With Mayo just 70 minutes away from All-Ireland glory, former midfielder David Brady says the players' decision to vote against last season’s joint-management team was a “brave” move.
The 2015 Connacht champions, under the guidance of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes, reached the semi-finals last year, drawing with Dublin before losing the replay.
The duo subsequently stepped down, one year into a three-year term, after the majority of the panel expressed no confidence in the ticket.
Brady reckons that display of ‘player power’ has meant that a lot of the country’s goodwill, the “shine, the grá and the love”, towards Stephen Rochford's underdogs has evaporated but commended the managers for how they dealt with the situation.
“The players showed a lot of bravery,” Brady told RTÉ Sport’s GAA podcast Jones’ Road.
“That wasn’t an off-the-cuff decision by one or two. It was a brave collective move. As a group, I think you have to admire them, and I do.
“Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes, by Jaysus, they weren’t far away from where we are now and it was minutes.
“Mayo would not be in an All-Ireland final if it wasn’t for Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes – the way they conducted themselves, they more or less supported the players.
“They went, ‘if that’s your will we are not going to drag things through mud’. They are good footballing men.
“Has the move worked? Look it, I’m not going to say if Mayo win an All-Ireland that the move would have worked. It’s something that happened. Everyone needs to learn from it."
Sunday will see Mayo, looking for their first victory since 1951, contest the Sam Maguire decider for the third time in the last five years.
Standing in their way of, course, are the champions, Jim Gavin’s Dublin, last beaten in a competitive fixture in February 2015.
So formidable is the Dublin juggernaut at full throttle, some use phrases like ‘the greatest football team of all time’ to describe the side, who claimed the trophy in 2011, 2013 and 2015.
However, Brady, who contested nine All-Ireland finals between club and county, dismisses that notion.
“They don’t deserve that title at the minute because they haven’t won the All-Ireland, they haven’t won two in a row,” he said. “That’s a massive step.”
