'Croke Park is the best place in the world' - Mayo's Eoin McGreal

The year 2026 has been one hell of a journey for young Eoin McGreal.

When the phone rang a few months ago and Andy Moran was on the other end, welcoming him into the fold, it was a moment to cherish for himself, his family and Garrymore as a club.

However, things turned sour for the cub when he picked up an injury mere minutes into his first National League game against Galway in Pearse Stadium.

If you’d told anyone that Mayo would be hoisting the Sam Maguire cup aloft on July 26 when supporters were streaming out the MacHale Park gates early while Roscommon inflicted misery, they’d have laughed in your face.

If you’d told them a buck who’d never played a championship game for his county before the latter stages of the competition would do a job on Paudie Clifford, they’d have called you stone mad altogether.

However, for Eoin McGreal, it was all in a day’s work.

“It was a tough task, but nerves never really bother me. I was visualising what he was going to do and how he was going to do it. He’s a great player, and we’ll have to say what other people say, but I was happy enough,” McGreal told The Mayo News.

There were many doubters who were transformed into believers in the blink of an eye, but if you were looking for believers from the offset in 2026, there was no shortage of them among Andy Moran’s battalion.

“We felt it from the start of the year. This was our goal, to be in Croke Park. We’d our eyes on the All-Ireland, and we’ve done everything we said we’d do.

“I was biting my nails a small bit at the end, but I always believed we would win this. There was never a doubt in my mind.”

A lot has been written about the weight of past traumas on Mayo in decades gone by, and the emotional baggage.

However, the class of 2026 is a new era, unburdened by the battle scars of those who carried the mantle for 75 years. That notion shone when speaking to a serious baller with a whole career at the top ahead of him.

‘We don’t know the half of it, myself, Darragh and Kobe; it probably means a lot more for that other bunch, but for now it hasn’t sunk in yet.

“It is surreal. After the game, you look up at the crowd and remember the days as a young lad yourself; I’d be coming to see Andy and Cillian and all those older bucks.

“It’s the best feeling in the world; I could say that Croke Park was the best place in the world.”

Here’s hoping it’s a happy hunting ground for many years to come. The sky is the limit for Eoin McGreal, and the potential is boundless.