Another View 1999 - by Terry Reilly (c)

Leave it to the women......

FOR the best part of fity years we have waited to see a Mayo captain walk in
the footsteps of the late Sean Flanagan and collect an All-Ireland senior
football cup.

But we never expected it to be a woman!

Sport is indeed full of ironies, and we saw that underlined in the most
emphatic fashion at Croke Park on Sunday when Diane O'Hora led her team of
young dreamers to a victory that has eluded the county's male counterparts
since 1951.

We have made the pilgrimage to Croker in 1989, in 1996 and again in 1997
hoping to see our team climb the steps of the Hogan Stand, but Cork, Meath
and Kerry beat us to it: we have had to do with minor and under 21 titles
titles and a NFL crown in 1970.

The 90s have been hard on Mayo at HQ, ad we have returned far too many times
on the wrong end of decisions when the odds against us did not look all that
daunting.