Time for revelry, not reflection

Celebration time, and as the Galway entourage prepared to bring Sam Maguire back west yesterday, manager John O'Mahony backed off from the probing question of his future with the county.

Speculation had followed O'Mahony into Sunday's All-Ireland football final, and whether the result, win or lose, would mark the climax to his term as manager. Well the speculation continues. "Sure there's been a lot of speculation about Galway this summer," he said, still carrying a wide smile from the nine-point win over Meath. "But there's no factual information at all right now.

"And I've been asked it a thousand times already since Sunday. But I don't want to cloud these celebrations in any way. There's no training for a few weeks and that's the time to think about. But to be honest, I just don't know right now and it's as simple as that."

As manager's terms go though, it has been a busy four years. Two wins out of three All-Ireland finals. Extended league runs. And eight championship games this summer alone. Time maybe for a breather?

"Look, with days like this you get a burst of energy and I feel like a 21-year-old again. The game is so intense these days that you have to put a lot in off the field, but it's been my life now and I enjoy it. Although I just don't know what the future holds."

The emotion for sure is a total contrast to last year, when the final defeat to Kerry left O'Mahony pondering his future on very different terms. The temptation and pressure to continue as a winning manager rather than a losing manager is sure to be more pressing, and so too is the buzz that comes with the job.

"It's always a thin line between winning and losing. And on one side you're a hero and on the other side you're a villain. Right now, it's a brilliant feeling though, the way the team came back from last year and won it this time."

With that winning feeling back again, O'Mahony has more reason to stay than to go. His team proved him right and so many other people wrong. This summer especially the critics were rising.

"We did take some criticism along the way and I didn't mind that. But there was some hurtful things said about the squad that simply wasn't true. That goes with the territory I know, but I was delighted the way the lads vindicated themselves on the field because that's the only way to do it."

Asked before the final about how they were going to deal with Meath, who were coming off a 15-point win over Kerry, O'Mahony was clear that Galway were going to concentrate on their own game. And they did.

"After the semi-final we took a basic decision to do that because, first of all, there was no need for me to start talking about Meath because they had done all that themselves. So we put everything into out own performance. We knew we had good periods in games during the year and the aim was to put all those good periods together.

"And we did change our tactics around a little bit as well. We felt that we were becoming a little too predictable so we varied the game as well on Sunday."

The sides were level at the break but it was a one-way contest after that. And despite the close call at the turnaround, O'Mahony always had a hunch about the day.

"At half-time, I still had a good feeling about it in many ways because we had owned the ball for long periods. I felt that if we got the rhythm going we would still do well.

"It was very calm at half-time and we all agreed that we just had to rise the intensity. We did that and after 10 or 15 minutes the game took on a momentum of its own.

"In fairness, a number things did go wrong for Meath with the sending-off and the injury to Ollie Murphy. The penalty as well. But we had some great individual leadership on the field and it was great to see it unfold in the second half."

Watching from the sideline did revive some memories of the 1998 win, the smoothness of the victory and the total lack of necessity for any substitutions.

"Against Kildare, it was more about a magic 10 minutes in that we got a goal as well. We could have got a few goals on Sunday as well but the whole 35 minutes of the second half was pleasing because we didn't want to let Meath come back at us.

"But we were in a wonderful situation. We had it in 1998 as well, where you could be just sitting in an armchair on the sideline and watching the game."

Such a perfect end to the season then, a million miles from Tuam Stadium in June when O'Mahony was explaining about how a team that wins together must also lose together. From those troubled times though grew new hunger.

"The culture of losing a championship match and all the devastation that surrounds it was there among the players and management. So, of course, we had a very difficult 10 days after we were beaten.

"But one of the things I do remember is that we came back training on the Tuesday week, and the first man at training was Tomβs Mannion. He had got a lot of stick for his performance in the Roscommon game but to see him the first man there gave me a huge lift. And it symbolised to me that there was another story to be told.

"So they decided that they could blame the world for their problems but they didn't. Instead, they put their energies into putting our performance right, and though it didn't come overnight, it was a gradual rehabilitation. But it all came together on Sunday."