AS Katie McCabe rose from her seat, she bent down towards the microphone.
“It’s been a pleasure talking about the World Cup, guys. Really appreciate it,” she remarked, with lashings of sarcasm.
You could cut it with a knife – 27 minutes, 37 questions and just five of them addressing tonight’s game against France.
McCabe, sitting next to manager Vera Pauw yesterday afternoon in Tallaght Stadium, clasped her hands and stroked her chin at various points as she listened to her boss speak about an article published on Monday.
It featured seven unnamed former Houston Dash players and staff members.
Under the condition of anonymity, they made claims that Pauw engaged in controlling behaviour and fired off comments about players’ size, weight and what they were eating.
There was little in it that didn’t feature in December’s National Women’s Soccer League report into alleged misconduct.
But the timing just days before Ireland’s farewell friendly against France and flight to Australia – as well as the content – didn’t sit well with those at the top table. Pauw described the allegations as “a lie,” while McCabe called it “a real negative distraction”.
The Arsenal star continued: “For us, we’re solely focusing on what we have going forward, a game against one of the top five teams in the world in France.
“It’s a massive send-off game in front of our fans. I wasn’t able to play two weeks ago so I’m looking forward to leading the girls out.
“And we’ve got a massive four or five weeks ahead of us in Australia. Of course, it’s a lot of external noise but our full focus is on the next few weeks and keeping together as a group.”
You have to feel for the Arsenal star and her team-mates. Ahead of a historic first ever World Cup appearance, they have become innocent bystanders in a row that predates their union with Pauw.
Pauw too said she was innocent and the victim of an “agenda”.
“There is a person that is trying to destroy my career… and that’s the way I want to keep it,” she said. “This agenda is known, this agenda has been on Twitter, this agenda is with me and I have said that after the World Cup I am going to see if we go to take legal actions. But for now this strategy works.”
She wouldn’t name the person but her frustration was evident yesterday.
So too was McCabe’s. The 27-year-old Dubliner said: “I have got a group of 25 team-mates and a fantastic backroom staff who are fully focused on what to do and what to concentrate on in these next few weeks, going to our first ever major tournament.
“Of course it’s frustrating that we even have to be talking about this.”
Player welfare was at the heart of the allegations, made anonymously. The irony is that its timing may well have a negative effect on the welfare of Pauw’s current charges.
“I have to live with it and carry it with me for the rest of my life, I’m afraid,” said the manager, anticipating further grillings from the international media in Australia.
And that’s a real frustration because no matter how many questions are asked – to Pauw or to her players – she won’t be cleared of the allegations. Nor will her accusers edge any closer to convincing the world their complaints are justified.
Pauw makes a compelling claim of gender bias, that a male coach wouldn’t face such scrutiny over their management methods. Then there is her denial of some of the more serious allegations.
It’s an ugly stalemate that threatens to overshadow the biggest weeks in the lives of 23 Irish footballers.
And so needless too.
The controversy of last December’s NWSL report appeared to have blown over, until The Athletic’s article on Monday.
Contact between Pauw and the authors was initiated in April.
“They approached me with a survey,” explained Pauw. “I immediately sent it back and I said, ‘When are you going to take responsibility of the double standards for female coaches?’.”
Did she think a media outlet wouldn’t follow that up?
“No,” Pauw replied.
It was put to her that she asked them to reopen the story.
“No, I did not,” Pauw protested. “I asked, ‘When are you going to do something about the double standards for female coaches instead of only players?’.”
One question which led to many more. And more, no doubt, to come.
