John Maughan resisted the temptation. Sam Maguire was moving on towards Belmullet, seemingly with an entire county for company. Even picturing the scene seemed fantastical – Sam in Belmullet.
Maughan’s good friend and former Mayo teammate Frank Noone had been with him on Wednesday evening to welcome the All-Ireland champions to Crossmolina. As the green and red cavalcade moved further west, all it would have taken was one to nudge the other, ‘Go on, we’ll go down.’
“There’s no script for any of this,” smiles Maughan. “There’s no manual on how we should react. As a county, we’ve just kind of gone with the flow all week and let’s see what happens.
“But I knew if we went down to Belmullet you’d need the flak jacket and helmet. And particularly with McDonnell’s pub where they all were, The Lobster Pot (as it’s known locally) because there’s no getting out of there. If I went to Belmullet, well, let’s just say the next town over is New York.
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“No, I’ve been behaving myself. Just soaking it all in because if I’m being honest, I didn’t think this was going to happen.”
Maughan is a lifer. He won two Connacht titles as a Mayo minor and was a key player when they won an All-Ireland under-21 crown in 1983. He collected a Connacht SFC two years later before a knee injury ended his intercounty playing career at just 25 and he missed out on featuring in the 1989 All-Ireland final – the county’s first appearance since 1951.
But when they next contested Gaelic football’s showpiece event in 1996, Maughan was in the wheelhouse as Mayo manager.
In total he was at the helm with Mayo in four All-Ireland finals (1996 drawn game, 1996 replay, 1997, 2004) and nobody has managed the county in more Sam Maguire deciders. James Horan was also on the sideline for four.
Last Sunday, Maughan was sitting in the Cusack Stand with his daughter Sally-Rose, who had come home from London for the final, when 75 years of hurt was wiped away in 70 minutes.
“Coming near the end of the game, I got the shakes,” he says. “I sensed we might be about to win with a few minutes left and I’m not exaggerating but my legs started shaking. I couldn’t control myself.
“I was sitting beside my daughter and she started asking, ‘Dad, are you okay?’ I told her, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine, I just can’t stop shaking. We’re going to win.’
“And then I had the understandable fear of, ‘Oh Jesus Christ, are Kerry going to kick a two-pointer?’ So, like nearly every Mayo person, I went through the full range of emotions.”
For those fortunate to be in Croke Park last Sunday, it’s unlikely a sporting event will ever match the emotion that gripped the stadium at the end of the contest.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Croke Park medics had to deal with a well-above-average number of cardiac episodes, with three emergencies across the day – though not necessarily related to the final hooter.
Two of the incidents were very serious, but thankfully, due to the quick reactions of medics and stewards, all three patients are said to be making a good recovery.
Sunday was the realisation of a dream for an entire people.
“When I was a young man,” adds Maughan. “I was asked a thousand times by people, ‘John, will Mayo win the All-Ireland in my lifetime?’ But recently it had changed to, ‘John, will it happen in your lifetime?’
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“And I didn’t think it would. I went up last weekend hoping we’d keep Kerry to five or six. Because based on the evidence of our performances and the evidence of Kerry’s performances, they were justifiable favourites.
“But we produced a really incredible display and it was almost like finally after all the disappointments, the stars had aligned.”
At the end, Maughan too welled up. There wasn’t a dry eye in the big house last Sunday in those moments after the hooter sounded.
“Tears of joy but also tears of sadness for those not there,” says Maughan. “You were delighted but you were also thinking of the great players who had worked so hard over the years for Mayo.
“And I thought back to my youth as well and the guy who used to lace my boots down in Crossmolina, John Cosgrove. And Dr Mickey Loftus, who delivered me as a baby, a former GAA president.
“I thought of all those people who sadly are gone now. They had toiled just to see the day Mayo would win the All-Ireland.”
On the drive back west on Sunday night and after several missed calls, his eldest daughter Lindsey – who was in Italy on a pre-planned family holiday – finally got to chat with the rest of the Maughan clan as they floated away from Croke Park.
“She was so overcome with emotion, she was crying and crying. I’ll never forget it, because I had never really seen that with her before, she was so emotional. That’s a memory that will stay with me.”
Maughan attended the official homecoming in Castlebar on Monday night and was there on Wednesday when Kobe McDonald, Jordan Flynn and Conor Loftus brought Sam Maguire to visit Crossmolina Deel Rovers.
“Our club did a lovely job in hosting the All-Ireland champions,” smiles Maughan. “It was very special. I went to the homecoming on Monday too but I went home early because I just literally wanted to soak it all up. We’ll see what the next few days bring now.”
Because there is no plan.
There was never a plan beyond winning. But for those who experienced first-hand the bitter disappointment of past All-Ireland final defeats, the soft and craggy boglands this week have been a liberated haven of happiness.
