Former Roscommon star Frankie Dolan made no bones about his dislike for Mayo GAA when reflecting on his sour relationship with John Maughan on Tuesday's OTB AM.
A period of his inter-county career he would sooner forget, Frankie Dolan and John Maughan never really hit it off when the Mayo native took charge of Roscommon in the mid-2000s.
"I played with him for a few weeks but he got sacked in the end," remarked Dolan with a laugh about Maughan's tempestuous relationship with Roscommon.
"He gave myself and four other lads - our captain and our All-Star - the sack beforehand. It didn't work out well for him in the end."
Currently in charge of the recently promoted Offaly senior footballers, Maughan's approach in Roscommon never struck Dolan as particularly wise.
"I remember Maughan [then the Mayo manager] came into the dressing-room after the 2004 Connacht final," he recalled of a game Roscommon lost decisively.
"Like, he was just strutting around the dressing-room [and our] lads were not in a good place - pissed off after losing a Connacht final to our greatest rivals.
"John came in and he was just blowing about how good Mayo were and what they're going to do and all this bullshit.
"I was looking around the dressing-room at a few of the lads and I'm surprised Maughan didn't get a belt, because there were a couple of hard boys there that wouldn't like to listen to that stuff.
"That was the arrogance Mayo have."
As Dolan went on to explain, his experience with Maughan spoke to wider feelings about Mayo's opinion of themselves when it comes to Gaelic football.
"People don't realise the rivalry between Roscommon and Mayo," he explained, "we hate each other.
"Mayo have that arrogance and I don't mind saying it because I'm great friends with a couple of ex-Mayo footballers and they know how I feel about them.
"Great footballers, but Mayo have an arrogance and think they're entitled to win this and that."
An All-Ireland club winner with St. Brigid's, Dolan won his one and only Connacht title with Roscommon in 2001.
Hugely familiar with the intense rivalry between his county and Mayo, he has certainly taken some pleasure in seeing them slip up again and again in familiar circumstances.
1 July 2001; Frankie Dolan in action against Ray Connelly of Mayo | Sportsfile"I think they feel that they're entitled to win Sam Maguire," he suggested, Mayo's consecutive run of lost All-Ireland finals reaching 10 last December.
"Nobody is entitled to win Sam Maguire, you have to put in a massive, massive effort not just over a year or two but over a long period of time.
"Mayo had their chances over the last couple of years against Dublin and they just didn't take them."
Adding further fuel to the fire, Dolan believes the county's rabid GAA followers are not necessarily the best of losers.
"I was at these games in Croke Park surrounded by Mayo people," he explained, "and they never sort of said that Dublin is a great team.
"Something was always against them, be it a referee's call or an umpire's call or something like that - you have to go and win these games.
"The fans on All-Ireland final day are always coming up with excuses. Maybe Mayo were the better team [on some of those days], but you have to have the balls to go and win an All-Ireland.
"Stop making excuses that there was a curse on the team, that's nothing got to do with not beating Dublin in Croke Park!"
Frankie Dolan joined Tuesday's OTB AM to discuss the release of his new autobiography, Outside of the Right.
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