Television

RTÉ2 broadcast the match live on The Sunday Game Live with coverage beginning at 2.15pm. The programme was presented by Joanne Cantwell who was joined by analysts Lee Keegan, Niall Morgan, Peter Canavan and Tomás Ó Sé. Commentary on the game was by Marty Morrissey and Éamonn Fitzmaurice.^[36]

The match was also broadcast live by BBC Two Northern Ireland with coverage beginning at 3pm. Sarah Mulkerrins presented the programme and was joined by Oisín McConville, Philly McMahon, Killian Young and Pádraig O'Hora for analysis. Match commentary was provided by Thomas Niblock along with Conor McManus.^[37]

RTÉ2's coverage was also simulcasted around the world via GAA+, the GAA's paid streaming service.

Officials

On 15 July the GAA announced that the referee for the Final would be Martin McNally of Monaghan. It was his first time reffing the All-Ireland final having been Standby Official for the 2025 final. His Line Umpires were Seán Hurson of Tyrone, who was the Standby Official, and Thomas Murphy of Galway. Seán Lonergan of Tipperary was the Sideline Official while Killian Jones (Kildare) was the Hawk-eye Official and Marty Duffy^{[clarification needed]} (Sligo) the Timekeeper.^[38]

Colours

Both counties' traditional colours required one county to wear a change strip; with both counties also having a predominantly blue clash jersey it was agreed that a coin toss would be used to decide who would wear their home kit and who would change. Kerry won the toss and wore their traditional green and gold kit. Kerry's 2026 kit is a darker shade of green than previous years and it was deemed to conflict with Mayo's navy alternative kit; as a result, Mayo wore a one-off all-white kit similar to what they wore when they last won the All-Ireland SFC title in 1951. The kit was based on a 75th anniversary tribute shirt Mayo had worn during their 2026 League campaign, except with their modern crest replacing a period-appropriate badge and the current sponsors Intersport Elverys printed on the front and Portwest printed on the back.^[39]

Team selection

On the Thursday before the final Kerry manager Jack O'Connor named the same starting 15 players that started the semi-final against Dublin, with captain Paul Geaney returning to the matchday squad on the bench.^[40]

Mayo named their team the following day with Andy Moran making one change to the starting line-up from their semi-final victory over Louth as Conor Loftus replaced Paul Towey.^[41]

Both sides had late injuries on the day of the game, with Mayo losing Stephen Coen (replaced by Diarmuid O'Connor). John MacMonagle took O'Connor's place on the bench. Mayo also started Paul Towey instead of Conor Loftus. Kerry replaced the injured Diarmuid O'Connor with Tom O'Sullivan, whose place on the bench went to Cillian Trant.^[42]

As Kerry captain Paul Geaney started on the bench, David Clifford was selected to act as captain on the field.^[43]

Sponsorship protest

David Hickey, a three-time All-Ireland SFC winner with Dublin, refused to attend the GPA's "Legends Lunch", a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Dublin's 1976 championship-winning team. Hickey, along with others protested at Jones' Road prior to the game against the GAA's continued sponsorship relationship with Allianz, arguing that the GAA had failed to oppose the company's indirect links to Israel.^[44]

Jubilee team

Prior to the start of the match the Galway team of 2001 was presented to the crowd to mark the 25th anniversary of their All-Ireland title win over Meath. Their manager that day was John O'Mahony of Mayo. Galway's Paul Clancy, who had died the previous month (on 22 June), was represented by his son Finn.^[45][46]

Summary

After 16 minutes, Kerry led by a scoreline of 1–5 to 0–1, David Clifford scored the goal for Kerry in the 15th minute when he received a pass on the right before cutting in and going past the Mayo goalkeeper before finishing to the net. David McBrien had got Mayo's solitary seventh-minute point.^[48] Mayo, who had led the All-Ireland series in two-point scores, found going tough early as they kicked towards Hill 16 in the first half with multiple efforts from beyond the arc dropping short. The momentum would eventually shift during the second quarter of the game as Mayo's pressure allowed them to win the ball from kick-outs and chip away at Kerry's advantage; Kerry led at half-time by a scoreline of 1–8 to 0–10, the pick of Mayo's scores the respective two-pointers of Ryan O'Donoghue and Jack Carney.^[48]

In the second half Mayo dominated possession and it was Kobe McDonald who put Mayo ahead for the first time, the score 0–12 to 1–8. In the 40th minute, Darragh Beirne scored a goal for Mayo following a well-worked passage of play to extend the advantage to four points. Jack Carney would later hit another two-pointer to give Mayo a five-point cushion, their biggest lead of the day.^[48] Mayo's shooting touch would run cold, though, with multiple wides opening the door for Kerry to mount a comeback. With three minutes to go, David and Paudie Clifford had succeeded in bringing Kerry to within two points, with the score at 1–19 to 1–17.^[48] Kerry had several chances to draw level late, including a missed two-pointer by Seán O'Shea, and with less than a minute Mayo took advantage of Kerry's aggressive offensive shape to gain possession and head on the break. Kobe McDonald elected not to take the ball to the corner and run out the clock but instead passed it off to Tommy Conroy, who would fist over an insurance score with practically no time left for Kerry to reply.^[48] Mayo won by a scoreline of 1–20 to 1–17.^[49][50]

Mayo substitute Rory Brickenden had to swap the number 18 jersey he was mistakenly wearing for the correct number 19 jersey in the 55th minute of the game. The number 18 jersey belonged to Paddy Durcan.^[51]

Details

Mayo v Kerry

RTÉ2 BBC Two NI

26 July 2026 (2026-07-26) 15:30 IST (UTC+1) Final

Report

Mayo	1–20 (23) – (20) 1–17	Kerry
(HT: 0–10 – 1–8)
Gls: D Beirne 1 Pts: R O'Donoghue 5 (2x2p, 1f), J Carney 4 (2x2p), K McDonald 3 (1 '45'), D Beirne 3 (2fs), T Conroy 2, D McBrien 1, J Flynn , S Callinan 1		Gls: D Clifford 1 Pts: D Clifford 6 (1x2p), P Clifford 3 (1 '45'), Seán O'Shea 3, J O'Connor 1, D Casey 1, G O'Sullivan 1, K Evans 1, T O'Sullivan 1

Croke Park, Dublin Referee: Martin McNally (Monaghan) Attendance: 82,300 Standby: Seán Hurson (Tyrone) Linesman: Thomas Murphy (Galway) Sideline: Seán Lonergan (Tipperary) Umpires: Ben Woods, Niall Reilly, Mark Gilsenan and Anthony Marron (all Corduff Gaels)

Mayo

Kerry

GK 1 Jack Livingstone FB 2 Jack Coyne (c) FB 3 Donnacha McHugh FB 4 Eoin McGreal  53' HB 5 Sam Callinan  65' HB 6 David McBrien HB 7 Enda Hession MF 8 Bob Tuohy  53' MF 9 Jack Carney HF 24 Diarmuid O'Connor  58' HF 23 Paul Towey  24' HF 12 Jordan Flynn  22' FF 13 Darragh Beirne FF 14 Ryan O'Donoghue FF 15 Kobe McDonald Substitutes: 16 Rob Hennelly 17 Fenton Kelly 18 Paddy Durcan  65' 19 Rory Brickenden  53' 20 Conal Dawson 21 Aidan O'Shea 22 Matthew Ruane  53' 11 Conor Loftus  58' 10 John MacMonagle 25 Tommy Conroy  24' 26 Cian McHale Manager: Andy Moran

GK 1 Shane Murphy FB 2 Paul Murphy  61' FB 3 Jason Foley FB 4 Dylan Casey 28' to 30' HB 5 Graham O'Sullivan HB 6 Mike Breen HB 7 Gavin White  59' MF 8 Mark O'Shea MF 9 Seán O'Brien  63' HF 10 Joe O'Connor HF 11 Seán O'Shea HF 25 Tom O'Sullivan  36' FF 13 Paudie Clifford FF 14 David Clifford (c) FF 15 Dylan Geaney 11' to 15'  51' Substitutes: 16 Shane Ryan 17 Evan Looney 28' to 30'  61' 18 Tomás Kennedy  51' 19 Keith Evans 11' to 15'  36' 20 Paul Geaney (c) 21 Armin Heinrich 22 Brian Ó Beaglaoich  59' 23 Tadhg Morley 24 Micheál Burns  63' 12 Cillian Trant 26 Killian Spillane Manager: Jack O'Connor

Awards

During Mayo's banquet at the Hilton hotel, on the night of the game, GAA President Jarlath Burns presented the Man of the Match trophy to Ryan O'Donoghue, after RTÉ announced him as winner on The Sunday Game.^[55][56]

The TV programme also gave Ryan O'Donoghue its player of the season award. The Sunday Game named O'Donoghue and six others from Mayo on its Team of the Year, as well as four Kerry players and one each from Dublin, Louth, Westmeath and Tyrone.^[55]

Reaction

Marty Morrissey's call of the final seconds and aftermath on RTÉ:

"...Seventy-five years of heartbreak are about to end! 1936, 1950, 1951, and surely now, 2026! Listen to the roar! Seventy-five years of heartbreak is OVER!! Mayo are the All-Ireland Senior Football Champions 2026!"

Martin Carney, a former Mayo player who was commentating on the match for MidWest Radio, went viral in all the excitement, and responded by stating he was “embarrassed completely”, but that he had got “a big kiss” from a woman "blowing full on" in the middle of it all.^[57] The sounds emanating from Carney at full-time were described as being of the sort “that if you heard them in any other scenario, you'd be calling for an ambulance or a very experienced vet”^[58]

International media covered the ‘breaking’ of the curse. Shivam Pathak of ESPN noted Paddy Prendergast, Mayo's last surviving player from 1951, had died two weeks after the 2021 final, the last one contested by Mayo before 2026.^[59] Writing for ABC News (Australia), Andrew McGarry said that "this year was the first opportunity to win the biggest game of the season since the elements of the curse had been met."^[60]

Among the dignitaries to message the winning team were former United States President Joe Biden and sitting Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, both of whom are descended from Mayo emigrants. Reactions also came from the world of music including Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher and Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs from the band Oasis, whose mothers are Mayo natives, and from other sports including golf, association football and rugby union.^[61][62]

Celebrations

Tens of thousands attended a homecoming event at MacHale Park in Castlebar the day after the final, where the team arrived just after 6.15pm after travelling by train from Dublin having previously completed the now-traditional champions' visit to Crumlin Children's Hospital.^{[63][64][65][66][67]} The celebration in Castlebar kicked off a week-long trophy tour, with the team bus stopping for festivities in Ballyhaunis (hometown of captain Jack Coyne) as well as planned visits to the Ballina Stephenites, Belmullet, Ballaghaderreen and Claremorris clubs, the home clubs of Sam Callinan, Ryan O'Donoghue, Andy Moran, and Darragh Beirne respectively.^[68][69]