OPINION: In Mayo sport, it appears the only thing worth celebrating is the Sam Maguire

IN the hours following Donegal’s recent Ulster final win over Armagh, team manager Jimmy McGuinness and his captain Paddy McBrearty carried the Anglo Celt Cup across the bridge in Pettigo and back into their beloved county. The new champions were home with the spoils of war and it was time to celebrate.
Later that night, in front of thousands of supporters in Donegal town, McGuinness told the world that the next objective for his team was Sam Maguire. “After winning the League and then winning the Ulster Championship, there is only one thing left. That is the reality. We will go after that with everything we have,” he told the joyous gathering.
It was refreshing to see the people of Donegal celebrate such a momentous occasion and hear their team manager speak about the dreams and objectives he and his team were chasing.
A week earlier, Galway players, management and supporters had gleefully celebrated winning the Connacht final in Salthill. To see the raucous way Padraic Joyce and his backroom team celebrated when Connor Gleeson drove over the winning point was tough from a Mayo point of view but wondrous for those with a maroon hue to their vision.
In the days after that match I encountered numerous Mayo people who wondered why Galway celebrated winning the provincial title so joyously. They pondered why the young men from the land of the Corrib and Claddagh showed their enjoyment so publicly. “There’s still a lot of football to be played this year and they should be concentrating on that,” these learned commentators explained.
I presume they were even more perturbed when they saw McGuinness, McBrearty and the Donegal lads celebrating on the border in Pettigo and later in Donegal town. Enjoying such moments doesn’t fit the thought process of numerous people in the circles I inhabit.
However, I love the fact that everyone associated with Galway and Donegal made such a big deal of important occasions. It also put me thinking about our thought process here in Mayo.
Would we have carried the Nestor Cup across the bridge in Shrule if we had beaten Galway? Would our backroom team have launched a semi-invasion of the Pearse Stadium pitch if Colm Reape had drilled over the winning point instead of his Galway counterpart? 
I feel the answer to both questions would be ‘No’.
Why is that? Why would Mayo people not celebrate a provincial final victory in the manner of Galway and Donegal? Are we immune to such victories? Do we hold off on raw emotion unless we win Sam Maguire? Are we arrogant, or are we so damaged from losing All-Ireland finals that the joy has been drained out of us?
The connection between the Mayo public and our senior football team seems broken. Team manager Kevin McStay made an impassioned plea for green and red supporters to pack Pearse Stadium for the Connacht final, but his words seem to have fallen on deaf ears.
The majority of fans in Salthill for the big game wore maroon and white. Two weeks earlier, Mayo had played Roscommon in Hyde Park, and I doubt if any Mayo supporter left the stadium having tested their vocal chords to the limit. The sedate applause that greeted the Mayo team when they ran out before the game wouldn’t have gone astray in a library.
Where has our joy gone? Do we not dream the dream any more? The fabulous, frantic, fantasy-laden journey Mayo supporters travelled for more than a decade seems to have stuttered to an end, and there’s a certain sadness about that as we watch Galway and Donegal embrace joy and live in the moment.
Is that concept alien to us? Can we not enjoy life for what it is? Can we not just have the craic and recognise good times when they occur? The mantra that the only thing worth celebrating is Sam Maguire is hollow. Galway and Donegal have won the big prize in recent times and they can still find it within themselves to enjoy lesser achievements. 
It’s a pity we have lost our sense of fun and enjoyment.