By Frank Craig

Stephen Rochford believes it is time for the GAA to sit down and has a good look at the current state of Gaelic football.

The former Mayo boss and current Donegal head coach isn’t ruling out his former side causing a huge shock in Saturday’s All-Ireland decider against Dublin.

But even if they do, the Crossmolina clubman says it’s time for a subjective look at the footballing landscape to determine why it’s become so lopsided.

In a wide-ranging and exclusive Q&A with Gaelic Life, Rochford takes a close look at the current state of play inside and outside of the capital and what chance, if any, he gives Mayo at the weekend.

FC: Firstly, can Mayo do what many believe is now almost impossible, topple Dublin?

SR:“As a Mayo supporter and even neutrals now I think, we’re all looking for chinks in this Dublin armour. Are Mayo a better side than they were last year? Invariably, Mayo are going to be measured on where they are now as opposed to winning the All-Ireland. They’ve won the Connacht title and they’re in the All-Ireland final. That’s an improvement. I’d ask also are Dublin better? Even with the upheaval in management and some playing personnel; there isn’t much evidence to suggest they’ve gone back. Robbie McDaid has come into that side for Jack McCaffrey. While they’re two different players, in some ways they’re very similar. By that I mean Robbie McDaid scored 1-2 the last day out. So it certainly hasn’t taken from them. I think when we try to analyse Dublin, people are looking for it to be a competitive and close game. And there is no doubt a lot of people would like to see Mayo get over the line. And that’s for a few different reasons at this stage. In fairness to Dublin though, they don’t do sentimentality. The one thing I will say is this Mayo group will respect Dublin, but they won’t fear them. And I do feel that is one crucial element that other teams aren’t bringing to the party when Dublin are in front of them. The element of familiarity between Dublin and Mayo now means that they don’t get distracted. If you are a side coming up against them, you’re trying to cover so many bases that the football match sometimes gets a little lost in between. A Mayo and even a Kerry, who are another familiar foe, a lot of that baggage can be left at the door. And that is down to just having come up against them so many times in both League and Championship.”

FC: Dublin are yet to be tested this term. But because of the change in management and some player departures, could they be somewhat more vulnerable if they did come under pressure on Saturday?

SR: “Mayo need to ask questions first. And then we can see how Dublin react. I definitely feel Mayo are improving all the time. There is even a level of change in the side that was beaten in the All-Ireland semi-final last year. So we’re wondering now how does an Oisin Mullin do up against a Paddy Small, an Eoghan McLaughlin against a Niall Scully or a Ryan O’Donoghue leading the attack. They are playing up against very important players for Dublin but in very important positions for Mayo. We can’t afford for the new guys to be brought along. We need everyone at their very best. You have to be winning as many as 13 of the 15 positions, I feel, to beat Dublin. That’s a tall ask of anyone in any game. But we’re talking about a side going for their sixth All-Ireland in a row.”

FC: Athletically, Dublin seem to also be on another level now, even up against the more recognised and traditional big hitters. There seems to be a gap in conditioning and their ability to sustain those efforts over the course of the 70 plus minutes…

SR: “There is probably three parts to that and being the top quality team that they are. One is the mental approach and they are very strong on that. Obviously, your skill set is the second and the third, that is your conditioning and your physicality. They’ve been the standard bearers on all of that for quite a while now. They’re the benchmark. They cover those three bases excellently. They will be beaten some time. Whether that will be next Saturday or not, time will tell. But in order to get the performance required to beat them, so much has to be right on the day. And in some ways, you probably have to hope that they are a little below their normal level at the same time.”

FC: Because of the disillusionment that is now out there, is there less pressure on Mayo going into this final as a result?

SR: “I think so. Apart from inside that group, there isn’t the same level of expectation out there. It’s be reasonably muted. And in the environment of Covid, the build-up will be much different at home as well. It just doesn’t allow for the typical build-up we’d have. From that point, it can play to Mayo’s advantage. At the same time, there is a wave of expectation on Dublin now every day they go out. This group of players and even management, they don’t want to be the ones that dropped the baton. So there is a different kind of expectation with them now. But they’ve dealt with the ‘five-in-a-row’ hype and they’ve dealt with getting back to this year’s final. If it’s form we’re looking at and it’s chinks we’re looking for; they haven’t shown any. They haven’t really offered up that much hope to everyone else. When we look at these things, it’s not out of disrespect for Dublin, but maybe just the national conversation which is, is that level of domination good for the game.

FC: This talk of domination, financial advantage and looking to level the playing field, what do you make of that entire conversation?

SR: “It’s a very complex argument. It’s probably something that does need a review. I think it’s very easy for Dublin to be defensive about this. It looks like everyone is ganging up on them and their success. I don’t think that’s fair on Dublin. They’ve done all the things that have now set the standard. In some ways, it should be about trying to equal and build towards that quality. And in the long run that would actually benefit Dublin. If we’d four or five sides that would come along and properly challenge them, that would only reinvigorate and drive the hunger in the next batch there. There is absolutely no doubt that the GAA need to grab this bull by the horns and do something about it. What that actually is, all that is open to debate. I just think it would need a proper eight to 10 month review that goes into the details and looks at what the options are. Also, it should go back and look at the reasons why they were being funded from Central Council in relation to participation and the threat of other sports. The threat of other sports hasn’t gone away. So I can appreciate why a strong Dublin is important for the GAA. But not to the point where it becomes, in two or three years time, talk about going for the ’10-in-a-row’. That is no good for the GAA and it’s no good for Dublin.”

FC: Eamon McGee points out that geography and the simple advantage that presents, is also a factor for Dublin. Players are close to base with very little distraction or commute…

SR: “Geography can be such an advantage and disadvantage in GAA. Even if you had all your players in Donegal, the size of the county means you would still have lads an hour and a half away from Convoy, even though they’re in the same county. You could be in Athlone from Dublin in the same time. As well as the geography, there is the financial aspect as well. The actual effect on the player, the wear and tear, from the travel, it’s also a factor. There is no doubt having everyone close to base is massive. It makes life so much easier. It also means that every single session you are together has the exact same benefit for the group. If you take it that you have eight or 10 guys in Dublin between college and work, you are limiting yourself then to maybe two sessions a week where there is the full quality. The group that has the three, well then that’s a 50% increase of an advantage that side enjoys over you. I do think teams based along the western seaboard, like Donegal, Mayo and maybe Galway to a lesser degree; they certainly are more challenged by that. A lot of the Kerry lads are based around Limerick and Cork. In a Dublin context, there is no one living outside of the county playing for them. That’s just economics. The bigger and better paid jobs are in the capital. The really top players, we sometimes recognise them as talented and driven on the field. They’re team players. But more often than not it means they are also team players in their place of work. And having to ask for time off or to get off early, that’s not always that easy for some people. They don’t want to be seen to be appearing to take advantage. And while we do have some very flexible and understanding employers, there is a balance to be struck with that as well. So often it would mean lads getting in an hour earlier, maybe being in at 7.30am in order to be gone by 3.30pm. But they do it for the opportunity to play in big days like this Saturday. And for the lucky few that get to that point, it makes it all feel that little bit more worthwhile.”

FC: How has Donegal compared to Mayo in that sense?

SR: “In fairness, it probably hasn’t been as big an issue in Donegal. In 2017 and 2018, in Mayo, we’d up to 18 or 20 of our panel in Dublin. Typically, a lot of our third level students would go to Dublin. Here, we see LyIT facilitating and having the ability to keep a number of the Donegal lads close to home. Also their success and run in the Sigerson, hopefully that trend will continue. From a work point of view, we probably only had two players based in Dublin this year. Paddy McBrearty was probably the only one that had a commitment in a work sense after we got back in September. It wasn’t as big a challenge as it was the year before and obviously the Covid environment assisted with that. But of course, it’s not something we’d like to see replicated going forward.”

FC: With the momentum Donegal built up, and given the manner in which they were eliminated from this year’s Championship by Cavan; it must still be a very raw nerve for the group?

SR: “Yeah, it is. There is no point saying otherwise. I suppose time is a healer. Also the word coming out of Croke Park this week is that the county season is going to go first in the new year. So 2021 is only around the corner on both the calender and it would seem the GAA season. We’re not going to have long to feel sorry for ourselves and that’s a good thing. What you get in these situations, we didn’t deserve to win that game. For whatever reason, we didn’t reach our standard and the benchmark the group has set for themselves. The element around winning and losing games, that’s sport. It happens. When you lose, but you come away frustrated because you didn’t reach the level you know you can, that hurts. And with respect to Cavan, maybe we weren’t allowed to. You have to acknowledge the part they played in that. At the same time, we didn’t turn into a poor side overnight. In that context, it was very disappointing. The lads, they are a very good group. There is a lot of talent there. I believe they are a group that tick a lot of the boxes needed to challenge at the very top. But there still is a little bit to go.”