JOHN MAUGHAN ADMITS himself he was something of an accidental manager.
32 years after he took donned the bainisteoir bib for a senior inter-county team, the 60-year-old returns to Croke Park with Offaly tomorrow afternoon.
How did he wind up taking over as Clare senior football boss at the ripe old age of 28?
An outstanding underage talent in Mayo, he lifted the Hogan Cup, two Sigerson titles and a Connacht U21 medal in the fledging days of his football career.
That led to his breakthrough onto John O’Mahony’s senior team. All the signs pointed to him being a mainstay at centre-back for the green and red.
Yet when Mayo lost to Cork in the 1989 All-Ireland final, he hadn’t kicked a ball in three years. A routine cartilage operation prior to the ’86 championship, led to a serious of complications that resulted in him being forced to hang up his boots at 25.
“I had a slight tear,” he recalls. “It went from bad to worse.”
His knee got infected after the surgery and to cut a long story short, Maughan’s playing days were prematurely ended.
“It broke my heart having to give up football. I loved it. I embraced it, I was one of those fanatical guys training twice a day and all that mad stuff.”
In an attempt to save his career, he was on peacekeeping duty with the United Nations in the Lebanese city of Naqoura when he met a Swedish who promised he could fix his knee.
“Pretty desperate stuff,” admits the Crossmolina native. “I was hardly able to walk at the time. I was banjaxed. He said he (worked with) all the skiers in Sweden, it was his area of expertise. I said, ‘Yeah, you’re my man. Go on, carry on, fix me.’
“I had a bit of open surgery. There was no keyhole surgeries back in those days.”
The surgeon informed him: ”Yes, you’re good. I fixed your knee.’
But the operation was unsuccessful. By the time he was 28, Maughan was forced to reckon with the end of his career. He did make a couple of ill-fated returns to the field with Castlebar Mitchels, but further injuries followed.
He stayed involved in the game through managing various army teams and worked as a physical trainer with Mayo under O’Mahony. The move to Clare came about when they invited him to come on coach to coach the team for the 1990 campaign.
“I went down to Sullivan’s Hotel in Gort and I met a couple of men from Clare. They wanted me to coach the team. I asked, ‘Well who’s going to be the manager?’ They hadn’t decided at the time. So I was cocky enough to say, ‘Sure I’ll do that as well.’
“(I was an) accidental (manager) in that regard insofar as if I hadn’t got injured I probably wouldn’t have been managing army teams.”
On his first night at training, only 11 players showed up. Clare had played a championship game the year before against Sligo with the bare 15. One player got injured and they didn’t have a substitute to replace him.
Yet by the 1991 Clare were All-Ireland ‘B’ champions and in ’92 they did the unthinkable, taking down Kerry in the Munster final.
He embarked on a colourful management career, bringing Crossmolina to the 2003 All-Ireland club final, in addition to two stints with Mayo and spells over Fermanagh, Roscommon and now Offaly.
“I had no intention of getting involved in inter-county football after the last effort with Roscommon,” he admits. “I was out of the scene and coaching locally with Castlebar Mitchels underage and I had no intention of getting involved. In fact, when I got a call from Offaly I rebutted the conversation. I said absolutely no way.
“When I sat down for the interview I just found my mouth saying ‘yes’, even though my head was saying ‘no. An hour and a half later I was saying to myself, ‘What in the name of God am I doing here?’”
The buzz of management is the same, even if the highs of bringing Mayo to All-Ireland finals remains unmatched.
“It’s a bit different. We’re playing at a different level now. If you’re out here on All-Ireland final that’s a unique experience. That’s…wow. To have the privilege of that is quite exceptional. There’s no feeling like it. If you’re interested in sport or GAA to be out there with 82,000 is just incredible.
“There were times when I was sitting on the bus coming up with the Mayo team on a Saturday and you just wished you were out with the crowd having the craic, because there was a fair bit of excitement particularly when Mayo come to town.”
Offaly prepare for Westmeath in tomorrow’s Tailteann Cup semi-final. Maughan was always in favour of the competition, which is no surprise considering he enjoyed success an an All-Ireland ‘B’ championship with the Banner and Fermanagh.
“Here we are getting to play in Croke Park. I don’t know what kind of a crowd will turn up for it, but inter-county footballers want to play out there. The likes of Sligo and Offaly don’t get too many opportunities.
“It’s kind of a dreamland. I know our lads are really excited about playing on the pitch itself. That’s a reality. We’re not Dublin, Kerry, Tyrone, or Mayo, this is a different level. It’s amazing to see the reaction that getting to Croke Park has on a young fella.
“To put on a county jersey and play out there, that’s dream stuff.”
