Mayo have ended the most infamous famine in GAA history, after an epic All-Ireland final win over Kerry brought 75 years of anguish to an instant close.
The decades of waiting for Sam Maguire to return westward were defined by agonising near-misses in All-Ireland semi-finals and finals, all of which were expelled the instant the hooter blew on Sunday afternoon.
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Mayo have officially ended the longest wait between All-Ireland football triumphs in history (Clare’s 81-year wait before winning the hurling in 1995 still trumps it). But who could follow in Mayo’s footsteps and consign years of hurt to history in the 2027 championship?
We’ve looked at eight counties who’ve been waiting for Sam for quite some time now – all of whom will consider themselves at least outsiders to claim All-Ireland glory next season.
The counties who could follow Mayo’s All-Ireland example
Our criteria
In the spirit of Mayo’s 75-year wait coming to an end, we have only included teams who have previously won Sam Maguire, and are in an ongoing wait for another title.
This means that the 15 teams who have never won the All-Ireland SFC are not represented in this list. Those 15 counties are Monaghan, Clare, Waterford, Antrim, Laois, London, Carlow, Clare, Fermanagh, Kilkenny, Leitrim, New York, Sligo, Westmeath, and Wicklow.
We hear you crying out, Wicklow and Westmeath fans. Yes, Wicklow will play Sam Maguire football next year, and Westmeath are more than likely to as well, either through the Leinster route or by gaining promotion to Division 2.
For now, though, they are outside our parameters. If either county wins the All-Ireland next year, à la Colm O’Rourke, I personally promise to eat my hat.
We’ve also excluded teams who have won an All-Ireland title in the last 15 years. Once you’re approaching two decades, then you can talk of anguish.
As we’re keeping one eye on 2027, we’re only including Division 1 and 2 teams who could conceivably win the All-Ireland next year, meaning Offaly (1982), Kildare (1928), Tipperary (1920), and Limerick (1896) are missing from this list.
Once again, if you hail from any of those counties, you have every right to come for me if All-Ireland glory comes a knocking in 2027.
1. Wexford (1918)
Look, we can’t lie – the Yellowbellies are by far the least likely candidates on this list to claim Sam Maguire anytime soon, but it would be brilliant to see the longest sleeping giant return to the top table.
Before Mick O’Dwyer’s Kerry, or Jim Gavin’s Dublin, Wexford won four All-Irelands in a row in the 1910s, but have yet to return to football’s top table.
Now predominantly a hurling county, perhaps the best Wexford can hope for is to close the gap to the chasing pack in Leinster first of all. Promotion to Division 2 was a good start.
2. Roscommon (1944)
The team on this list who’ve been waiting the longest for Sam Maguire, and one who will believe they are not far away from finally ending their drought in 2027.
World War II was still ongoing when Roscommon last won the All-Ireland, and they have only been back to the decider thrice since then – most recently in 1980.
This year, the Rossies beat both Mayo and Galway en route to their first Connacht title in seven years, and they have put in impressive league performances in recent years, finishing 4th in Division 1 this year. Stepping up in the All-Ireland series is the tricky next step.
3. Cavan (1952)
22 November 2020; Cavan captain Raymond Galligan lifts the Anglo Celt Cup following the Ulster GAA Football Senior Championship Final match between Cavan and Donegal at Athletic Grounds in Armagh. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
No county has won more Ulster SFC titles than Cavan, and no Ulster county has won more All-Ireland titles than Cavan.
Despite this, next year will mark 75 years since the Breffni Men brought Sam Maguire back home – emulating Mayo’s wait to the very year.
Bright sparks have been few and far between for Cavan in recent years – 2020 Ulster glory was a bolt from the blue – and they are even more rank outsiders to end their wait next year than Mayo were this season.
Mayo’s triumph, though, will have struck hope for the likes of Cavan.
4. Louth (1957)
11 May 2025; Louth captain Sam Mulroy lifts the Delaney Cup after the Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship final match between Louth and Meath at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
The team Mayo beat to reach the All-Ireland final, and a team who are inching closer and closer to an unprecedented modern success.
1957 was the last year in which Louth won the Sam Maguire. Until last year, it was also the last occasion they won the Leinster SFC. That they ended that wait in 2025 will have fans of the Wee County allowing themselves to dream.
They’ve beaten some of Ireland’s best in recent years, with their drubbing of Dublin in Round 1 of this season’s All-Ireland a true statement of intent. Their quarter-final win over Monaghan was even better.
Louth are on the precipice of the biggest achievement in their GAA history; with bigger counties rising once more, the fear is that their window of opportunity may be rapidly closing.
5. Derry (1993)
19 September 1993; Enda Gormley is congratulated by a supporter after victory over Cork, as manager Eamonn Coleman and players Tony Scullion and Anthony Tohill, right, await the presentation. All-Ireland Football Championship Final, Derry v Cork, Croke Park, Dublin. Picture credit; Ray McManus / SPORTSFILE
Two All-Ireland final appearances, one win, one loss for Derry. Prior to their 1993 victory, defeat in the 1958 decider was their only previous experience of All-Ireland final day. They have not been back since.
Many in the county will feel that they should have been in one in the 33 years since, most notably during their resurgence in the early 2020s.
Back-to-back semi-final appearances in 2022 and 2023 were just rewards after years of knocking on the door, and they were agonisingly close to toppling Kerry in the ’23 semi.
Their form has, regrettably, dropped off a cliff in the years since, and it’s hard to envisage them climbing the Hogan Stand steps any time soon.
6. Down (1994)
18 September 1994; Down captain DJ Kane lifts the Sam Maguire Cup following the All Ireland Senior Football Final match between Dublin and Down at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Down are a coming county, epitomised by their epic Ulster SFC quarter-final toppling of Donegal earlier this year, but there is still a long way to go if they are to end 33 years of waiting in 2027.
2026 ended in demoralising fashion, with a demolition at the hands of Armagh in the Ulster semi-final, before they let a second Tailteann Cup triumph slip through their grasp as Wicklow pulled off an astonishing second-half comeback from 12 points down.
There’s bundles of talent in the Down team, and they are a county who have proven themselves capable of not only pulling off upsets but contending for Sam in the years since 1994.
2010 remains the last time they played in an All-Ireland final.
7. Meath (1999)
27 September 1999; Meath manager Seán Boylan and captain Graham Geraghty hold up the Sam Maguire Cup during the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final post-match reception at the Burlington Hotel in Ballsbridge, Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
A sleeping giant of GAA has shown signs of waking up in recent years.
Their last All-Ireland triumph came in the final year of the previous millennium, and Meath spent many of the intervening years in the shadow of their dominant Leinster neighbours Dublin.
Last year, though, Meath became the first county in 17 years to defeat Dublin and Kerry in the same championship summer – and knocked Galway out at the last-eight stage for good measure, to reach their first semi-final since 2009.
Like many of the teams on this list, there is a way to go for the Royal County, who left a lot behind them in the championship in 2026. But a young team are slowly climbing up the ladder. Promotion to Division 1 was a good step this year – a Leinster title is the next box to tick on the way to bringing Sam Maguire back to Meath.
8. Galway (2001)
23 September 2001; Padraig Joyce of Galway celebrates with manager John O’Mahony following the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Final match between Galway and Meath at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
It’s hard to think that the feeling of goodwill towards Mayo was quite as warm in Galway football circles as it was nationwide on Sunday evening.
In Mayo’s place, Galway now stand to be questioned for what will become at least a 26-year wait for an All-Ireland crown in 2027.
Ten Connacht SFC titles have come in the intervening years, but it would take 21 years before they returned to a national decider. There are many in Galway – and further afield – who would feel that they left that 2022 final behind them. Even more would argue the 2024 final against Armagh ranks as an unforgivable missed opportunity.
Shock quarter-final defeats to Meath and Dublin have followed, and it’s hard to assess where an ageing Galway team are now at. To watch both Roscommon and Mayo claim championship silverware this year will have been a bitter pill to swallow.
9. Cork (2010)
13 June 2026; Tommy Walsh of Cork celebrates a two-point score during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 2A match between Donegal and Cork at MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey, Donegal. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Cork football might just be back, if 2026 is anything to go by.
Years of torment since the 2010 All-Ireland triumph were perhaps best summed up by the ludicrous 2020 season. As they always have, Cork showed promise in the Munster SFC semi-final against Kerry – except, for once, they followed through and stunned the Kingdom on a wintry night by the River Lee. That they then went on to lose the final to plucky upstarts Tipperary epitomised Cork football in the 2010s and 20s.
Not anymore, by the evidence of this season just gone. Cork followed up a stunning win over Meath in Round 1 by making the long journey to Ballybofey and stunning Jim McGuinness’s Donegal in Round 2A of the All-Ireland.
Ultimately, the weeks of heavy travel took their toll in the quarter-final against Mayo, but Cork will take courage from the fact they pushed the eventual champions close.
Mayo’s most unlikely triumph will only have emboldened the Rebels – and every fanbase who have endured years of pain, for that matter – to dream that 2027 could finally be their year.