Maughan has no regrets about leaving Mayo

Managing neighbouring counties: Ian O'Riordan talks to John Maughan as he prepares his new charges for the coming season and a meeting with Mayo

As this weekend's provincial football competitions set the 2006 GAA season in motion, most of the spotlight falls on debut managers - including those involved in the various cross-border trade-offs. Among them is John Maughan who, although indelibly associated with Mayo football, will this Sunday experience his first competitive match in charge of Roscommon.

Maughan is well qualified to talk about the emotions of switching allegiance, which to him apparently don't exist to any great extent. He has shed the Mayo colours twice before, famously leading Clare to the Munster championship of 1992, and later sparking some brief optimism in the football fortunes of Fermanagh.

On Sunday, he takes Roscommon into the FBD Connacht League, with Sligo IT providing the opposition. In just three weeks he'll be out against his native Mayo, the team he took to an All-Ireland final in 2004 and then suddenly departed at the end of last summer. If that's the one fixture he always dreads, he's certainly not about to admit it.

"It's not premature at all to ask me how I feel about taking over Roscommon so soon after leaving Mayo," says Maughan. "I have no regrets whatsoever. I thought it through, and my conscience is definitely clear.

"And leading another team out against Mayo is something I've done several times. I remember when I was with Clare we played Mayo up here around 1992, and we also won a National League quarter-final against Mayo in Castlebar with a record attendance of 20,000 people.

"During my time with Fermanagh we also met Mayo, and I recall suffering a pretty heavy loss to them, when Pat Holmes was in charge of Mayo at the time. So it has happened on plenty of occasions in the past and I've no worries about doing it again in the future."

Yet Maughan's sudden move to Roscommon still surprised a few people, mostly because it seemed like he'd at least earned himself a break. His commitment to Mayo over the previous three years had been total, and despite the humiliating defeat to Kerry in the 2004 All-Ireland final he simply dug deeper into his reserves and produced an impressive league run last year, only for the steam to finally run out over the course of the championship.

Now he's throwing all his energies into Roscommon, which includes the commute from Castlebar at least twice week, plus all the baggage that comes with getting to know an entirely new set-up.

"I've actually found the commute very comfortable. In my case you're not talking about a long trip, about 60 miles, and it takes about an hour and 15 minutes. So that hasn't presented any difficulties at all.

"And I have to say the preparations have gone very well so far. We've trained for the past six weeks, maybe two or three times a week, and I've been very happy with the response. I feel the guys' fitness levels have improved enormously as well. So at this juncture we're definitely ready to play some football.

"Obviously we took a break over the Christmas period, but like most counties we resumed again this week."

Maughan has been working closely with his team of Eamon McManus and Gerry Fitzmaurice in establishing the Roscommon panel. They'll be fielding a mixture of youth and experience for the coming weeks, and Maughan reckons it will be several more weeks before he finalises a regular panel.

"We invited a number of players on to a panel, but I hadn't drawn up a list or anything like that. But of course it's open-ended. We've already brought in a few new faces since we resumed training after Christmas, and there are a few more guys we expect to have a look at. The FBD league definitely affords us that opportunity."

Since his arrival in Roscommon he has dropped five of the county's most experienced players - goalkeeper Shane Curran, Frankie Dolan, Francie Grehan, Nigel Dineen and Michael Ryan.

"And no, there's no sign of those guys returning at this stage," he adds, with the typically relaxed tone of a man who knows exactly what he's doing.