Mayo manager Andy Moran had little option but to be magnanimous in defeat after his side were thoroughly outplayed by Roscommon in their Connacht SFC semi-final in Castlebar, admitting that the visitors were the hungrier team.
Roscommon caught fire in the second half to inflict a chastening 2-25 to 1-18 defeat on Moran's side and can look forward to a provincial final against Galway on Sunday 10 May at Dr Hyde Park.
Mayo led by 1-11 to 1-08 at the interval, but the Rossies proved a far more formidable foe after the break.
'Roscommon were the hungrier team,' Mayo manager Andy Moran admits in his post-match interview pic.twitter.com/JnrV8cEjjK
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) April 26, 2026
"Roscommon were hungrier for the ball today than us, and that's the most disappointing thing for me," Moran, in his first season in charge of his native county, told RTÉ Sport.
"We know now with the new rules that you need to be good on your own kickout, exceptionally good on their kickouts, and you need to win the breaking ball.
"Unfortunately today, it felt like we got well beaten."
On the challenges he faces and the increasingly unpredictable nature of the football landscape, Moran added: "We do know that we are in the first year of a process.
"We came in—we didn’t sign a one-year deal—we came in for three years to build.
"You see with the new rules, you saw with Galway v Leitrim last week, and the result today up in Ulster; if you are not on it and you’re not really focused on what you need to do, unfortunately, you’ll get results like today."
Moran's opposite number Mark Dowd and his Roscommon team have previously struggled in midfield against Mayo, but their play in the middle of the park proved a platform to build from on Sunday afternoon, and they bossed the battle for dirty ball.
"When we played Mayo already twice this year, they really dominated us around the midfield area," Dowd said.
"That was really important for us; we wanted to get hands on the ball there. It was something we went after."
Victorious Roscommon manager Mark Dowd admits his side took midfield lessons from earlier defeats to Mayo pic.twitter.com/22r8QpSgpf
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) April 26, 2026
Roscommon won by such a commanding margin that it is easy to forget that they didn't get the scoreboard ticking over until the 11th minute, with Diarmuid Murtagh finding the back of the net in a man-of-the-match display.
"That first 10 minutes, I don’t think we had a score on the board until the goal from Diarmuid," Dowd added.
"It probably got us going, and it was a case of just taking it play by play."
