Joe Brolly weighs in on Mayo's latest heartbreak: 'The culture is all wrong'
Mayo were knocked out of the All-Ireland after a loss to Donegal on the hooter having clawed back to level the game with 20 seconds to go, which would have seen the Green & Red go through.
The fixing of the game for Dr Hyde Park in Roscommon ruffled some feathers in the Donegal camp with Jim McGuinness outraged at the travel time for his side.
Speaking on his Free State podcast, Brolly landed a jibe at Mayo's supporters for their unwavering hope, saying "They're a funny lot you know, the culture is all wrong, they're fundamentally not serious.
"People from Mayo suffer from an incurable genetic condition, MHOS, Mayo Hopeless Optimists Syndrome.
"The thing about them is that they can beat anybody, unless it's a final, and they have beaten everybody. So when a wee farmer from Bohola is painting his sheep red and green on the eve of an All-Ireland final, filled with euphoria, certain in the knowledge that on Monday Mayo will be champions, and his sheep will bleat triumphantly as the Mayo bus and cavalcade pass by on the way to the victory celebration.
"On the Monday he has already forgotten because of MHOS and he's already looking forward, filled with the thrill of being All-Ireland champions in 2026, Mayo for Sam 2026.
"It's a great way to be I suppose, but they're not serious, you know what I mean, they're not serious."
When compared with Scotland's World Cup sides of years gone by, Brolly said: "The difference is that Scotland are a plucky underdog, Mayo is a superpower of Gaelic football, and the problem is that the culture's wrong.
"It was exemplified by Donegal's winning score. Ten seconds to go, Mayo get the equaliser, they work really hard, just frantic all-out effort to turn Donegal over.
"Donegal were really just trying to hold possession for the last two-and-a-half minutes, Mayo turned them over and they come forward, and with ten seconds to go they kick the equaliser... so they knew that - they had to know - that 'as long as we don't concede a score we're through to the knockout phase.'
"A kickout comes, Donegal win it, Mayo don't foul, it's passed on to Ciarán Moore, who's sort of a human horse who must've stampeded up the pitch 120 metres at least 20 times... and so Moore takes off up the side line, and they let him go, and he gets in and kicks the winning score and Mayo are gone.
"And had that been Mayo taking that kickout, a Donegal man would most certainly have stopped him in his tracks as soon as the ball was won... Donegal work on these things whereas Mayo are just hopeful.
"It was all to no avail as we knew it would be, because they're fundamentally not serious, they're not there to win, that's ultimately not why they're there."
Undoubtedly it has been a tough pill for the Mayo side and supporters, but had they waited for the hooter they could have worked the equaliser as a buzzer beater. Did the tension of the moment ultimately get to the side under Stephen Rochford's temporary care?
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