MAYO GAFFER: A BREAK WILL NOT BREAK US
STEPHEN ROCHFORD insists Mayo’s momentum won’t be shattered by the threeweek break before the All-ireland final.
Mayo have played seven games in the last nine weekends to return to the decider.
And far from looking fatigued after all the action they’ve actually improved from game to game and have been terrific in their last three matches.
They have a 21-day gap now until they play their 10th game of a memorable campaign on September 17 though Rochford said he’s not concerned about losing their thrust.
The Mayo manager said: “No, I don’t think the three weeks is any problem. The six-day turnaround with this one was always going to be a bit of a challenge.
“But we have three weeks now to top up on a little bit of fitness, assess what we did well out there and what we need to learn from and then obviously plan for the opposition and what sort of conundrums they will bring. So I think three weeks is a nice turnaround for us.”
It was Mayo’s first win over Kerry in the Championship since 1996 and Kerry’s use of Paul Murphy as a sweeper will inevitably come in for criticism.
Rochford said: “Look, Kerry have a lot of talented footballers they can play the game whatever way they want. They can play six up, four up, with a target man or a body back. We had spoken about all the possibilities but we didn’t overly focus on it either.”
Rochford praised Aidan O’shea for his strong performance at full-back on Kieran Donaghy - six days after suffering badly in the same role.
Rochford said: “Aidan had a fine game, no doubt about that. But you’re only as good as your last game and there is another big one coming up in three weeks.”
Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice said: “We’re all gutted. I don’t know what else I can say, just very disappointed. Mayo were better, they were hungrier and they performed better than us.
“We didn’t need the last two games to confirm that Mayo are a serious outfit. We knew we’d have to be on top of our game to win and we weren’t. It’s no huge surprise that they beat us.”