{"id":573333,"date":"2026-07-29T06:22:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T06:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/573333\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T06:22:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T06:22:17","slug":"how-arsenal-played-a-role-in-mayos-all-ireland-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/573333\/","title":{"rendered":"How Arsenal played a role in Mayo’s All-Ireland win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayo\u2019s All-Ireland win has captured the country as they have finally ended 75 years of pain.<\/p>\n

With a win over Kerry on Sunday, they finally won their first All-Ireland Final since 1951 after 11 consecutive final defeats, and it finally ends the rumoured curse which a priest put on them after their 1951 celebrations.<\/p>\n

There were many stars that played a role in Mayo\u2019s victory on Sunday, from Ryan O\u2019Donoghue\u2019s talismanic display covering every blade of grass to Kobe McDonald\u2019s<\/a> silky display way beyond his 18 years.<\/p>\n

\"mayo\"Kobe McDonald. Pic: INPHO\/Tom Maher<\/p>\n

However, one aspect of Mayo\u2019s win which may go unsung is their work done off the pitch. Andy Moran\u2019s side played an intense, high-press style of play which suffocated Kerry for much of the final, especially during that third quarter blitz which saw them go four points ahead.<\/p>\n

Mayo have played with such intensity all season, with many critics saying that while effective, it wasn\u2019t a tactic that will last in the long run as players will tire out.<\/p>\n

Well, as Smaller Fish<\/a> pointed out on X, not a single player went down with cramp on Sunday after a long season with a hundred training sessions working on the most intense style of defence on show in the Championship this season. <\/p>\n

One of the men who deserves credit has to be Arsenal\u2019s Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach, Barry Solan.<\/p>\n

\"\"Barry Solan Pic: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach \/ SPORTSFILE<\/p>\n

Solan hails from Mayo and is a renowned S&C Coach and a true GAA man, having played for London in an All-Ireland qualifier against Westmeath in 2006.<\/p>\n

His first S&C job came with Kildare before working on the Mayo senior team, where he was until his move to Arsenal in 2015 to be a part of the first team with the Premier League giants.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s the lead S&C Coach with the Gunners, but has consistently managed to balance his day job in London with helping out his county over the years.<\/p>\n

\"\"Barry Solan when he was Strength and Conditioning Coach for Mayo. Pic: Piaras \u00d3 M\u00eddheach\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

When his brother Mike Solan was in the picture for the Mayo managerial job back in 2022, there was a report that Barry would work with his brother on the coaching ticket.<\/p>\n

But even if his brother didn\u2019t get the gig, Solan has continued working with Mayo, most recently with his long-time friend Andy Moran in a consultancy role with Conor Finn, who himself is a former professional rugby player with Connacht, taking day-to-day control of Mayo\u2019s S&C work.<\/p>\n

Solan now has a pretty impressive CV with both Mayo and Arsenal ending long title droughts this year off the back of an intense style of play, which he helps implement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mayo\u2019s All-Ireland win has captured the country as they have finally ended 75 years of pain. With a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-573333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}