Shocked and shattered the morning after

All-Ireland SFC final: Mayo reaction: If you think beaten All-Ireland teams look distraught at the final whistle you should see them the morning after. Even more shattered and disgusted, they seem even further beyond consolation. Sure, no one has died. It just feels that way.

That is the distinctly crushed look of the Mayo team as they filter into the lobby of the Citywest hotel in Dublin, their camp for the All-Ireland weekend. Some briefly pause for a photograph or to sign a jersey but clearly they want out of here as fast as possible.

Just before noon John Maughan appears. He's aged a decade overnight. Gone is the fresh, relaxed look he bore leaving the hotel some 24 hours earlier. And the Mayo manager doesn't look like a man who has anything more to say. But to his credit he directs us to a corner of the lobby and talks us through the night of an All-Ireland defeat, and the morning after.

"I think we're still in shock," he says, his voice low and throaty.

"We just can't rationalise why we underperformed to the extent that we did. But we just didn't make it a contest, and that's the most unfortunate thing about it. Especially from an All-Ireland final perspective.

"An occasion like that deserves better, and we just couldn't live up to our half of it. But you have to give great credit to Kerry. They were definitely the better team, and won so convincingly, so we can have no complaints about that."

We suggest some reasons for the eight-point defeat. That perhaps Mayo underestimated Kerry, that maybe they were too relaxed: "Well I know we were very relaxed going into it," agrees Maughan. "Maybe too relaxed. And in hindsight maybe that should have been a concern. And that's definitely something to ponder on for the future.

"But we just haven't talked about it. That's not something for the Sunday night that you lose an All-Ireland. That's something that will be done in due course. It's just not the time to try and rationalise something like that. But look it's history now. It's time to move forward and get on with things. And just try to learn from the whole experience of it."

The question of Maughan staying on as manager is also one for the future, not the present. Clearly between club and county service as both player and manager Maughan has endured his unfair share of disappointments, especially in Croke Park. And in this state of mind no man should be asked to consider his future anyway.

"Well it's not about me keeping going," he suggests. "It's about the team keeping going. John Maughan is nothing in that regard. There is a management team in place of myself and Liam McHale and George Golden, so I'm only one part of that. Whether I stay in or get out shouldn't have any bearing on that.

"And relatively speaking this Mayo team is quite young. We're also in the under-21 final next Saturday, but we're up against another big, strong team. In fact Armagh are truly formidable. So we'll have to wait and see what happens there. But at least the conveyor belt is working. And we'll do the best we can."

Finally he is asked about the nature of Mayo's All-Ireland defeat as part of the whole season, that perhaps they had overachieved in getting so far, when in fact they were two or three years off maturity.

"No, I wouldn't buy into that, not at all. When an opportunity presents itself you have to go after it. We had the chance to get into an All-Ireland final and we went after it. Of course people might say we would have been better off getting there in two or three years' time."

As Maughan joins his players on the team bus and begins the long journey home the thoughts again switch to next Saturday's under-21 final. Ten players that are part of the senior panel are set to start.

Mayo selector Liam McHale confirms our suspicions, that raising the spirits again won't be easy. "It's a very tricky few days for us now. We're in the same boat with this under-21 final, playing a massively physical Armagh team. They're way bigger than us. But we do have a nice, young, talented team. And if we could win that game then a lot of this hurt and disappointment would be wiped away."