IT was approaching midnight when Stephen Rochford stepped forward to address the 1,500 Mayo supporters who were packed into the Citywest Hotel function room for their team’s All-Ireland final banquet.
Earlier that day Mayo had pushed Dublin to the pin of their collars at Croke Park, but already the group’s attention and focus had turned to the replay.
The manager was setting the tone and the agenda.
“We are only halfway through what has been a battle, and what will be a battle again on October 1,” said Rochford.
“We’d like to think that people will respect that over the next two weeks, and give the lads the space they need to finish the job that we started today.
“We will be putting our heads down again now.
“Our absolute focus is on having Sam here in 13 days’ time, and we’ll be leaving no stone unturned in order to achieve that.”
He may only be 10 months in the Mayo job, but Stephen Rochford (37) has learnt the ropes quickly.
In a county in which success is now measured in Championship wins at Croke Park, an ability to communicate your message in a measured and calm fashion is an invaluable skill.
It was also something that stood Rochford in good stead in the aftermath of the drawn final on Sunday week last when the search for soundbites began.
“I’m only concerned with 33 guys [in the panel] and the management, and we genuinely don’t see this as some sort of a lost opportunity,” he replied when asked for his thoughts on the suggestion that Mayo had ‘blown their chance’ of beating Dublin.
“We see the replay as an opportunity to get our top performance. We did a lot of things right, but we did a lot of things that we wouldn’t be happy with.
“I’d certainly see us demanding an improvement.”
Immediately after the drawn match, Rochford had asked his players in the dressing room to raise their hand if they felt they’d delivered their best game.
Nobody did.
By telling the story, Rochford was making his point to the outside world. Dublin may feel they’re capable of a better performance, but so too do Mayo.
“Guys genuinely didn’t feel that they had delivered their ‘A’ game, and that’s what’s required to beat Dublin or beat whoever in an All-Ireland final,” he explained 48 hours after the match.
“I suppose what it comes back to is that guys have set a high standard for themselves. Every day you go out, you’re looking to improve, and there’s certainly scope for improvement going into the final [replay].”
Some analysts, including Jim McGuinness, believe that Mayo need to pull something radical from their playbook next Saturday if they’re to improve enough to take down Dublin.
Everything from a ‘three towers’ full-forward line to a return to Mayo’s old swashbuckling style of attacking from everywhere has been suggested.
You wonder does Stephen Rochford envisage a game of fine margins being won by a tactical trick of some sort?
“Probably not. I think what we’ll need to do better is more what our focus will be.
“The thing that just pleased me most was our level of consistency throughout the game... I think we worked hard throughout the 70-plus minutes.
“We challenged well, we brought a level of intensity and discipline to the game.
“But there’s a lot more that I’m not happy about.
“In relation to the concession of the two goals, people talk about them being freakish and that.
“But actually, Dublin were in there with the ball, and had created an opportunity. Maybe on a dryer day, there mightn’t have been a need for a Mayo man to stick the ball in the back of the net.
“It might have been in there from a Dublin foot. So they’re the things that we’ll be focusing on and looking to cut out.
“I wouldn’t be happy with our use of the possession on a number of times either,” he added.
“Our own creativity, we got one, maybe two, goal chances, and I think we need to be able to execute them better the next day. And it’s probably more that focus than trying to draw up some new plan or something like that.”
All will be revealed on Saturday.
