Reaction
Ger Flanagan
AT times it wasn’t pretty, and it took some serious grit and determination from Mayo to secure their status in Division 1 of the National Football League for 2018.
It just so happened that Roscommon had managed to do it before us by defeating Cavan, but another loss on Sunday would have caused more unneeded disharmony and frustration within the Mayo GAA bubble.
But an excellent second-half display, kick-started and rejuvenated by Aidan O’Shea’s introduction, was the catalyst for Mayo’s victory, and while Stephen Rochford acknowledged the Breaffy man’s contribution, he was equally pleased with the role played by all his substitutes.
“We got great reward from the bench as we did last week,” the Crossmolina man told the written press after the game.
“The inter-county modern game requires the 26-man squad to be really up for it and available on the day. Only 21 get to play, but we got great reward from Aidan [O’Shea], Diarmuid [O’Connnor], Conor [O’Shea], Stephen [Coen] and you know we required that ...”
Rochford also confirmed that the half-time introduction of Stephen Coen for Colm Boyle was done for tactical purposes and not because of an injury picked up by the Davitts man.
But Coen’s introduction added a new dynamic to Mayo, who after 12 minutes of the first half looked to be cruising until the intensity levels dropped and Donegal gained more than a foothold.
But similar to last week’s victory in Omagh, Mayo made use of their opportunities and possession in the second half, and Rochford highlighted the similarities between the two games.
“We put ourselves in that position [similar to the Tyrone game] and I mean to say that more on a negative basis than a positive,” he said. “We had 16 shots in the first half and we only generated five scores, so we were wasteful. But in fairness to Donegal, they put us into tough positions to take those shots. Some of our shot selection we questioned as well and thankfully we can just put the league to bed now.”
The 2017 league campaign did, however, show an at times different side to Mayo. And with the relegation battle that ensued, Rochford said he hasn’t had a chance to reflect on the campaign as a whole, but there are some things to take forward to the game against Sligo or New York on May 21.
“We probably haven’t had much of an opportunity to reflect because the last couple of weeks have been around ensuring our survival,” he said.
“We feel that we may have added two or three players towards it. We have developed a good squad and it probably leaves us in a good situation. Probably coming into the Cavan game, we could have been looking at a potential league final but that didn’t work out. But we got two points more than we got this time last year in the league and all the focus now turns to the Connacht Championship.”
