Pressure points and press nights

With delightful irony, Castlebar is spending seven days engaged in an attempt to become an Information Age town. Events in the town's Welcome Inn last Wednesday were somewhat at variance with this aspiration.

The back-door departure of Mayo players from their own press night has been well publicised. While it was inconvenient for national journalists and an insult added to injury in the eyes of the local media, it also highlighted what has been a turbulent season to date for Mayo, despite their progress to within two matches of winning the All-Ireland title that so controversially eluded them last year.

For virtually an entire panel - Noel Connelly and Liam McHale gave interviews - to ignore the instructions of the team manager, even in relation to what would be seen as the relatively peripheral matter of handling the press, is a sign of either confusion in the camp or a collective policy of avoiding the media.

"There was no question of me dictating to players whether they talk or not," said Maughan during a heated press conference, "but I asked them all to come down and those who were comfortable talking to the press to do so and those who weren't, not to. I said to cooperate fully and let's not have a situation where you're being chased afterwards."

With the two exceptions mentioned above, all of his players disregarded this advice.

For much of this summer, local reporters have encountered mounting difficulties contacting players who have ever more frequently been unavailable. The press night was arranged too late for any of the local papers to carry interviews with players.

All three papers have responded angrily and by the end of the week, there has been talk of refusing to publish sponsors' pictures, a hitherto routine element of the give-and-take between local media and the GAA.

In the current issues of the Mayo papers, there are articles of complaint about the lack of co-peration and in The Connaught Telegraph, Sports Editor John Melvin published a fictitious interview with A N Other, a piece of satire which concludes: "And, by the way, this interview did not take place. If Maughan gets me talking to you shower, he'll put my head in a sling."

In his own defence, Mayo's manager pointed out that he was always available and that he never discouraged his players from talking to reporters although he couldn't force them. He further claimed that players who were uncomfortable talking to the media had his permission to "blame me" for their reluctance.

Local journalists disagreed and one, Padraig Burns, asked the manager if he accepted the point that some players, who were comfortable with talking to the media, were saying that there was a prohibition on their doing so. Maughan said he did.

"If a player says something to you," he continued, "then, like, I mean. . . I can't account for that."

There were other inconsistencies. He defended his players on the grounds of the pressure they were under, being "hounded" by the media. Yet, having defended their right not to co-operate in the arrangements for a press night, he went on under pressure to give permission for reporters to contact players on the following day, Thursday.

"If you want to make contact with a player tomorrow that you haven't spoken to tonight, I've no problem with it."

One of the reasons behind the whole pantomime may have been that Maughan believes access to himself to be the same thing as access to the players. He repeatedly stressed his own availability during the 40 minutes of often circular argument at the press conference, when pressed about the evasiveness of his players.

In Maughan's defence, it should be pointed out that this reporter has never experienced difficulty contacting him and he has always been very generous with both time and access - particularly during last year's protracted All-Ireland campaign. Only last Wednesday, the very day of the ill-fated press night, he gave a lengthy interview.

All of the controversy that followed may have been merely a momentary distraction but it was surely a difficulty that Mayo could have done without in the lead-up to such a big match.

Maughan denies he is under pressure but indications are otherwise. After coming so close to an All-Ireland last year, Mayo will hardly launch uninhibited celebrations of a Connacht title should the team be beaten tomorrow. Opponents Offaly are in an entirely different position.

"I honestly don't feel under any pressure," says Maughan. "There's no reason for us to be. Offaly beat the All-Ireland champions and attracted a lot of publicity. We're relaxed about it all."

Mayo performed exceptionally well in Tuam when defeating Galway last May but the interim three months, instead of being an ideally low-key build-up to an All-Ireland semi-final, have been pock-marked with controversy.

The comfortable victory over Leitrim in the Connacht semi-final was blighted at the end when Colm McManamon was sent off and he is only back from suspension tomorrow. Maughan himself was suspended from the dugout for a pitch intrusion which led to an altercation with Leitrim's Gerry Flanagan.

Although praised in the referee's report for trying to separate feuding players, Maughan's action was a breach of the rules and earned him suspension from the sideline for the Connacht final against Sligo but he isn't particularly repentant.

"I can't honestly say that if the same thing happened tomorrow, that I wouldn't do the same thing. It was unfortunate that Colm was sent off and suspended. He was badly missed against Sligo but these things happen and I'm grateful that the Connacht Council processed it so quickly."

McManamon's suspension was also a matter of some controversy as a kicking offence can attract a three-month ban, rather than the two months' which allows the player line out tomorrow.

Maughan also accepts that the Connacht final lowered morale within the county as the standard was so poor. He is at a loss to explain what happened. "I don't think it was complacency but the more you warn against complacency, the more you're encouraging it."

In the aftermath, rumours circulated of a confrontation between the manager and Maurice Sheridan, the team's place-kicker, over an error which led to Sligo's goal. Maughan denies that anything other than a mild rebuke was offered but the tale had added to an unsettled mood in the county.

This mood was deepened last week when the team was announced. Liam McHale may or may not play at full forward but the prospect has caused agitation in the county.

John Maughan defends the selection as patiently as he explains all the other blips on the graph of a difficult summer but the tension crackling around tomorrow's crucial fixture was exacerbated by Wednesday night's farce.

Eventually it showed. In answer to a harmless enough observation about the difference between this year's almost paranoid atmosphere and last year's openness, the manager responded irritably: "You've given me enough of a verbal beating at this stage. I'm not going through it anymore. I've had enough."

If things don't go well tomorrow, however, there'll be more to come.