In the Mayo dressing-room jokes involving the media and the celebrated back door were being offered at discount rates because of the glut which had suddenly hit the market. To their credit, western good humour defused a tense situation between Mayo and the media. It also seems to have defused manager John Maughan, who having done all the talking last Wednesday night in the Welcome Inn, simply evaporated yesterday. Has anybody seen John Maughan and the Mayo team in the same room recently? Call Mulder and Scully.

Several Mayo players went out of their way to offer explanations for the Houdini business during the week and expressed the hope that all rifts would be healed.

No sooner said than done. Pat Fallon was talking up a storm and the microphones flocked around him.

"It was a good team performance I'd say. We haven't played that well recently. Against Sligo, well it was a lot to do with Sligo, but we didn't play well. We had to put in a good performance today. I think we did. Somebody told us that we had 18 wides (only 17 Pat), so have a lot of room for improvement, but the conditions were a lot to do with that. You set yourself to kick and your other foot was sliding. The ground would just go from under you."

The race to be underdogs for the final began yesterday as well. Fallon chipped in with some breathless admiration of Kerry

"Kerry were fantastic the way they beat Cavan last week. The final will be a whole different ball game, a different kettle of fish. Sorry, that's a lot of cliches lads. We know it will be tougher. It's harder every game you play. More pressure." Maurice Sheridan, fit and in form again, was in mid-flow in another corner. Talking about injuries and healing.

"I knew for sure Friday afternoon that I'd play. I hadn't run in 13 days, but it held up well. It didn't come as any great shock to be in. Anyway I hope there is no ill-feeling between ourselves and yourselves. That is all I would hope. There is no anti-media stuff here."

Beside him, Liam McHale was pondering the road ahead. Mayo have a month of work to do. They haven't played their best football yet this season. Having reached an All-Ireland final, that is a cause for hope rather than regret.

"We have four weeks haven't we. That was a much better performance than the Connacht final, but we have to start putting the scores up on the board. That was a much better performance. If we can cut the wides down to seven or eight we have a chance."

Kieran McDonald is enjoying the long summer. He had three points from play yesterday which, on a day of squandering, should be enough to nail down his position for the final.

"The rain had a lot to do with the way the game went today," he said, "but it's not too bad when you can win after 17 wides. They had a great attack, but we had a superb defence today. Looking back we didn't get enough credit for our Connacht campaign. We played good football a few times. In four weeks' time we'll get it right. The difference out there was that we all bonded together like we always do. If a person didn't do it today there was four or five more of them coming to save him. We worked hard for it."

James Nallen was also pleased with the amount of work his team had submitted on a testing day.

"It's nice to be back in the final, back to where we were last year. It was tough out there. Conditions made it tougher, it was very greasy and there were lots of mistakes. Our forwards battled hard and they made it easier for us backs. By coming back and helping out, that gave us a bit of scope. I was able to drop back towards the full back line a lot. We are pleased with the result. The aim was just to keep ahead. We defended as well as we could and took what scores we could.

"After Connacht maybe we had a lot to prove. Certain areas were critical of the team on past performance, even though in the Galway and Leitrim games we had periods where we played football. Offaly had performed so well in the Leinster final that for them to reproduce it would have been spectacular. Their performance that day would have a lot to do with the way we tackled. We stopped the good ball going into their forwards.

"For the final? We know Kerry, they know us. We are looking forward to it. I'm sure it will be a very open game. They know now what we are like. They have won the National league, they are unbeaten so far in competitive football this year. Strong opposition."

We take a last look about the place for John Maughan. No sign. That's the trick with Mayo, they always leave you wanting more.

"The final will be a whole different ball game, a different kettle of fish. Sorry, that's a lot of cliches lads. - Pat Fallon

"After Connacht maybe we had a lot to prove. Certain areas were critical of the team on past performance, even though in the Galway and Leitrim games we had periods where we played football - James Nallen

"Anyway I hope there is no ill-feeling between ourselves and yourselves. That is all I would hope. There is no antimedia stuff here." - Maurice Sheridan