Daniel Carey
Westport
THE front-runner in the race to be the next Mayo senior football manager has confirmed that he will be a candidate for the position.
Stephen Rochford told an audience at a health and wellbeing seminar organised by Westport GAA Club last night (Thursday) that he was ‘delighted’ to ‘put it on record’ that he had ‘formally accepted a nomination to go ahead for the Mayo senior job’, adding: “Over the next number of weeks, we’ll see how that plays out”.
Rochford – who was interviewed for the ‘Minding Yourself’ seminar at Westport’s Castlecourt Hotel as a representative of AIB, one of the event’s sponsors – confirmed to The Mayo News that he had been nominated by two clubs – Crossmolina, with whom he won an All-Ireland club title as a player in 2001, and Ballinrobe, where he now lives, and a side he managed to a Mayo under-21 B title in 2007.
The 37-year-old manager of AIB in Castlerea managed Corofin to an All-Ireland club title last March, and is currently preparing the Galway champions for a Connacht semi-final with Sligo kingpins St Mary’s.
Asked about his back-room team by Master of Ceremonies Pierce O’Reilly in front of a large crowd that included Mayo GAA Board chairman Mike Connelly and vice-chairman Seamus Tuohy, Rochford replied: “I think to be respectful to the County Board and that, they should be the first people to hear about that. Not all things have been nailed down, and there’s a couple of other chats to be had. But hopefully we’ll have them wrapped up in the next couple of days.”
Stories in two national newspapers last weekend identified former Armagh player Tony McEntee, Donie Buckley (who has coached Mayo for the past three seasons), ex-Limerick manager Maurice Horan (a native of Ballinrobe now based in Tralee), Ballaghaderreen’s Barry Solan (who was Mayo’s strength and conditioning coach this year) and former Ireland rugby international Gavin Duffy as possible members of Rochford’s back-room team should he get the job.
The father of one is now the overwhelming favourite for the position to succeed Pat Holmes and Noel Connelly, who resigned from the job on October 2 after the Mayo senior squad passed a vote of no confidence in them. Former manager James Horan indicated last Monday that he would not be seeking to resume his place in the hot-seat.
Rochford gave a coaching session to Westport underage footballers on Friday morning as part of the event.
