May the best man win when old friends do battle

The manner in which old friends Tom Carr and John Maughan playfully sparred at yesterday's press conference, in advance of Sunday's Connacht football final, was no reflection of the storm brewing underneath.

There was too much respect. Too much goodwill. Nothing like the 70 minutes a sold-out Castlebar will experience in two days' time. Nonetheless, the interweaving pasts of the Roscommon and Mayo managers is enthralling.

After joining the Cadets together, Carr and Maughan also attended college together before playing the role of best man at each other's weddings. They played Sigerson Cup together and even marked one another in the 1985 All-Ireland semi-final between Dublin and Mayo - although Carr was moved off him early on: "I was moved into the corner after five minutes, John would say that he played me off the pitch for those five minutes.

"We go back to Cadet school when we joined the Army together. John was very close to being thrown out and I saved his bacon. We then went to college together and he did the same subjects as myself so I could help him along as well," continued Carr to the amusement of all present.

Yet, come throw-in this Sunday their pasts will mean very little. Theirs may be a great story - one that is almost impossible to find in any sport outside of the GAA - but such is the hunger for success friendship will have to wait.

Yesterday was different, though. With Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh putting the questions the two men took some blatant, yet good-natured, cheap shots at each other.

Of course, the managerial history of the two men was also examined. For Maughan the scars of 1996 and the All-Ireland final defeat to Meath were revisited. Ó Muircheartaigh said Mayo "could've", while Maughan insisted Mayo "should've" prevailed.

The hurt still remains but Maughan has moved on. More to life these days he told us.

For Carr, the heady days with Dublin were broached once more. It was suggested he never got a slice of luck during his three-year tenure, in contrast to his time with Roscommon.

"Would I consider myself to have been unlucky? Yeah, sure. But you can't hang your hat on that peg and say 'oh, I was unlucky', so I won't bother anymore.

"I think over the last two years we've had a little rub of the green in terms of the close encounters we've had. The extra-time last year, the extra-time this year but I don't think it's a coincidence that we are winning tight games.

"If you win one or two tight games maybe you'd say: 'lucky to get out of that' but we've won every tight game. And I think that's where Meath grew their reputation over the years and that's where I would liken them to Roscommon, rather than to be a Galway or to be a Mayo or a Kerry. I would see them more a Meath - a hard working, tough outfit."

The current controversy over managers and referees became a hot topic with both managers stating the men in the middle have been getting a hard time. Carr, of course, had his famous brush with a referee during the white heat of Dublin's qualifier showdown with Kerry in 2001.

"I actually feel sorry for referees at this stage because they are under pressure both from people like John and myself, from the county boards and from the media," he said. "I think the GAA itself is not really addressing the core problem and that is the tackling and some of the rules that exist in the game.

"The yellow card I don't think is really working. On one Sunday a fellow can clothesline a guy and on another Sunday he can be sent off for two tugs of a jersey. The consistency.

" I think a sin bin is crucial. We need to address it quickly because the nature of the game has changed dramatically over the last 10 years.

"I don't think a manager motivates his players by roaring and shouting and running up and down the line. I think that day has gone."

Maughan offered to find Carr a seat in Castlebar: "I'm laughing at this guy, you know? I can hear him already on the sideline on Sunday. Screaming and shouting at Frankie (Dolan). I'll reserve a seat for him up in the stand if he wants, that'll be no problem."

For Sunday at least, they will patrol the line in an attempt to second guess a familiar foe.