Oisín Mullin's Return to Mayo for All-Ireland Final Explored

Oisín Mullin has confirmed what many in Mayo had already suspected: the county did ask him to come back for the All-Ireland final.

The former Young Footballer of the Year, now deep into life as a professional with Geelong, revealed that he spoke with Mayo boss Andy Moran about a sensational short–term return before the decider. It would have been one of the great championship stories – a mid-season dash from the AFL back to Croke Park – but the timing killed it.

Mullin, a key figure in Mayo’s All-Ireland final appearances in 2020 and 2021, has been in Australia since late 2022 after signing for Geelong. His form and versatility quickly marked him out as a serious project player in the AFL, and his club were never likely to take lightly the idea of him flying home in the middle of a crucial phase of their season.

Yet the call came.

Geelong coach Chris Scott let the cat out of the bag on Fox Sports at the weekend, explaining that Moran had phoned Mullin last week to explore whether a one-off return might somehow be squeezed into an already packed schedule. The idea was simple in theory, outrageous in practice: play for Geelong against Melbourne on Friday night, hop on a plane, line out for Mayo in the All-Ireland final, then come straight back.

Speaking to Channel 7 ahead of Geelong’s clash with Collingwood, Mullin confirmed that the conversation did happen.

“I did have a chat with the coach back home and obviously Chris here,” he said, outlining how the link between himself and Mayo had never really been cut. Geelong had already allowed him an extended stint at home in the off-season, and during that spell Mayo brought him back into the fold for training. The door, clearly, had stayed ajar.

That lingering connection was enough for Moran to “touch base”, as Mullin put it, and then speak with Scott. The dream scenario quickly ran into hard reality.

“The circumstances around where we are in the ladder here and the time of season, it just didn’t work out,” Mullin said. Geelong are in the thick of their own campaign, chasing position and momentum. Letting a starting player disappear across the world for a final, no matter how romantic the notion, was always going to be a stretch.

Scott spelled out the approach in blunt terms on Fox Sports: “Oisín Mullin had taken a phone call from the Mayo coach just planting a seed about possibly, after our game against Melbourne on Friday night, that he might be able to pop over to Ireland to play in the final and then come back.”

In another era, before professional contracts and sports science and load management, maybe it happens. In 2024, it stayed an idea.

From afar, Mullin watched instead. And he watched history.

“I was just excited watching on from here and see the boys get the result and get it done,” he said. For a player who lived the heartbreak of 2020 and 2021, the significance of Mayo finally ending a 75-year wait for Sam Maguire was not lost.

“It was massive. It’s been 75 years since they’ve won it. There’s been so many finals that Mayo have played in and not managed to get over the line,” he said. This time, they did. No near miss. No late collapse. Just release.

“To finally get it done, the whole county has gone into lockdown. The celebrations are off the charts, it looks unbelievable.”

Mullin, now 26, was one of the bright young faces of Mayo’s last great push, claiming an All-Star and the Young Footballer of the Year award in 2020 as he surged from promising prospect to established leader. Those campaigns ultimately ended in familiar pain for the county, but they launched his career onto a different path.

He is now in his fourth season with Geelong and has already sampled the sharp end of the AFL, featuring in last year’s Grand Final, where Geelong fell to back-to-back champions Brisbane Lions. That stage, that pressure, that level of scrutiny – it all mirrors what he left behind at home, just with an oval ball and a different code.

The idea that he might have stepped back into Croke Park, even for one game, captured the imagination. A dual life, if only for a week. Instead, he remains an ocean away, an All-Ireland winner in spirit rather than in medal count, watching a county finally freed from its own history.

Mayo have their breakthrough. Mullin has his career in Australia. The question now is whether those two stories ever properly cross again.