A mid-December round-table with Stephen Rochford, any number of potential avenues of discussion to explore with the new Mayo assistant manager.
The past, and his old job coaching Donegal and working with the recently retired Michael Murphy, seems as good a place as any to start.
Where to from here for a Murphy-less Donegal?
[ Michael Murphy’s retirement will be felt far from the hills of DonegalOpens in new window ]
“I still think they have a lot of really top players, the Eoghan Ban Gallaghers, the likes of Michael Langan, Jason McGee, Jamie Brennan, Paddy McBrearty, Oisin Gallen, Shaun Patton.
“In that I have named half the team that will be there and I know I’m leaving people out, Ryan McHugh,” said Rochford at the launch of this year’s AIB backed Goal Mile.
“There are still a lot of guys on the right side of 30 that will backbone that Donegal team. And if they do go through a transition, I would see it being quite seamless. The narrative when Declan Bonner initially came in there was that they were going to go through a transition but they ended up winning the next two Ulster titles.”
On Murphy himself, the county’s long serving totem, Rochford was gushing.
“Truly a great,” he said of the 2012 All-Ireland winning skipper. “A great man on and off the field, would never ask somebody to do something that he wasn’t willing to do himself. A real privilege to have spent the last four years with him.”
For Mayo supporters, the real intrigue is around what the next few years may hold with former boss Rochford back as part of an exciting management team headed up by Kevin McStay.
They will definitely be without Oisin Mullin, for 2023 at least, having signed up to an AFL deal with Geelong.
“We made efforts to make him aware of how key we saw him, as part of the team, but it was quite clear that he had done a lot of thinking about it,” said Rochford.
There may be better news regarding Lee Keegan who, contrary to local reports, could yet be back for the coming season.
“We probably expect to speak to him just before Christmas or very early in the new year, and we are hopeful we will see Lee playing for Mayo,” said Rochford. “We obviously feel that he can still have a big role.”
More concrete news is that Tommy Conroy and Ryan Donoghue, two key forwards sidelined for lengthy spells this year with cruciate and groin injuries respectively, are available again.
“We’re 10 or 12 days back (training), I think we’ve maybe about five sessions done, Tommy has taken part in two, something like every second one, he’s due now to train again on Tuesday, which is all part of the agreed return to play,” said Rochford.
“And Ryan, I think, has completed four or maybe the five sessions so far, so they’re in good nick and we’re really happy with the work that’s been done with them.”
On broader issues, Rochford revealed his disappointment at the GAA’s refusal to allow Mayo to wear rainbow coloured numbers on their jerseys, as a nod to inclusivity and the LGBTQ+ community.
“I think it’s disappointing,” said Rochford, who claimed the GAA has been “a little bit inconsistent” with its messaging in this area. “I think the GAA is brilliant at a lot of things. I think it gets a hard time unnecessarily on certain items, but I do think this is a missed opportunity as the leading sports organisation, with the spread that it has.”
Rochford wasn’t won over either by talk that the GAA may be considering more rule changes.
What would he favour himself?
“That we’d stop changing the rules,” he deadpanned. “The only two rules that I saw being talked about are, one, somebody trying to move the posts. Like, really? And the kick-out one, I’d be interested to see how the proposal, and I might be wrong with this, because I’ve only heard it, but I believe the request is that all kick-outs go outside the 45. I’m struggling to see how that supports innovation but I’d be happy to see that play out at colleges level to see the benefits that are in it.”
A curveball thrown at Rochford was Oisin McConville’s remark following the installation of McStay’s management team, that the new Mayo back room was essentially “overloaded” with big names and characters and perhaps was “not tight”. McConville, of course, was part of Ray Dempsey’s proposed management team which was overlooked.
“Look, maybe in other management teams that might be a factor but I don’t see it (as a problem),” said Rochford. “The best and most recent example you see is below in Kerry where you had three inter-county managers from 2021 leading, and leading them to the very top this year.”
AIB is encouraging communities across the island of Ireland to Step Up Together and re-establish the tradition of taking part in the Goal Mile this Christmas. See www.goalmile.org
