‘It’s either North Pole or South Pole with Mayo’

Been there, done that, got the souvenir jersey. Stephen Rochford was dressing himself for a media event in Croke Park during Monday’s football qualifier draw, and something inside of him naturally clicked.

Mayo avoided the big threats – or at least Tyrone anyway – and will travel to Limerick on June 9th looking to get their All-Ireland campaign back on track. They played 10 games last year, including the one-point final defeat to Dublin, and with the new Super 8s, will require a minimum of 10 games to get back there again.

“There will be some commentary around a division one team and a division four team, and all that,” said the Mayo manager, speaking at the announcement of AIB’s five-year extension to its GAA sponsorship. “The reality is we’re all in a similar pot, in that we were all very much invested in our provincial championship, all coming off the back of a disappointing performance or less, whatever the situation. So the starting point is very similar.

“And we’ve seen it over the last two years, that first game is a particularly tricky assignment, and going on the road won’t be simple. But yeah, there were a couple of teams in there that you were happy to avoid as well, so no denying that either.”

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In their first qualifier game last year (after losing the Connacht semi-final to Galway), Mayo needed extra-time to get past Derry in Castlebar, 2-21 to 1-13; Limerick have won just one championship match over the past three summers, and won only one match in division four this year.

“When we look back on the Galway game, we’re very much looking at ourselves, with regards to what we can improve on, and that will continue to be our focus, with one eye sort of on Limerick as well. But looking to do what we want to do, better, crisper, and lift our level of performance.

‘Tricky’

“That first game, no matter who you think you’re playing or not, it’s a tricky game. Two teams a little lower in confidence than they would have been going into their provincial game. So, in that you find the earlier parts of that game will be a little wobbly or whatever. We’re obviously going in without Tom Parsons [injured], Diarmuid O’Connor [suspended]. That gives the opportunity to somebody else. But having been down that road, I’d expect we’d be able to dig in to that sort of knowledge and experience, and keep us on cue to deliver the performance that is required.”

Only being down that road doesn’t necessarily make it any easier: Rochford accepted that when asked if he felt Mayo still had the appetite for another extended journey.

“That question has been asked over that team since 2014, and maybe even on the back of the 2012 and 2013 All-Ireland final losses. So really it’s external noise. We’ll look at whether we have the appetite to beat Limerick now. We’ll take it game by game and week by week and try and get ourselves in a physical and mental state of mind that gets us up for each and every one of those challenges that will play out.

“The efforts and prep we put into that Galway game. I think it’s fine margins in that game. We played that game for 45 or 50 minutes with a man down and created numerous scoring opportunities, and we get hit with a goal four minutes into injury time. So I don’t think all is lost and that narrative on Monday could be something different.”

Questionable

Lee Keegan will be back on the panel by then, an obvious addition, and still Rochford accepts that Mayo’s form down previous qualifier routes has been questionable. “We are all big enough to understand that it’s either North Pole or South Pole with Mayo. It’s either ‘Jaysus, they are going to do this’ or ‘Jaysus, look at what they just did’. We know ourselves we are never at either of those two points. We understand that had we won that game by a point there was still a lot within that, that we didn’t do right.

“That is something that if we don’t get right, we’re going to have a lot more challenging afternoons in the back door. We have the sense of knowing that it’s only out on the field you can answer that back.”

Despite O’Connor’s sending-off, Rochford doesn’t believe Mayo have any unique problems with indiscipline. “Look, the reality is we’ve had a man sent off in our last three championship losses, all games which we’ve ended up losing by a score. But I think what you’re seeing is, in many ways they’re isolated incidents. If you look at Diarmuid’s, and it’s no way to disagree with the incident, we’re all in agreement that it was a sending-off, but I do think that it was, in many ways, riding the tackles.”

Match venues and times will be confirmed by the CCCC on Tuesday. All games scheduled for weekend of June 9th/10th, and required to finish on the day.

First-round qualifier draw (teams drawn first have home advantage)

Derry v Kildare

Meath v Tyrone

London v Louth

Wicklow v Cavan

Offaly v Antrim

Limerick v Mayo

Westmeath v Armagh

Wexford v Waterford