ONE of the ironies of Mayo's selection for Sunday's All-Ireland final replay is that Anthony Finnerty and David Nestor - whom he replaces - have been engaged in a variation of musical chairs all summer, but they were teammates in UCD's Sigerson Cup success last March.

Further connections between this protracted All-Ireland and the Sigerson winners is provided by Trevor Giles - Meath's main contender for footballer of the year who was a vital member of the UCD side and is the college's first Gaelic football scholarship holder.

In addition the team's coach Seamus Rogers has since the conclusion of the colleges' season, been taking charge of training the Mayo players based in Dublin and surrounding areas.

Rogers was a member of the previous UCD team to win the Sigerson in 1985 when one of his teammates was Mayo corner back Dermot Flanagan. A native of Lisburn, Co Armagh, Rogers currently works in Dublin but his business has conveniently taken him this week to Mayo where he can be part of the team's final preparations.

He is a believer in the merits of the Sigerson as a training ground for inter-county footballers.

"It's a marvellous bridge between minor championship football and senior. Good young minors in this day and age aren't ready to go into senior ranks straight away.

"In the old days and even now to an extent, each team has to perform on one weekend. You have to be there and ready and have to perform to win. Derry and Down both got the benefit out of it and had players who'd won Sigersons with Jordanstown, Queens and St Mary's.

"With some under-age teams, everyone has a different agenda but in college, everyone's going in the one direction and can appreciate that strength of unity can beat teams who look better on paper, even teams they wouldn't be within a hound's growl of.

In some ways, the colleges' involvement places great demands on players who can expect a lengthy inter-county season. Although the intense stages of either season don't overlap, it means heavy preparation more than once a year.

"For us, this year started two weeks before Christmas. We trained up to the last day of term and everyone was back in UCD on January 2nd with term a fortnight away. We put in four weeks real, real hard stuff and then prepared for the first match against Cork RTC. It was very nearly a disaster because the lads were so keen to do well. It was the last time I remember Trevor (Giles) not having a great day a small bit of food poisoning I think.

"David (Nestor) had been in the All-Ireland (under-21) final and replay - he's been on the go about 18 months at this stage - so I left him out of the heavier stuff like the six-250 yards sprints we used to do at training. I was on to John Maughan a lot and he was very anxious that David did not burn out.

I was in touch with Sean Boylan about Trevor (Giles) but he, was happy, to let him train with UCD but in general, I had an awful lot of problems with inter county managers. One player was told that his county had a friendly on the same day we had a Sigerson match. He had to choose and the county lost out because he came with us. The county didn't do much in the championship but he has a Sigerson medal.

I think managers should look at the wider context. They want good football from their players in May and June so there's no real conflict. The lads are getting well trained in college and I have no problem with give and take and am always ready to negotiate and compromise.

There is no coincidence about Rogers's dual responsibilities with UCD and Mayo. One led to the other and the latter didn't get underway until after the Sigerson weekend in early March.

There was no overlap," he says. "Around the middle of March, I started training the Dublin-based Mayo players.

knew John Maughan from talking, to him about David and Larry (Finnerty) and he asked me was I interested in training the lads for Mayo. I was and started immediately. Besides the two from college, I had seven others and Liam McHale was with us for about six weeks."

The other players involved were: Dermot Flanagan, James Nallen, Pat Holmes, Anthony McGarry, Fergal Costello, Paul Cunney and Micheal Gardiner. The dynamics of organising satellite training sessions didn't bother Rogers who knew the players were getting home at weekends for general get-togethers.

This week, as he works around the county, Rogers has had the opportunity to participate in the final training sessions and Maughan characteristically involves him in the preparation.

It was very easy, to tell you the truth. John left it to me. I knew when all the major games were coming up. We are on the same wavelength so didn't need to communicate all the time. I varied the routines on Tuesday and Thursday and the lads went home on Fridays for a session plus one more over the weekend.

"John would drop in the odd time unannounced if he was in Dublin. Otherwise, I gave him regular updates. I'll get involved this week. John will have me take the warm-up and some of the exercises so that I'm not standing there like an oul' eejit. I might even, play a game.

With popular perception feeling that Mayo lost their best chance in the drawn match, Rogers remains upbeat and thinks that the whole experience has been of particular benefit to the team.

"I'm confident that the belief is there to go out and win it."