Can Mayo end 70 years of hurt?

Seven decades and 10 final defeats have intensified their yearning for Sam Maguire. Tyrone await in the decider with the Connacht champions now marginal favourites having eventually vanquished Dublin . . . what could possibly go wrong?

‘The middle of the last decade was when the sheer need for Mayo to win the Sam Maguire became an internet phenomenon. Seeing #Mayo4Sam in a Tinder profile became a perfectly normal thing’

The wait is known to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Gaelic games. Mayo’s senior footballers head into Croke Park this Saturday with a rare case of expectation rather than hope. Tyrone will be anything but pushovers yet Mayo are in the rare position of being narrow favourites at the bookies. It’s a role they are unaccustomed to although that’s not to diminish the hope of prior sides.

The drought

After 1951, Mayo had ...