Mayo 1-14 Galway 2-12: Galway survived a stirring second-half revival from Mayo to claim their 44th Connacht title at McHale Park this afternoon.
Looking dead and buried at half-time, Mayo finally clicked into gear after the break the transform a dreary encounter into a full-blooded contest worthy of the occasion.
Both sides exchanged early frees but the match started scrappily with neither set of forwards inclined to trouble the scorers.
It took until the 15th minute for either side to register a score from play, Trevor Mortimer bursting forward from midfield to show how it should be done.
But Galway's tactic of dropping the ball in long where the livewire duo of Nicky Joyce and Cormac Bane were causing the Mayo defence headaches soon began to pay dividends.
First Padraic Joyce applied a neat finish to inject some momentum and minutes later Fiachra Breathnach was on hand to notch a second goal following some fine approach play from Matthew Clancy.
At this stage, John O'Mahony's side looked bereft of ideas and the Mayo boss made a double substitution on the half-hour mark in an effort to stop the rot.
Trailing 2-4 to 0-6 at the interval, Mayo knew they would have to up their intensity after the break and immediately set about reducing the deficit.
Finally, their forwards began to exploit the gaps in the Galway defence with Conor Mortimer and Alan Dillon causing problems as Galway's lead was whittled away. And when Aidan Kilcoyne pounced on the loose ball from close range midway through the half, all of a sudden Mayo were in front.
From there on in, the contest ebbed and flowed with both sides matching each other score-for-score. Indeed, Mayo looked the more likely to prevail as their direct running continued to flummox the Tribesmen.
But late scores from Paul Conroy and Bane edged Liam Sammon's charges back in front and when Mortimer's last-gasp free dropped harmlessly short, the game was up for Mayo.