Can the magical mystery tour continue for ever-improving Mayo?

by John Melvin

A STRIKING statistic caught my eye when I flicked back over the archives in relation to All-Irelands won by both Mayo and Louth.

When Mayo defeated Louth in the 1950 All-Ireland final (2-5 to 1-6), they played just three games.

As they bid for a place in the All-Ireland final with a rematch against Louth this Saturday in the semi-final, they will have played six games, and it will be eight in all should they win the semi-final and make the final.

That's a fairly rigorous championship schedule for amateur sports men. It commenced in London on April 11 and, all going well, is due to end in Croke Park on Sunday, July 26.

In 1950, Mayo got a bye into the Connacht final, where they defeated Roscommon, and then went on to beat Armagh in the All-Ireland semi-final before finally overcoming Louth in the decider. The Wee County had defeated Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final.

To get to Saturday’s semi-final Mayo won four games but lost two (Roscommon and Tyrone), while Louth had an equally mixed bag on their journey to Saturday’s historic showdown, beating Wexford (1-25 to 0-11) in their opening game in the Leinster Championship before crashing to Dublin in the Leinster semi-final, the Dubs, of course, losing to Westmeath in the Leinster final (2-28 to 0-26, after extra time).

As it turned out, Louth’s journey was in fact only beginning and similar to Mayo, they went on to produce some amazing results, a stunning 4-18 to 1-24 victory over Dublin in Round 1 of the All-Ireland series followed by that last-gasp Hail Mary shot from Sam Mulroy which ended up in the Armagh net with the help of goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty to grab his county a 2-20 to 2-19 win over the Ulster champions in Round 2A.

That secured their place in the All-Ireland quarterfinal, where they produced one of the most memorable games of this year’s championship by seeing off Monaghan despite playing 64 minutes of the game with 14 men following an early red card picked up by their midfielder Seán Callaghan.

While that win over Monaghan must be viewed in the context of Rory Beggan being absent due to injury, it can’t disguise the fact that Louth made a mockery of the prevailing view that a numerical disadvantage for any team makes it almost impossible to win a game under the new rules.

But this is not a one-hit wonder team from the Wee County. Louth made people take notice when they won the 2025 Leinster Championship, beating Meath in a thriller (3-14 to 1-18). However, after winning just one of their three games in the group series, they ended up in a preliminary quarterfinal, where Donegal beat them convincingly.

They have shown this year that they are in ruddy health and have a lot of quality players on board, but Monaghan’s high mileage would suggest they were there for the picking after a long, hard, tough season.

Mayo, of course, have created a few records of their own in what has been something of a roller-coaster of a ride for their supporters, who could be forgiven for thinking that Andy Moran’s first year on the job was mostly in the role of the apprentice rather than the master.

It took him a while, but the former GAA Player of the Year (2017) was holding firm and keeping faith the band of brothers he had assembled.

Not all of them worked out, but following that defeat to Roscommon in the Connacht semi-final, which resulted in Plan A (to win the provincial title) being scrubbed and Plan B being drawn up.

The turning point for Mayo came in the opening round of the All-Ireland series in Clones, from where they returned with a one-point win over Monaghan (1-24 to 2-20) – though not, of course, before scaring the bejesus out of the travelling supporters by almost blowing a one-time 12-point lead.

Mayo’s reputation for bringing chaos to a game is not without foundation.

A week later they had to return to Ulster, Omagh on this occasion, where they were narrowly beaten by Tyrone (1-18 to 0-22) in Round 2 of the championship, a late controversial free nailed by Niall Morgan. Supprters still went home happy in the knowledge that their team was making steady progress.

More importantly for Mayo, that Tyrone clash brought on a lot of new players and saw a marked improvement in a few areas, and they were to come to the fore in that crucial Round 3 meeting with Meath in Castlebar, where Mayo took over in the second half having coughed up two gifts of goals in the first.

Although the defence was still open to criticism and the midfield area was still struggling, Moran was obviously putting a team together, and it was that quarterfinal win over Cork which finally confirmed that Mayo were beginning to get things right with their decision-making on-field as well as off-field.

With Donegal and Armagh removed from the All-Ireland equation, thoughts turn to another day out in Croke Park, this time to face Louth.

Both teams will feel they are in with a chance of making the All-Ireland final.

Louth have travelled a hard road and have quality players, 11 of them contributing to that score of 0-27 against Monaghan, including two of their substitutes.

Among the scorers were Sam Mulroy with 0-5 (three frees), Ryan Burns and James Maguire with 0-4 each, and subs Ciaran Bynre and Tadhg McDonnell with 0-3 each.

Dara McDonnell and Ciaran Downey both landed two-pointers, Kieran McArdle added one point, and defenders Craig Lennon, Donal McKenney and Conor Early also found the target with one apiece

Mayo’s first visit to Croke Park for a championship game in three years ended well. It came agrainst a less-than-impressive Cork team, but Mayo closed them down and denied them space.

There were improvements all round, Darragh Beirne taking the man of the match trophy home with him, Kobe McDonald putting in another big performance, and Ryan O’Donoghue leading by example.

Jack Carney nailing a big two-pointer also, but Mayo will need more scores from their defence and midfield as that full-forward line of Beirne, McDonald and O'Donoghue scored 0-19 of the 0-23 total.

Tommy Conroy is back and I feel he could have a major part to play if Mayo are going to make their first All-Ireland final appearance since 2021, when they lost to Tyrone.

Mayo have another big performance in them and as the manager said, Croke Park suits their style of play with a full-forward line which took Cork asunder, a midfield which is beginning to stand its ground and win that vital breaking-ball, and, most importantly, a defence which has finally realised that leaving a key in both the front and the back door is an open invitation to having your house plundered.