Looking to youth in a bid to bury the bitter past

GAA/National Football League: Mayo manager John Maughan has recovered from the heartache of last year's All-Ireland final defeat and tells Seán Moran he is ready for a new campaign.

For a season that included radical progress, 2004 also included a few grade A nightmares for Mayo manager John Maughan. The early part of the year featured a mixed campaign in the National League and a Connacht League final defeat by Sligo that Maughan described as "one of my worst days in football".

A marvellous summer gave way to the numbing distress of All-Ireland defeats at both senior and under-21 levels, respectively the fourth and fifth of Maughan's managerial career. After the late comeback by the under-21s against Armagh fell agonisingly short the manager looked pale and worn.

"It was hard," he remembers of the killing autumn. "It took its toll; I can't recall ever feeling so low, not just in the football sense. It does empty the tank. When football management dominates your life to such an extent it's difficult to recover from it.

"It takes a while. We all have our own ways of dealing with that and some might differ. Mine might differ to Mick O'Dwyer's - he's a Pioneer and I'm not. I would certainly have sat on a high stool a couple of nights deliberating with friends. Still, every week that passes, it does drift away. Talking about it now is easier than talking about it last October.

"I mentioned last year and how low I felt after the FBD Connacht League final defeat by Sligo. If someone had come up to me and asked: 'John, would you settle for a 25-point (defeat) in an All-Ireland final', I'd have said yes; I'll take that. But I was down in west Clare at the weekend playing Kerry in an under-21 challenge, which we won and so there was great energy levels coming home."

Looking forward to the new season, Maughan says that he gave the players plenty of time off and is thankful that they appear to have dusted themselves down in the wake of the disappointments.

"Players have great resilience, even more so than managers. Players just throw the bags over their shoulders and arrive at training Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday. Then they go home and get on with their lives.

"Managers don't. We go home and have to organise and co-ordinate. Players get over it better. It's a new year and they're going playing football starting this Saturday and the All-Ireland final is very much history right now.

"Some of our senior players haven't come back yet. But last Saturday we had James Nallen, Ciarán McDonald and David Heaney. At this juncture there's still a few left to come back. I felt that they needed a bit of space, that a period of rest was important."

McDonald's enthusiasm and commitment was one of the distinguishing aspects of last season. His use of the ball and accuracy helped to constitute the Crossmolina player's best championship, culminating in great performances for Ireland against Australia and his first All Star.

Maughan says that McDonald's commitment remains undimmed and has recognised his input by giving him the captaincy.

"Ciarán has shown great energy and appetite and I'm delighted he's taking over as captain. He's very keen, as are James Nallen and David Heaney. Attitudes are contagious and when you see senior players with that kind of attitude, it rubs off on younger players."

The younger players will be important given the evident need for Mayo to strengthen the first team. In addition the team has to juggle with Ballina's progress - although the club has released its players for the weekend - to the All-Ireland club semi-final along with injuries and retirement.

Saturday's league opener against Dublin is a high-profile encounter, which should fire up the team, but Maughan would have preferred to wait a little longer for the limelight.

"Maybe I would have preferred it in March or April for lots of reasons: the Ballina lads, Trevor Mortimer is in England, Gary Ruane is recovering from injury, Peter Burke has retired and I'd love to have young Barry Moran involved but he's undergoing surgery on February 11th. It's a difficult time of the year and for us right now it's difficult.

"We're going to be stretched with our playing resources and we might struggle for a while. Although June 19th is obviously our target, the National League is still important to us in trying out new players and we'll also be trying to win every game. But realistically will that happen? I'd question that."

Answers on the way.