‘I have moved on from Mayo,’ says Rochford
Similarly, you could picture him wearing the bainisteoir’s bib at Croke Park tomorrow as the Corofin club he managed to the 2015 AIB All-Ireland club football Championship look to secure a third title in four years.
Instead, he’ll be on a sideline with Donegal as his new football project continues apace against Cork at Páirc Uí Rinn.
He says he has moved on but the talk inevitably returns to the Mayo gig he was originally signed up to take until 2020. A lack of support at board level prompted his surprise departure last August.
Recently, Mayo suffered at the hands of Dublin once more at Croke Park under returning boss James Horan, and saw hopes of a League final spot shrink with defeat by Galway. Rochford says his fomer team will be
disappointed by their current form.
‘No, it didn’t end the way I would have liked it to. I’d like it to have ended in Croke Park on an August evening but some things are outside your control. Time passes and you adapt. That’s the way of life. You don’t always have those elements of your destiny in your control.
‘I have moved on and Mayo have moved on.
They will be disappointed as a group with those last two games but I have no doubt but that they will be looking to ready themselves for Tralee.’
Rochford describes himself as an accidental manager after coming to prominence with Corofin, the chance to be a coach again attracting him to Donegal. ‘My initial involvement with teams at club, inter-county, minor and Sigerson level, was all coaching. I was never the No 1. Then Corofin happened and then into Mayo.
‘That’s how things moved along but I was always attracted to working with teams, seeing how things play out, improving players and as a manager you are more detached from that because you have logistic elements, medical elements, county board, media and all the other things.’
The obvious potential in Donegal was one reason to commit, avoiding any Connacht clash another. ‘I wasn’t going to go into a neighbouring county in Connacht. Donegal — they are Ulster champions and certainly would feel they have another level to go to. They competed well against Dublin last year and had the game for the winning in many ways against Tyrone.’
Good news from a Donegal perspective is that Paddy McBrearty is on course for a return after suffering a cruciate knee ligament injury last year in the Ulster final victory over Fermanagh, with a rematch looming
on the horizon. ‘He’s coming along nicely. The big day for him will be Fermanagh at the end of May. We have the two National League games coming up that are very much at the front of our focus but the lighthouse that’s sticking out is Brewster Park at the end of May.’ In terms of the bigger picture, he wonders will Dublin be able to handle the added pressure of a potential five-in-arow. ‘T-shirts will get printed no doubt and Dublin will look to manage what they can control. You don’t win four-in-a-row without being an experienced group but whether that expectation rests well on their shoulders, time will tell. ‘That makes the 2019 season all the more intriguing. It is going to be historic one way or another. Either one team will take down the Dubs or they will become the greatest Gaelic football team in history. They may very well be already, although people down in Kerry would like to argue that one.’