“UNDIGNIFIED - humiliating - a whipping”. It will be a year ago next week since I took to the keyboard, surrounded by a red mist. Galway had rocked into Castlebar like they owned the place, and Mayo, unfathomably ignoring the new rules, had shipped a ten-point trouncing.

The vibes were bad. I heard later that the column was not pleasing to certain members of the then management team, but reviewing it 12 months later, I wouldn’t change a word, because the manner of that defeat was pleasing to no-one.

What a thrill, then, to have a different tale to tell this week. Mayo’s first-round victory over the Tribesman on Sunday was “only the league” too, but it has finally exorcised the demons of 2025’s disaster, and I promise you, dear readers, like 2021, I will never bring it up again.

On Sunday, the phrase “Moranball” was coined, to the wry amusement of the manager.

The Mayo Football podcast’s Mike Finnerty will claim credit, but the Irish Examiner’s Maurice Horan was quick out of the blocks with too.

It represents a nod to a previous era, but also the birth of a new one; one with the promise of fast, direct football, the coming of youth, and a sense of hope and confidence that has been absent from Mayo for too long.

CLOSE THE WINDOW

Our crew was on the road early, too early for some of us, but a hearty breakfast and a good fill of coffee in Kennedy’s in Castlebar set us up for the road ahead.

It was mild. We were a bit on edge. Someone opened the car window on the outskirts of the city, to be met with a rebuke:........

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