Mayo prove all the pundits wrong as they finally scale their Everest

Curses be damned and all of that nonsense after one of the craziest of all Gaelic Football championships delivered another tale of the unexpected, with none of the pundits or experts on either RTÉ or BBC forecasting Mayo’s historic victory over the Kerrymen.“We all got it wrong,” said Pádraig O’Hora on BBC when it was all over, the former Mayo player and mountaineer who sounded like a man absolutely thrilled with such lack of clairvoyancy. As he put it: “A perfect fairytale ending to a crazy, crazy championship.”And, on this occasion, he wasn’t wrong.The funny haha thing was that the non-experts in the BBC box high in one corner of the Hogan Stand had all got it right in a roundabout sort of way. Comedian Jarlath Regan, a Kildareman, even wore a Mayo jersey for the occasion while making the point that Mayo were actually Lilywhites in disguise after losing the toss that left them wearing white jerseys, just like Kildare.READ MOREThe other star guests too were Mayo supporters, among them Down woman Rachel Duffy who won the UK Traitors, comedian Deirdre O’Kane, a Louthwoman, and Line of Duty actor Nigel Boyle – aka criminal mastermind H – who revealed he’d grown up in London playing Gaelic football for 13 years and was very much on the Mayo bandwagon.O’Kane didn’t go as far as to wear a Mayo jersey, but admitted: “I can’t help myself, I can’t not root for them.”Over on RTÉ, Joanne Cantwell asked one of the four wise men – Lee Keegan, Tomás Ó Sé, Niall Morgan and Peter Canavan – lined up beside her round table about Mayo’s white jerseys. “Ah there’s lots of speculation around superstitions and curses,” replied former Mayo great Keegan, “but they’re nice.”Former Mayo footballer Pádraig O'Hora, on TV duty with the BBC, celebrates with Matthew Ruane after the match. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho The Beeb pundits down pitchside didn’t have a round table but stood around their fancier version of discs piled upon discs as Sarah Mulkerrins got the pre-match thinkings of her own wise men Philly McMahon, Óisin McConville, Killian Young and O’Hora.“This is their Everest?” wondered Sarah of Mayo’s task in having to take on the might of Kerry and especially given the curse and all that, the words directed at O’Hora who actually has climbed Mount Everest. The real one. Although Philly McMahon, speaking like a Dub with eight All-Ireland medals in his pocket, brought the challenge facing Mayo down to ground level in his own way. “This season is absolutely bonkers, it wouldn’t surprise me if there is an upset,” said McMahon.Still, not really? Really?And the commentary teams – Marty Morrissey and Eamon Fitzmaurice on RTÉ, Thomas Niblock and Conor McManus on BBC – seemed to be singing off similar hymn sheets in the early stages as Kerry took the upper hand and David Clifford’s early goal made it seem like any thoughts of upsets belonged in the world of fiction. Niblock told us that Kerry’s scoring efficiency at that point was 83 per cent compared to Mayo’s 20 per cent. “World’s apart,” said Niblock, who later got quite excited as the match became a match and Mayo’s scoring efficiency improved. There was a discernible mood swing in his own expectations.The half-time talk by those wise men who know things showed a similar momentum swing. “I’d sooner be in the Mayo dressing room than the Kerry one,” said O’Hora who was actually grinning from ear to ear even with Mayo a point behind, adding: “Mayo are dictating how this game is going.”Mayo's Ryan O'Donoghue has a shot at the posts during the All-Ireland final against Kerry. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho Young wasn’t grinning from ear to ear as the former Kerry footballer claimed the Kingdom were “too ponderous,” sensing the “momentum has shifted. But there’s no need to panic. It’s not doomsday!”And then it seemed as if doomsday moved a step closer, for Kerry anyway. “Kerry were all over the shop,” roared Morrissey into his mic after Darragh Beirne’s second half goal put Mayo into the lead while Niblock on the Beeb talked of the need for “composure” from the men in white.Morrissey noted the workrate of Mayo’s players in hunting down Kerry and winning possession. “It’s a non-negotiable for whoever wants to win an All-Ireland,” replied Fitzmaurice. “The team that works hardest wins.”And RTÉ’s Morrissey could hardly contain himself as Mayo edged ever nearer to the win. “75 years of hunger are about to end. 1936, 1950, 1951, and surely now 2026. Listen to the roar. 2026! All the jokes about Mayo being losers? Delete! Delete! Delete! All that is over. Who cared about a person who never existed? Generations of Mayo people have lived and died and not seen what you are now seeing on your television screens,” said Morrissey in capturing the moment.And if Morrissey understandably was a little more than excited, O’Hora over on the BBC was rightfully so about his Mayomen not just scaling their Everest but going even higher. “It’s just about out of this world,” he said.