ALL the frontline Mayo footballers will be trying to stay out of the public eye this week, keeping their heads down and their guards up as they mark the hours to Sunday’s All-Ireland final.
Donie Vaughan is no exception but, as the manager of Vaughan Shoes on the Main Street of Mayo’s football-mad county town Castlebar, it’s easier said than done. The 27-year-old won’t be found on the shop floor between now and next weekend, but he will be working away behind-the-scenes, keeping himself busy during the countdown to his third All-Ireland senior decider.
“When they’re buying shoes, I don’t mind having the chat,” he jokes.
He worked for a while in the Vaughan Shoes store in his home town of Ballinrobe and remembers ‘the Monday morning crew’ with a wistful smile. Hail, rain or shine, the day after a Mayo match, somebody would arrive to casually browse the shelves, pick his brains about the game and leave empty-handed. He’s learned over the years how to deal with the questions and queries from well-meaning and inquisitive supporters.
This summer, he’s had plenty of practice again: “Most people are positive in fairness,” he says.
“It’s very rare that you’ll get someone who will be negative to your face. They might try to knock another player, which I wouldn’t have much time for either, in fairness. Usually, either you can agree with them and just move on or you can hit them with a couple of facts and figures and they’d usually start to backtrack, but most people, in fairness, who call in are fairly positive.”
There are, of course, exceptions to every rule and Vaughan recalls one Galway native who is unlikely to be back buying shoes any time soon: “That’s always the adage, ‘do I say what I want to say here or do I sell the pair of shoes,’” he laughs.
“There was a fella from Galway two or three years ago. He said something and then I said something back and then he said something else. Then, next thing, all of a sudden he walked out. But I don’t think he was going to buy anything anyway. I refused to sell them to him,” he deadpans.
Vaughan was given his first senior Championship start back in 2009 by John O’Mahony and has six Connacht Championship medals and an encyclopedic knowledge of Croke Park to show for his efforts already. He knows the drill ahead of big games now like the back of his hand, staying busy enough to not obsess about the minute details of taking on Dublin, but always conscious of where his focus needs to be at the same time.
It’s a delicate balance and one that has been informed by the bitter experience of losing both the 2012 and '13 All-Ireland finals. He’s also developed some techniques to fall back on: “Mindfulness is a big word that is thrown around now, being able to switch off a little bit more,” he adds.
“We would be encouraged to do it and we’d do a little bit of that, a small bit of meditation, so that’s something that I’m doing now that maybe I wasn’t doing. Whether it’s just being able to switch off from work or from football.”
Vaughan has been there for all of Mayo’s recent Championship collisions with Dublin, including their epic All-Ireland semi-final in 2012 and the final 13 months later. He doesn’t need much reminding about last summer’s semi-final draw and replay either, an injured shoulder in the drawn match kickstarting one of the toughest weeks of his footballing life.
“I tore my AC joint in the first 10 minutes and that’s four-to-six weeks to get back playing pain free. That game was on a Sunday, so I had six days to the replay, five days to when I had to train to show that I was ready to go,” he says.
Vaughan was duly dispatched to the Santry Sports Clinic in Dublin by Mayo’s medical team, where physios Colm Fuller and Edel Canning set to work. After an initial examination, Vaughan returned to Santry just two days before the match.
He remained there until game-day, being worked on "two or three times a day". He started on the Saturday, but was replaced just before half-time. In hindsight, he feels happy with the decision to play him and his contribution.
“I was taken off before half-time, but I felt I made a positive contribution to the game, in fairness. I think we were 10-all at half-time, so I certainly had no regrets about that," Vaughan says.
“On the Friday, I would have done a fitness test with catching ball over my shoulders, falling on my shoulder, just to make sure it was right. On the Monday [after the drawn game], I had went in and my shoulder was killing me. And the medical team were like, ‘it’s not too bad, it’s sound, it’s grand’. They’d seen an awful lot worse shoulder injuries.”
Stephen Rochford’s arrival as Mayo manager this season meant Vaughan was linking up with a mentor he knew well. They both live in Ballinrobe and Rochford had coached Vaughan with the south Mayo club’s U21s, as well as the GMIT Sigerson Cup team, in the not-too-distant past.
Back in January, the new Mayo boss posted the versatile Vaughan at full-forward in his first outing in the FBD Connacht League. This summer, he has moved seamlessly between the half-back line and midfield, depending on the opponent and the assignment.
The man himself argues it makes very little difference in what he describes as "a very fluid" modern game: “The way the game is gone, that middle-eight, half-backs, midfield, half-forward, it’s a very, very similar type of player that plays in those positions. Even sometimes, the role you’re playing isn’t dissimilar because, if you’re playing against a team that has four forwards, what are the other two players then? Are they midfielders or are they forwards?”
As he prepares to take his leave and disappear as best he can, somebody enquires about the prevailing mood among Vaughan’s Mayo customers in recent weeks: “I think people are still quite positive. They’re very excited. Maybe pundits and everyone else is writing us off, but we’ve a great chance and there’s positive vibes out there, definitely, within the county.”
Business will be booming in the months ahead if those positive vibes translate into a winning performance on Sunday.
