Denis WalshFootballer of the Year: Ryan O’Donoghue (Mayo). O’Donoghue has been a terrific footballer for many years, but this season he took his game to another level. He orchestrated a Mayo attack that needed his leadership and repeatedly took games by the scruff of the neck. In the final weeks of the season, he managed the big moments in Croke Park that shaped Mayo’s destiny.Best game of the championship: Before Sunday, Gaelic football had the longest ever shortlist of candidates for this accolade. Sunday in Croke Park, though, blew every other game out of the water. There were higher scoring matches and games with bigger scoreboard swings or last- minute twists, but nothing to compare with the excruciating tension and unfathomable joy. Memorable moment: Darragh Beirne’s goal on Sunday was a glorious expression of everything Mayo wanted to say with their football this year. At one end of the field David McBrien forced a turnover, and incredibly made up the ground to score the scoring pass. In between they ran at Kerry with murder on their minds as soon as the line was broken. Beirne’s finish was the epitome of teenage cool.Darragh Beirne celebrates after scoring a goal for Mayo. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho Biggest disappointment: Donegal’s failure to build on their victory over Kerry in Tralee. Losing at home to Down in the Ulster championship might have been written off as an unaccountable blip, but losing at home to Cork was a red light on the dashboard that Dublin later exploited. In 2027, I would like to see: After the greatest football season of all-time? More. More. More.Malachy ClerkinFootballer of the Year: Ryan O’Donoghue (Mayo). David Clifford was exceptional again and Jack Carney was a totem for Mayo all year, but Ryan O’Donoghue was extraordinary on Sunday, as he had been throughout the campaign. Led from the front with fearless tackling, incessant probing and dead-eyed finishing. Set the tone for everything Mayo did and everything they are.Best game of the championship: Westmeath’s win over Dublin in the Leinster final. So much for the Leinster Championship being a bust. For the second year in a row, someone other than Dublin won, something that will take a long time to get old. Westmeath had it won, threw it away, and then came out and blew Dublin off the pitch in extra-time. John Heslin’s return, Senan Baker’s coolness, Matthew Whitaker and Ronan Wallace raiding from deep. A jailbreak of a day.Westmeath celebrating after defeating Dublin in the Leinster final. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Memorable moment: Jack Coyne’s speech after accepting the Sam Maguire Cup. An incredible championship got the most eternal, enduring outcome possible. For years to come, nothing in the GAA will be as memorable as being in Croke Park on the day Mayo finally won their All-Ireland. As captain, Coyne met the moment with passion, class and defiance. “To every young boy and girl across Mayo and our diaspora across the world, never stop dreaming. Stick your chest out and be proud to be from Mayo,” he roared. Perfect.Biggest disappointment: Ulster teams falling back. For the first time in a decade, there were no Ulster teams in the All-Ireland semi-finals. Nobody will have bigger regrets than Armagh, for whom life would have been so different if Sam Mulroy’s potshot hadn’t dropped into the net in Inniskeen. Tyrone were probably the only northern team who played above themselves. Donegal were a muddle, Monaghan couldn’t beat Louth with a man advantage, Cavan and Derry were gone before it started. New ideas needed.In 2027, I would like to see: Teams copy Mayo. The football championship has traditionally been a cogfest, with everybody looking at what the All-Ireland winners did and trying to copy their homework. Let’s hope that’s the case now and that more teams try to press high, to tackle like demons, to go for low-percentage shots and not worry about the consequences. It’s high-octane, mistake-ridden and so much fun to watch. More please!Seán MoranFootballer of the year: Ryan O’Donoghue (Mayo). O’Donoghue was still long-odds going into the All-Ireland final but that was because everyone was unsure how to place his performances in contest. Overpowering against Louth in the semi-final, well what were the opponents really like? People get worked up over recency bias in All-Ireland finals but these are the very occasions that define a season. On Sunday, O’Donoghue delivered a tour de force, exemplified by the driving run that created Mayo’s goal. It showcased everything about his attitude: belligerent, athletic and determined to make every moment count.Kerry's Paudie Clifford in action against Mayo's Eoin McGreal during the All-Ireland final. Photograph: Tom O’Hanlon/Inpho Best game of the championship: Perhaps the All-Ireland final. Leaving aside its epoch-making outcome, it showed the impact of an energetic, fearless game plan. Mayo surged, buoyed by their successes against a disrupted Kerry, but it appeared for a while as if the Clifford brothers might keep the champions afloat. That possibility lived until the dying seconds, even though it would have been larceny.Memorable moment: Very hard to look beyond the huge impact of Sam Mulroy’s dropping ball in the last minute that ended in a handling calamity and the winning goal for Louth against Armagh. In a matter of seconds, the Ulster champions went from being All-Ireland quarter-finalists to finding themselves on the road to Killarney six days later to win a place in the last eight. That did not work out for the best.Biggest disappointment: Louth tripped up against Dublin in Leinster but redeemed their season by beating their opponents in the first round of the All-Ireland. In the fullness of time, they found themselves in an All-Ireland semi-final and despite a great consensus that they might move forward, Louth ended up as fodder for Mayo. A bit more experience and a little more luck might have seen them arm-wrestle the eventual champions a bit more successfully but it ended up as another terribly one-sided All-Ireland semi-final.Conor Loftus celebrates scoring Mayo's third goal against Louth during the All-Ireland semi-final. Photograph: Tom O’Hanlon/Inpho In 2027, I would like to see: Some attempt to trial television review technology. With clearly incorrect decisions being made, some ability to provide corrective measures would be welcome and not necessarily too long-winded to get in the way of a quick adjudication of contentious issues.Gordon ManningFootballer of the year: Ryan O’Donoghue (Mayo). A battering ram of a player. His leadership all season was visible in how he played the game. His aggressiveness, tackling, energy and desire was ever-present. When Mayo looked rocky early on Sunday, O’Donoghue was one of the key players in turning the tide. He delivered a defiant summer, and we haven’t even mentioned his scoring tally of 2-56 yet.Best game of the championship: You can argue that the Tailteann Cup is not the championship, but still, the most extraordinary match of the summer was Wicklow’s Tailteann Cup final victory over Down. Oisín McConville’s side trailed by 13 points early in the second half and staged the comeback of all comebacks to win, 1-21 to 2-16. Honourable mention for Louth’s performance in their win over Monaghan.Mayo's Kobe McDonald (left) and Kerry's Dylan Casey (right) react after the final hooter. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho Memorable moment: The scenes after the hooter in the All-Ireland final. Recency bias it might well be, but the emotion in the stadium after Mayo’s win was truly something special. We all know people cry after every All-Ireland final, but on Sunday a people cried. It was the most beautiful experience of happiness and it was a privilege to be there to see what a sense of place can mean.Biggest disappointment: The unsightly mess that developed over Ger Brennan’s 12-week suspension. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs on all sides, it’s disappointing any situation reaches the point where a serving intercounty manager is releasing a legal statement through a solicitor in response to comments made by the GAA president. It’s not what the association should be about.In 2027, I would like to see: Kobe McDonald playing for Mayo. From a totally selfish point of view, we would all like to see more of the talented teenager on these shores. Still, if any young footballer was given the opportunity to play a professional sport in Australia, of course they should embrace it if it’s something they’d like to do. If that’s what McDonald wants, may he go well.Ian O’RiordanFootballer of the Year: Ryan O’Donoghue (Mayo). After the opening 17 minutes of Sunday’s final there was only one name left in the running for this, David Clifford helping Kerry build a 1-5 to 0-1 lead over Mayo when scoring his first goal in an All-Ireland final. But from that point on, O’Donoghue was unquestionably the best player on the pitch, soaring above all others in attack and defence, cementing his defining place in Mayo’s historic season. Their indefatigable and spiritual leader, his calmness within the madness never let them down.Mayo's Ryan O'Donoghue during the All-Ireland final. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho Best game of the championship: After a football season that kept riding wave after wave of its own relentless thrills, it was only fitting that it finished with the big kahuna, a final for the ages, perfectly scripted to capture Mayo’s 75-year wait for the title. Complete underdogs and in danger of being out of sight after 15 minutes, Mayo’s resistance and subsequent onslaught as Kerry also refused to back down was sporting theatre at its magical best.Memorable moment: After yet another of Wicklow’s moral victories in the Leinster championship, losing to Dublin in a quarter-final they dominated for long periods, their rise again in the Tailteann Cup was a fairytale for the county. The manner of their final win over Down, coming from 13 points behind early in the second half, Dean Healy leading the way, left the Garden County in glorious full bloom.Biggest disappointment: Given the exciting nature and bold statement of their Connacht championship run, including a convincing win over Mayo, and culminating in the thrilling comeback win over Galway in the final, it was hard not to sense the disappointment for Roscommon when their Sam Maguire campaign fizzled out. Hopefully this won’t put them off defending their provincial title next year.In 2027, I would like to see: Ger Brennan speaks from the heart, as was clear again when the Dublin manager made his impassioned plea for further use of video-assisted technology after their semi-final defeat to Kerry. Three key decisions went against Dublin, including Ross McGarry’s late shot at goal, adjudged not to have crossed the line despite replay to the contrary. It can’t be that complicated to double-check these sort of calls in 2027, can it?