It’s been a whirlwind week full of joy and sorrow. I travelled down to Croke Park on Sunday morning to do co-commentary for the BBC with an empty feeling.Mayo distracted me for a few hours as they won the All-Ireland in Croke Park to end a 75-year wait to bring Sam Maguire on the train to Castlebar.On Monday we buried our dear friend and teammate Stephen Gollogly in St Joseph’s Cemetery in Carrickmacross.‘Jinxy’ was one of a kind. A warrior on the field but a brilliant footballer too. Only 41, he leaves behind his wife Caroline and a young family of four children.It makes you think. We all soldiered together for so long, living in each other’s pockets and then, almost overnight, your football career is over and you are no longer among the boys five times a week.Life gets in the way. Business. Family. All the stuff an intercounty player must sacrifice to be competitive.Only last November, Stephen was in the middle of the festivities at myself and Hannah’s wedding. Not a bother on him. A few months pass and he is gone.At the funeral the conversation among the Monaghan panel that won the Ulster title in 2013, when Jinxy was in the middle of everything we did on and off the field, turned to making sure time does not get away from us. Be it a round of golf or informal gathering, we agreed to make the effort to see each other. Not just weddings and funerals.Monaghan players are mobbed by ecstatic supporters after winning the Ulster title in 2013. Photograph: William Cherry/Presseye/Inpho The day Stephen died – July 21st – was the 13th anniversary of Monaghan beating the All-Ireland champions Donegal in the Ulster final, ending a famine dating back to 1988. The date will always have two meanings now.[ Former Monaghan footballer Stephen Gollogly dies, aged 41Opens in new window ]♦ ♦ ♦That victory 13 years ago was as close as Monaghan have come to experiencing what the Mayo players and their supporters have been living all this week. You remember the people who are gone. You call them back on days like Mayo experienced last Sunday.Nobody I met heading into Croke Park believed Kerry could be beaten. Mayo fans wanted to see a performance rather than the hope that crept into conversations before their last five or six All-Ireland finals.Maybe this more cautious approach was the secret formula all along.If we are honest, the belief had drained clean away from anyone who can remember the 1989 final, the two defeats in the 1990s – especially the Meath game in ‘96 when Liam McHale was sent off – the heavy losses to Kerry in the 2000s, Donegal in 2012, the three Dublin finals and Tyrone in 2021.The only people who truly believed were the players coached by Andy Moran and his management.Mayo have set the course now for Monaghan, for Meath, for Louth, and for Roscommon, who had 10 points to spare on them in the Connacht semi-final before capturing the provincial crown.[ Mayo defied the trends on goals and two-pointers on way to lifting the Sam MaguireOpens in new window ]What a summer it has been. Imagine being told in February Louth would reach the All-Ireland semi-final and Westmeath would overwhelm the Dubs in the Leinster decider. And Dublin would find enough to knock out Donegal and push Kerry close.The new rules have helped the game immeasurably. The blueprint to beat Kerry is there for all to see. Push up hard and refuse to relent. Trust the referee to see a tackle, not a foul. If the ball cannot go into David Clifford and the Kerry full-forward line, they cannot put an embarrassing score on you.Mayo's Jack Carney kicks a two pointer against Kerry in the All-Ireland final. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho Get the right shooters in place and the analytics will deliver Sam off the back of two-pointers. It’s the GAA version of the basketball theory that was put into practice by the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry.After three early misses from distance and with Kerry cruising into a seven-point lead, Jack Carney had the courage to shoot another two.The worm turned before our eyes. Kerry still led 1-6 to 0-6 on 25 minutes when Ryan O’Donoghue and Kobe McDonald swarmed Dylan Casey for a turnover. The two boys roared like hurlers winning a free in Semple Stadium.Suddenly, we had ourselves a final.I wrote last week about Mayo needing to spoil Kerry’s kickout. In fact, Kerry held 60 per cent of Shane Murphy’s restarts, but when they tried to turn and kick pass into the danger zone, it was Tyrone in the 2003 semi-final all over again as the men in green and gold were devoured by the boys in all white.Of course, Kerry will instantly evolve and bend the rules to their will. Don’t think they won’t win another two or three All-Irelands in the 2020s. Paddy Tally, the Mayo coach who also worked with Kerry, talked about slowing them down. Kerry looked unstoppable when they rattled off two kick passes and David Clifford punched a point.It won’t come that easy any more. Mayo have lit the darkest tunnel, showing other serious football counties how it can be done.Mayo’s Aidan O'Shea celebrates winning the All-Ireland with his daughter Romee. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho I am delighted for Aidan O’Shea. The man who was blamed by anonymous social media hounds for Mayo losing six All-Ireland finals during a stellar career didn’t see a minute on Sunday, but it took some amount of commitment for the former star player to keep showing up for training, knowing he was unlikely to get the nod from Andy.That’s all you need to know about Aidan O’Shea. Not the bulls**t blame game that went around in the past. Aidan, Cillian O’Connor and all the veterans laid the way for teenagers like Kobe McDonald, Darragh Beirne and Eoin McGreal to play with the freedom that was missed on the tougher days Mayo have encountered in Croke Park.O’Shea’s medal is earned as much as anyone else’s, if not more. There is no better way to sign off an intercounty career.Other than this sentence, there’ll be no mention of the curse in my analysis of Mayo ending a 75-year famine. That only takes away from what the class of 2026 have achieved. Mayo won an All-Ireland final after going seven points behind to a Kerry team, the defending champions, on a day when the Clifford brothers were outstanding.They stand above a Gaelic football summer that might be remembered as the greatest football championship we’ll ever know.[ Mayo’s victory was the greatest sporting occasion I’ll ever attendOpens in new window ]