Colm Boyle is done talking about the past. That’s a foreign land now. A place of All-Ireland final heartbreak and recriminations and curses. May it be forever damned.As a player, Boyle experienced only the gut-punch of loss on All-Ireland final days at Croke Park, but on Sunday he was part of a Mayo management team guiding the county to history.For Boyle, Andy Moran and Keith Higgins, there had to be some form of redemption in that achievement. However, Boyle believes Sunday’s success now draws a line in raking through the ashes of those defeats.“When we talk about Mayo football, people always talk about the past and the past experiences and the tough days,” he says. “For me now, what the boys did on Sunday, the most important thing for me out of this, it’s not about the past any longer, it’s about the future. It’s about what these boys have done for the next generation now. “Please God, Mayo are in an All-Ireland final again in the next couple of years and if so, there’s going to be very little pressure on us in it. We’ll just go and play.“The shackles are off, you can go and compete. You don’t have to worry about carrying the hopes of a county, of ending a so-called curse that was just non-existent anyway. That’s the key thing for me now, the boys have just lifted all barriers, all bets are off now, you can just go and play.”Mayo selector Colm Boyle lifts the Sam Maguire Cup at Croke Park last Sunday. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Mayo’s place in the story of Gaelic football as the perennial bridesmaids had been wearing thin for many years – and the poster on that theme briefly displayed in Kerry prior to the final certainly didn’t go unnoticed. Sunday’s win binned all that talk for good as well.“It’s funny, if you met someone from outside of Mayo, from down the country and you said you’re from Mayo, they nearly half feel sorry for you and half take the mickey out of you at the same time, do you know what I mean? “But now all of that is gone because people are going to say, ‘Oh Mayo, they won the All-Ireland in 2026′. So all of that is gone, people can be proud. People are always proud to be from Mayo, don’t get me wrong, but now you can stick your chest out and say, ‘yeah, we’re All-Ireland champions’. And that’s the big thing for me; they’ve changed the landscape now of what’s possible. “Young players in Mayo growing up, they’ll always know this day happened and they can just go and achieve and chase their dreams. They’ve seen it done now so it’s not this impossible thing that can’t be done – they’ve actually seen it done and the boys showed how it’s done. “It’s not about the heartbreaks. The past is the past, we’ve done it now and it’s about moving on and what can we do in the future is the next big question.”Mayo selectors Keith Higgins (left) and Colm Boyle let the moment sink in after last Sunday's All-Ireland SFC final win against Kerry at Croke Park. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho As for the game itself, Boyle hasn’t had a chance to watch it back in any great detail. He remembers the two-pointers by Jack Carney and Ryan O’Donoghue in the first half and Darragh Beirne’s goal in the second.The impact of the green and red-clad fans in the stands and on Hill 16 was not lost on Boyle either.“I remember John Kiely, after their semi-final against Clare, he was on about the Limerick supporters saying, ‘You better support us in the final, do your job’.“The Mayo fans, obviously we can’t put a number on it, I’m going to say there was 50-55,000 Mayo supporters in Croke Park on Sunday and the energy they gave the boys was huge. Don’t get me wrong, you have to feed them to get it back, but my God they gave it back in spades. “I remember Darragh Beirne kicked a free from under the Cusack Stand in the first half at a time in the game when we weren’t playing well and you just felt the ripples going through the crowd.“Ryan kicked a two-pointer in the first half, Jack Carney as well, and then with the high press we got a couple of turnovers up top, literally the place was absolutely buzzing.“It was almost like we were after getting a goal. I think that fed onto the pitch, it was sensational.”Mayo captain Jack Coyne with the Sam Maguire Cup at Heuston Station in Dublin prior to the newly-crowned All-Ireland champions' return to Mayo on Monday. Photograph: Grace Halton/Inpho So too was the acceptance speech of Mayo captain Jack Coyne.“I know I’m biased but I think Jack Coyne gave one of the greatest All-Ireland winning speeches in Croke Park on Sunday, and I know someone referenced Joe Connolly’s speech to me earlier on from Galway.“I thought Jack was absolutely incredible in his speech. Incredible man, incredible leader, to deliver a speech like that I thought it was sensational.“I thought he hit all the right notes and I’d say all the Mayo people around the world were just absolutely hanging on every word that he said.”Such was the magic of Croke Park last Sunday that the Mayo players had to be dragged away from the stadium to get back in time for their post-match dinner in the team hotel.Mayo's Donnacha McHugh celebrates with selector Colm Boyle moments after the final whistle of last Sunday's All-Ireland SFC final at Croke Park. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho “I’d say we’re probably the latest team to ever leave Croke Park after winning the All-Ireland,” smiles Boyle. “We couldn’t get the boys out of there, they just wanted to stay there. “Then when we were coming down Clonliffe Road, we were turning left at Quinns and Mayo fans just came from everywhere, there were thousands. They basically stopped the bus in the middle of Drumcondra, we couldn’t get out of there. “There was no moving and we didn’t want to move at the same time. The bus driver, PJ, was coming under a bit of pressure obviously from the traffic behind but it was just incredible, I’ve never seen scenes like it.”