FAMILY MAN Corofin manager Stephen Rochford is pictured with his wife Laura and son Dara after last year's Connacht Club SFC Final. Pic: Michael McLaughlin
Corofin’s manager looks ahead to Sunday’s Connacht Final
Interview
Mike Finnerty
MF: How would you assess Castlebar Mitchels as an opponent?
SR: We’re coming up against a team with a very good track record in the club championship over the last few years.
They’ve been shooting the lights out with the scores they’ve put up this season, playing seven games and scoring goals in the last six of them. And not just one goal, but multiple goals.
They’ve a very strong strike force, but it’s all built on a solid defence. They’re experienced, quality opponents, and going to Tuam won’t faze them.
MF: Mitchels beat your Corofin team in 2013. Will that game inform your thinking at all next weekend?
SR: It will inform our approach from the point of view that this is a team that knocked us out of the Connacht championship two years ago.
There may have been some talk back then that we took them lightly, but I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth.
I think we’ve gone on to better our performances from then. We had a good 2014 and 2015, so far, and we’re a more experienced group now.
Guys like Martin Farragher, Micheál Lundy and Daithí Burke didn’t play in that game against Castlebar, and there have been a fair few changes in personnel in the squad since too.
Our team and our panel has evolved.
MF: What was it like starting again with Corofin after winning the All-Ireland last March?
SR: Whether you’re coming off success at national level or not, the huge focus is to win your county title. So there was a great sense of achievement back in October when we retained the Galway title.
The lads have very high standards and want to better them and improve them all the time. As a group we welcome pressure, and we deal with it.
We were back playing in the Galway championship less than two months after we won the All-Ireland.
Personally, from June or July, I was ready and fresh for a new campaign again. In an ideal world you might have a longer break than just a few weeks before you’re back playing league games, but both the group and myself are highly-motivated. It’s about the next game, the next competition.
MF: What persuaded you to go back to Corofin for another season, especially after winning the All-Ireland?
SR: I have a great loyalty to Corofin. When they approached me to take over as manager, they took a punt on an unknown quantity really. And they’ve always been very supportive of me and the entire management team in terms of helping us to reach our peak performance.
I’ve tried my best to raise the standards and to make sure we go as far as we can.
MF: You’re a bank manager in Roscommon, a husband and a dad in Mayo, and a football coach in Galway. How do you manage to juggle everything?
SR: I’ve got a super bunch of very focussed players. That’s been there from the very start and we’ve won and lost big games, so the group now know what’s required to be successful.
I’ve got a great support structure around me too from the club, in terms of my selectors, backroom team, video analysis.
Time management is crucial and it’s important to keep home happy, but these are challenged faced by all managers.
I’m in it, like all managers, because it’s a drug.
MF: What’s the most enjoyable part of management for you?
SR: The cups and trophies and medals are nice, but as a coach and a manager it’s seeing your collective plan being developed on the training field and executed on the pitch.
It might not always be evident from the outside, but on nights in Belclare and Corofin over the last two or three years, you’re seeing young guys coming into their prime.
Plus, you’ve got natural leaders like Gary Sice, Kieran Fitzgerald, Greg Higgins and Kieran McGrath still driving on the group.
MF: Corofin won a lot of admirers for the attractive style of play that carried the club to the All-Ireland title. Is that the way you think the game should be played?
SR: I think that whole aspect of our win might have been overplayed a little. You try and concede as little as possible transition as quickly as you can, and score as much as you can. It sounds simple, but it’s up to the guys to execute it.
MF: How would you describe your football philosophy?
SR: It’s not about a philosophy of football, but more about the philosophy of being a team player. Of being aware of what the values of the group are.
It’s about what you do in the gym, in relation to your diet, out on the field. You have to be true to the values of the group, and carry out what the group have agreed.
If you stick to that, then you should be successful.
MF: Is it right to say that everything has gone to plan so far this season for Corofin?
SR: Well, the plan was to win the Galway County Final so from that point of view things have gone to plan so far.
The plan is to be well-prepared, perform and win every game.
Our form at the start of this year’s Galway championship probably wasn’t as good as it was back in March, but over a nine or ten month period you’re going to have peaks and troughs.
If you take the county semi-final against Tuam, we didn’t play as well as we would have liked, we weren’t let play, and they were very well-drilled.
But our lads were able to regroup between the draw and the replay, and performed to a much higher standard the second day. I think since then we’re been on an upward trajectory.
MF: You’re the only nominee for the Mayo senior manager’s job. Has that issue been a distraction over the last few weeks?
SR: I suppose similar to the time management issue, it goes with the territory of being a manager.
My plans for the Mayo position revolve around getting good, strong people in to work with me for the benefit of the group.
I’d like to think it hasn’t been a distraction to me doing the Corofin job, we’ve won a county title and two Connacht championship games in recent weeks. But other people are probably in a better position to offer an opinion on that.
