of the final whistle which sparks those scenes of euphoria. It would make you jealous as a neutral, the craic and fun that will begin from there; the few days back home where everyone will be soaking it all in, when the dust settles knowing that in a quarter century you’ll be introduced to the crowd at half-time in a county final, knowing you’ve written your slice of history, with those you’ve grown up with. And then you think of the others.

Watching the reactions of the teams at the end of this year’s Mayo senior football final almost feels like a blur these few weeks later, but everyone in Castlebar that day felt the same thing at full-time – total disbelief. Nobody could quite fathom what had just transpired, they simply couldn’t believe it. Being there to do a job and to get a few interviews, I processed it just by continuing on. The Stephenites went bananas – and rightly so – after crowning off their three-in-a-row in the most dramatic style, but of course then you had Westport.

On that final whistle Westport’s players fell to the ground and their supporters stayed silent, genuinely unable to understand how the game had fallen away from them in the final 10 minutes or so. I wasn’t near any of their players after that final whistle but I’d imagine they were inconsolable and in truth who could blame them. To have had the Moclair Cup in their hands but not take it home is a tough pill to swallow any day but in the circumstances as unfolded that day, it’s tougher. It was almost Mayo-esque.

We as a county know all about losing finals but that’s a rabbit hole we can go down some other day. Losses are tough to take, just ask Moy Davitts. If you had told them after last year’s heartbreaking intermediate final defeat to Crossmolina following a replay that they’d return to the final almost twelve months to the day and score 1-19 in that decider while keeping a clean sheet, I’m sure all among the Foxford-Bohola-Straide-Attymass club would think they'd have the Sweeney Cup with them too. A second final defeat in-a-row is tough to stomach, not least when it comes by just a single point, and just like over in Westport there’ll be soul searching done for a long time to come.

The tails were up too this autumn in Brickens and its surrounds for Eastern Gaels. As I drove through on my daily commute to Ballyhaunis, the flags and bunting seemed to multiply by the day. Reaching a first county junior final was a big day for them and undoubtedly they would have fancied themselves to get over the line against a shall we say unpredictable Kiltimagh team. But that Kiltimagh team put in their finest hour of the season by a country mile and romped back home to the intermediate grade at the first time of asking. It was a tough lesson for Gaels to have to learn. The occasion was a big one and possibly makes the outcome even tougher to take.

Eastern Gaels are an interesting story. It was fairly well documented how myself and my Ballycroy teammates also reached a stage of that junior championship to which we were not previously accustomed and wouldn’t you know it, our quarter-final was away to Eastern Gaels. We were slow to the pitch of the game which ultimately meant we were constantly chasing proceedings and came out second best by a margin of seven points. Disappointing? Yes. And I’d have my own personal regrets from the day. But absolute total and utter devastation? Probably not. I didn’t dwell on things all that much yet the following week I bumped into a man who had been at the game and who offered me one piece of advice. “Stephen, I was once told that you can learn a line from a win and a book from a defeat.” It’s something that may have been dismissed if mentioned in one of those dressing-rooms of the beaten county finalists but after a step back it’s all they may need to hear.

Those three finals were all so very different and each of Westport, Moy Davitts and Eastern Gaels have to winter with what went down in MacHale Park. You can do that and use that as a driving force behind you, pushing the group to strive for more. Or it can be the weight pushing down as a burden on those shoulders.

Ultimately, whether you write a line or a book about defeat, it’s more about what you take in and how you use it.

Football, just like life, is not about defeat, it’s about what comes next.

Stephen Grealis is GAA commentator and broadcaster with Midwest Radio.