Dressing-room buzz is non-existent now, laments Rochford
AS well as global pandemics, bad luck isn’t confined by borders. On his fivehour round trips from Ballinrobe to Convoy, Stephen Rochford could be forgiven for thinking he has spent his time driving under a giant ladder.
After spending three years in charge of Mayo – in two of which he came up short of winning an All-Ireland by a bounce of a ball – he has arrived at a county struggling to catch a break, or at the very least the right kind of one.
Last term, in his first season as coach, Donegal seemed set for the last four of the All-Ireland race, at the very least, when key defender Eoghan Bán Gallagher broke his ankle during the Super 8s. It resulted in them exiting at the hands of Mayo, mirroring the misfortune of the previous summer when an Ulster title win lost some of its shine after it emerged that Patrick McBrearty has ruptured his cruciate ligament.
And this year, their side of the Ulster SFC could hardly be more difficult.
There is luck, there is bad luck and then there is Rochford’s luck… Not quite.
‘I don’t think that Eoghan Bán’s absence from the Mayo game was a deciding factor and I haven’t heard the management or players talking about the loss of Paddy the year before,’ said Rochford. ‘The key thing with this group is that they stick to the facts more than to things outside their control.
‘We have known about this for 13 months and it is what it is. Declan (Bonner) doesn’t be shy telling the lads that this was the way he grew up playing football.’
That may be but nobody grew up preparing like this. Donegal were the first county to stand down as the result of a Covid-19 outbreak when inter-county training resumed in September.
It has meant that they have, like others, gone well beyond the advised protocols, limiting training pods to groups of four and travelling individually in convoy to Kerry last weekend.
It sounds worse than it is, suggests Rochford, but there is no disputing that it has made for an alien team environment.
‘I haven’t found the energy coming from the group being any way different but the buzz that would be around the dressingroom is non-existent.
‘There’s challenges in there in that we don’t spend as much time on video analysis and team
meetings are more Zoom call orientated so a lot of things have changed. But they’ve also provided some opportunities for the future, like do you need to have as many team meetings and can you use some of the technology-based solutions to manage people’s commitments and energies?
‘Donegal’s a big county and is there a need to bring someone from Gweedore, Buncrana or Carndonagh to Convoy, which are all at two-hour round trips. I think there are certain elements out of it that the counties will look into the future to be able to see benefit in.’
And perhaps the GAA, too. Even the giddiness prompted by having a one-off, old-style Championship does not alter the reality of the imbalance within the provincial structure.
Already the public health crisis has prompted the GAA to move to a split club/county season calendar, but the appetite for reform should not be limited to that, argues the Donegal coach.
‘The League has been such a great competition that there is value in looking at a LeagueChampionship type format. Does there need to be eight groups of four or four groups of eight or something like that and build in quarterfinals, semi-finals final or a last 16 and a quarter-final, semifinal and final knockout?
‘I think that even under a clubcounty split season that there would be scope to do that while still also having a League that means something.
‘I do think there is merit in addressing that but I’m certainly willing to accept that one of the two teams that has ambitions to win a provincial title will be gone come three o’clock on Sunday.’ And that is the hook today. Tyrone, lifted by the return of Conor McKenna and the introduction of Darragh Canavan, have hinted at playing a direct, expansive style, while Donegal, under Bonner and Rochford, have prioritised ambition over caution.
But, if that suggests a TV spectacle of total football, Rochford’s gut – and most likely his game plan – informs him that this will be an old-fashioned battle of wills.
‘I’d say you shouldn’t be surprised if it is anyway,’ he concedes.
‘There’s no safety net in this. The teams are probably going to go into it trying to strike the balance around being brave but being smart as well and being pragmatic.
‘I do think playing it as a winter Championship, there may not be as much opportunity to play faster football.
‘You have to be able to cut your cloth to what presents in front of you and in that one of the items to be particularly aware of is going to be weather conditions.
‘Both attacks would have a couple of real quality players, so to say that there may be some defensive systems in place, I don’t think people should be surprised by that.’