THE HIGHER you go, the further you can fail. Within those electric seconds at the end of last year's All-Ireland football final, as the country tingled at the prospect of the Sam Maguire Cup crossing the Shannon for the first time in 30 years, Mayo were getting ready to fall.

This is not to dismiss the tightness of the replay nor the narrowness of Meath's ultimate victory. But the retrospective view that sweeps from Colm Coyle's last-minute equaliser to tomorrow's first round of the Bank of Ireland Connacht championship in Tuam illustrates a chastening and prolonged tumble by Mayo.

The very closeness that almost allowed them see their breath condensing on the silverware only intensified the reservations about the team, the county and by extension, the province.

As an unedifying complication, seven of Mayo's players had to be suspended by the Games Administration Committee for their part in the brawl that became the 1996 final's most identifiable characteristic.

Fast forward to Tuam Stadium, where a first-round rerun of the last two Connacht finals takes place tomorrow and where Mayo have not beaten Galway for 46 years. The general theory is that Mayo should have enough to win but less than 12 months ago, general theory found it surprising that much the same team beat Galway, then Connacht champions.

At the nerve centre of Mayo's challenge is team manager John Maughan. For him as much as his players, this championship is a test.

The most enthusiastically acclaimed manager of the decade, his exploits last year with what started as a Division Three team had to be filed alongside the history he made with Clare's footballers in 1992. His achievements there triggered such literature as the poem, by Padraig Haugh, that included the immortal line: "John Maughan is like Our Lord, His strength he has for sure".

The All-Ireland outcome didn't leave the crowd shouting for Barabbas, but some people expressed the usual tactical criticisms that seep out after any narrow defeat.

Maughan's military discipline under fire was a considerable asset in the aftermath. He consigned the match to history, denied vehemently that it reflected badly on the team's psyche. This week, his view is no different.

"We went to an All-Ireland as well prepared as any team," he says. "Being from Connacht didn't militate in any respect. As a group of players and management we visualised winning. Even before the replay we couldn't see ourselves losing."

For the winter, he set his sights on the National League. He was an influential voice in persuading the county board to drop any notion of appealing the Croke Park suspensions which followed the All-Ireland.

Unfortunately for him, external matters combined to engineer a troubled league season for the team. Relegation was avoided by means of a play-off, by coincidence in Tuam against Clare. It was a game of such dire quality that anti-depressants could have been usefully distributed to the traumatised attendance.

The league campaign was disrupted by the absence of half the team suspended for the pre-Christmas matches, the progress of county champions Knockmore in the club championship, midfielder David Brady breaking a leg and his colleague Liam McHale's form experiencing a dizzyingly downwards spiral.

Relationships with Knockmore and its players became a recurring controversy, accompanied by much speculation about lingering resentment at the club that Kevin O'Neill, briefly brought on as a substitute in the drawn All-Ireland final, had been dropped from the panel for the replay. A narrow defeat for Mayo in Portlaoise occurred after two of the club's players, O'Neill and Peter Butler, refused to turn out for the county.

In the circumstances going into the Laois game I had suspensions and three injured players," according to Maughan. "I requested the two players because I needed at least one of them. Unfortunately they dug their heels in which didn't sit well with me at the time."

Life went on. Knockmore reached the All-Ireland final and became - along with the county under-21s and St Gerald's, Castlebar - one of four Mayo teams to lose at All-Ireland level in the last seven months. Mayo escaped relegation and Maughan invited the Knockmore players to join the panel. Declan Sweeney did but Butler and O'Neill said that other commitments prevented them.

"I'm disappointed that it became an issue," says Maughan. "People can draw their own conclusions. The bottom line is that I asked players from Knockmore to play. They decided they couldn't. I don't lose sleep over it. I wouldn't be begging fellas to play for the county but I would have regretted it if I hadn't approached them.

Part of tomorrow's appeal lies in the tradition of Galway-Mayo matches and the Tuam jinx which for a phenomenon so widely dismissed as irrelevant, consumes much of the pre-match chatter.

Mayo people, who, while acknowledging that such a thing can have no rational role in a championship match, may also wish to hang rosary beads or bulbs of garlic around the necks of departing Mayo players, can point to strange phenomenons in Tuam.

Take the two most recent examples, 1990 and `92. Seven years ago, as tomorrow, Mayo went to Galway as beaten All-Ireland finalists, having put together Connacht's best challenge for the title in over a decade. In the absence of two significant players, Noel Durkan and T J Kilgallon, they were beaten.

Two years later, Mayo inexplicably dropped a seven-point lead with 10 minutes to go and were held to a draw. In the Castlebar replay, the Tuam factor was emphasised as Galway were destroyed.

It shouldn't affect a well prepared team but if things start to go badly and not according to plan, players can find it hard to stave off a gnawing unease.

Mayo's players should be uneasy enough to start with. They were an unrated team last year until they surprised Galway in the Connacht final, a match which defined their strengths for the rest of the season.

The midfield diamond was powerfully effective. Liam McHale was exceptional, enjoying - as he frequently does - a very good day against Galway's centrefield. Beside him, David Brady blossomed while at centre forward Colm McManamon brought his perpetual motion tactic to national attention.

At centre back James Nallen completed the picture with a strong performance while up front John Casey had a wonderful afternoon, giving the highly rated Gary Fahy the runaround.

The trouble is that all those personnel have been affected by the events of last September and their fallout. Having suffered to some extent or another, these Mayo players return to the opposition which facilitated their lift-off last year but, in the eyes of many, with a lot of convincing to do.

McHale's travails are the best known. Man of the match in the drawn All-Ireland and sent off after six minutes of the replay, he served a two-month suspension. More unsettling still, he talked out his frustrations in public and became saddled with the reputation of being a moaner.

His form suffered disastrously and he was substituted and dropped from Connacht's Railway Cup team and struggled as the team moped through their Division Two programme. In the absence of his club colleague Brady, McHale was partnered by Pat Fallon.

Fallon had played splendidly after coming on as a substitute in the All-Ireland replay. Maughan admitted that by leaving Fallon off the starting 15 he had broken an old rule about allocating starting places to players who were performing best at training.

By the winter, Fallon's form was in decline and he has yet to regain the sort of quality displayed last September. McManamon gave a great all-action display in both finals but his distribution was erratic and because his immediate opponent Enda McManus refused to go along for the ride, Meath held their shape and the tactic had patently reached its sell-by date.

Nail en was last year's best centre back but even he suffered in the drawn final by being detailed to leave his position to mark Trevor Giles.

Casey's experience was the most heart-scalding. His confidence went in the final under the twin burdens of expectation and the excellence of Meath's full back line. Substituted in the drawn match, his season plummeted to its nadir in the dying moments of the replay when he wouldn't take on a late chance for an equalising point and passed to Tom Reilly who was festooned with defenders.

He was one of the players suspended in the aftermath of the final and was subdued in the weeks that followed. Rehabilitation of sorts took place in the spring when a football scholarship to Tralee RTC culminated in a Sigerson Cup medal.

The events of last year won't be easily set aside but the first step would be a victory tomorrow. Galway have introduced five new players and are in good spirits. Mayo have made two controversial changes and are in uncertain mood.

Win tomorrow and Mayo can tentatively look forward to a championship run. They have the lessons of last year to fuel a genuine challenge but much depends on whether those lessons have become useful experience or unbearable baggage.