All IRELAND antagonism continued off the pitch yesterday when the Meath football captain and manager were refused entry to the victory luncheon at Croke Park.
The Meath captain, Tommy Dowd - clutching the Sam Maguire Cup - and the team manager, Sean Boylan, were stopped at the door by a hired security guard because they had no tickets. Both men walked off in protest at the snub.
It took the intervention of the GAA's press relations officer, Mr Danny Lynch, to coax both men back to the party some 20 minutes later.
The afternoon had started pleasantly enough with the Meath team posing for photographs in the sun at the entrance to the Cusack Stand. But when Mr Dowd and Mr Boylan tried to join their team inside, the security guard from a Dublin firm insisted that only those with tickets could be admitted.
"The man refused me at the door," said an astonished Mr Dowd. "Maybe it was because of the Dublin accent. He wouldn't let me in. Ah now, it's very poor organisation."
Mr Lynch was inside doing an RTE interview during the incident. When he arrived, he negotiated with Mr Boylan in the car park in full view of the assembled photographers. The Meath manager initially refused to enter in protest at the way the champions had been treated, but eventually both men were escorted inside by Mr Lynch.
The Mayo secretary, Mr Sean Feeney, and some team members also had to wait outside for a short time until their tickets arrived by bus.
During the lunch, Mr Lynch said the whole incident had been a misunderstanding and that there had been no wish to cause any inconvenience to anybody.
Hut after the lunch, the hostilities that had marred the first quarter of Sunday's final replay resumed in a potentially explosive confrontation between Meath midfielder John McDermott and Mayo's Liam McHale, who was sent off during Sunday's match.
The speeches had just been completed and Mr Dowd and the Mayo manager, John Maughan, had exchanged post luncheon pleasantries when Mr McDermott was deemed an unwelcome visitor to Mr McHale's table.
An offer of a handshake from Mr McDermott was rejected by Mr McHale. The situation was worsened when an indignant Mr McDermott persisted in remonstrating with the Mayo player, who remained calm.
Finally, Mr McDermott was persuaded to withdraw by Mr McHale's party, which included his fiancee.
Mr Lynch said later that he had not witnessed the incident. He said he would be seeking a review of how Mr Dowd and Mr Boylan had been refused admission.
He said the Meath County Board should have distributed its 81 tickets to the team's players and officials, and that the security personnel should have "used a lot more discretion".
He added: "I am absolutely categorically blaming the Meath county board for not giving tickets and organising their own players. Having said that, I would be absolutely categorical in saying that any captain with the Sam Maguire cup and Sean Boylan who trained the Meath team, irrespective of whether they had a ticket or not, shouldn't have been stopped. But it is difficult to have somebody with a bit of cop on in the right place every time."