INDISCIPLINE IS THE LAST THING MAYO’S STEPHEN ROCHFORD NEEDS RIGHT NOW —
CROKE Park had no option but to crack down on the total breakdown in discipline that occurred in Pearse Stadium last Sunday. The unedifying scenes in the final few minutes at Salthill don’t reflect well on either set of players, their respective management teams or indeed the referee and his officials.
Anthony Nolan could plead — with some conviction — that it was impossible to see everything that was going on. While that may be true, he and his officials will have better days. In the first half, Kevin McLoughlin and Johnny Heaney were booked in a case of mistaken identity.
And perhaps what transpired in the final few minutes wouldn’t have occurred if the referee had taken stern action earlier in the match.
That’s not to exonerate the two groups of players, because there is nothing that can excuse what we saw near the end of the match. From my perch in Pearse Stadium, I saw discipline break down on at least five occasions with rows involving two or three players on either side.
Last Sunday’s battle shows how this rivalry has become so bitter. The western football rivalry was always intense, but it was generally based on respect. In the past there was never much rancour in the fixture, but that has changed.
I wonder if what happened last weekend was a manifestation of the pressure both management teams and players are feeling — for different reasons. Both Stephen Rochford and Kevin Walsh are in their third year at the helm and aside from Galway’s Division 2 title triumph last year, neither have any national silverware to show for their efforts.
Mayo’s Tony McEntee can have no complaints about his eight-week suspension. A member of the management team shouldn’t enter the team of play like that. We saw last year when Davy Fitzgerald came on the pitch against Tipperary how it can inflame things. McEntee will claim he was more sinned against than a sinner and that he was trying to calm matters. But there is no place for a team mentor when things are getting heated like that.
History tells us that even when one of the management team runs onto the pitch like that, even if they have good intentions, all sense goes out the window. If the referee had taken a harder line, there was a danger that both Mayo and Galway could have lost three or four players each in the final few minutes. And that in effect would have handed a league final place to Dublin and Kerry.
Some good might come from last Sunday, though. Rochford said afterwards that his team totally lost their discipline and he will be reinforcing the need to keep their heads in the coming weeks with the sides meeting again in the Championship. Mayo have enough issues at the moment, without indiscipline on top of everything else.
We have seen in the past that teams have used their League encounter to lay down a marker on opponents they expect to meet later in the year. But the CCCC will appoint a very strong referee for the clash in MacHale Park on May 13. They will need one.