Daniel Carey
STEPHEN Rochford will meet with County Board officials ‘over the coming weeks’ as the Corofin manager was confirmed as the sole candidate for the Mayo senior football manager’s job after nominations closed last Sunday.
Mayo GAA Board secretary Vincent Neary said the make-up of the interview committee will ‘be an Executive decision’, and says the target set by chairman Mike Connelly of having a manager put to the County Board for ratification by the third week in November is still realistic.
“We still have to go through the process,” the Bonniconlon clubman told The Mayo News last night (Monday). “An interview and back-room [team] will have to be put on the table … Just because there’s one nomination doesn’t say he’s there, he’s the manager now, or anything like that. There’s due process.”
Rochford’s Corofin team are currently preparing for next Sunday Connacht Senior Club Championship semi-final against St Mary’s of Sligo. The Galway side are the defending All-Ireland champions.
“To be fair to everyone, he can’t just walk away now out of his current position,” said Neary. “We have to respect that. That’ll have to be tidied up. It depends, obviously, on how long and how well Corofin are going, but they’re a formidable force, so I don’t expect them to be gone off the radar.”
Asked whether he was surprised that there hadn’t been more than one nomination for the high-profile position, the County Board secretary said: “It’s a difficult job for anyone, and there aren’t many people out there who have the time and the energy, to devote to it, [especially] the time. All you have to do is even look at clubs, how difficult it is for them to get management in place. So they’re not queueing up for any of those [jobs], either club or county.”
Neary said he expects the interview will happen before the next County Board meeting.
