ANALYSIS: The five things that got Mayo to the All-Ireland final

THERE is a week of pure madness left in these borders before we all point the car at Croke Park, so forgive this columnist for looking backwards before looking forwards.

The story of how Mayo got to an All-Ireland final in Andy Moran's first year is stranger than most of us will admit out loud.

We were written off in April and again in June. And here we are, heading to HQ for a free shot at real Gaelic football romantics, Kerry.

Mayo have been as box office as ever. Oh, it’s great to be alive.

Here are five big moments that have got us to All-Ireland Final week.

1: ROSCOMMON, THE GENERATIONAL HIDING

We were three up at half time, 1-11 to 1-08, having played the majority of the football in the first half. Then Roscommon shot 1-17 in the second half.

Their first wide after the break did not arrive util the 65th minute. Diarmuid Murtagh giving a masterclass. Mayo were taken apart in their own patch and in front of its own people.

Forget the scoreline and remember the feeling. The Rossies bouncing around Castlebar like they had won Sam Maguire.

They had waited a long time and they were not shy about enjoying it. Fair play to them. A generational win for Roscommon and a generational hiding for us.

But in hindsight, it was the best thing to happen to this team. Not because defeat builds character, but because it forced Andy's hand.

Five changes for Monaghan. Rob Hennelly, Rory Brickenden and Aidan O’Shea the biggest victims. Jack Livingstone and Darragh Beirne handed championship debuts on the same afternoon in Clones.

Dropping O’Shea and Hennelly was a manager making the hardest call available to him and being proved right.

There is no version of this summer where Moran makes those calls in a county where things are going well. Two incredible servants to their county, and probably unlucky with how it unfolded.​

2: OMAGH, THE LOSS WE NEEDED

I was in a foul humour after Omagh and I wrote it in these pages. Sam Callinan fisted us a point up with two minutes on the clock when a sure goal that would have put the game to bed was on.

A couple of minutes later, Niall Morgan strolled up and put a two-point free over from his out under the stand. Aidan O'Shea's late shot dropped short and it capped a miserable day.

We threw that game away with poor decisions when the game was there to be closed out and I stand over every word of it.

And yet.

Look at what Tyrone got for beating us. Kerry in the quarter-final, a game that went to the hooter. Credit to them, they emptied themselves and just fell short.

Mayo took the scenic route. Meath in Round 3, Cork in the quarter-final, Louth in the semi-final. As it turned out, three games this young team probably needed more than it needed a shortcut.

Was it luck? Of course. And Lord Mayo are due it. The difference is what you do with it, and a group humiliated in April used them well.​

3: LIVINGSTONE, OUT OF NOWHERE

Cast your mind back to March and ask who Mayo's number one was. Rob Hennelly had started eight of the previous nine. Jack Livingstone had one league start, Round 7 against Roscommon.

He made his championship debut in Clones and pulled off a string of saves that made him impossible to drop.

Against Cork he diverted a Chris Óg Jones effort for a 45, then got a hand to a Brian O'Driscoll drive heading for the net with Mayo three up. Two more game-deciding saves.

The Breaffy man has the temperament of a lad who has been doing it a decade. No fuss, no theatrics and he is a shoo-in for an All Star now in what is such a short distance travelled.

4: BEIRNE, THE ONE WE NEEDED MOST

Full disclosure. Darragh Beirne is a red-headed left footer, which makes him everything I wanted to be and came nowhere close to being. Take my opinion with whatever pinch of salt you feel is appropriate.

Almost all the noise this year has gone to Kobe McDonald, and rightly. Kobe-mania is real and he has earned it.

But Beirne is arguably the player we needed more.

A left-footed forward who plays inside. It changes the angles, it changes where you deliver the ball, it changes what a corner back has to think about and the overall dynamic of the team.

He hit 0-4 on debut against Monaghan, including a two-point free. He was man of the match against Cork at 19 years of age. Against Louth he scored 1-2 before coming off injured and in that first half he tore the Wee County asunder .

There is a serious career in front of him.

5: CONROY, THE WEAPON COMING BACK

Last week in these pages I made the case for Ryan O'Donoghue being our most important player.

But one of the most encouraging sights of this summer has been his old under-20 teammate coming back to life.

Anyone who was in Croke Park in 2021 saw peak Tommy Conroy and how he played a pivotal role in downing the greatest team of all time. He looked unplayable and a man who would lead the line for Mayo for years to come.

Unfortunately, as happens his body turned on him and he has struggled to replicate that form since.

But now he’s beginning to look like the Conroy of old and is Mayo’s super sub. A big headache for Jack O’Connor.

If Mayo get over the line next Sunday, Conroy's fingerprints will be somewhere on it. He is starting to look like himself again, and himself was some footballer.