A LITTLE PIECE of the GAA history books will forever belong to Stephen Rochford.
Fourteen years ago, he came to Croke Park with his native Crossmolina and left as an All-Ireland champion. When he got his hands on the Andy Merrigan Cup again yesterday with Corofin, he joined the select group who have won club football’s highest honour as both player and manager.
Not only that — but he’s the first to do it with two different clubs.
“It’s something I was told about early in the week,” Rochford revealed as he nipped away from the winning dressing room for a moment.
It makes very little difference from the point of view of it being the first time ever. The main thing is, I’ve won it now as a manager and won it as a player. They’re two separate emotions but two that are very, very satisfying.
When he was pulling on the maroon jersey of his home club 14 years ago, things were different.
Out there on the pitch, he was master of his own destiny — to an extent. Yesterday he had to trust that the men he had prepared and drilled could get the job done.
“As a player, you feel that you’ve got control within the 60 minutes,” he explained.
“As a manager, you’ve got to relinquish that control maybe half-an-hour before the game and you hope the guys go out and execute the agreed plan.
“Thankfully today they’ve done it, and in fairness to the boys, they’ve done it over the 10 games of the championship.”
Not only did they do it, but they did it in style. Slaughtneil’s best period came in the opening 10 minutes when they kicked points through Christopher Bradley and Chrissy McKaigue.
Once Corofin settled, sparked to life by a rapid-fire treble from man of the match Micheál Lundy, there was no looking back.
[We're] absolutely delighted to get across the line, no matter what shape it took. The margin at the end isn’t something that concerns me now.
“The first quarter was nip and tuck. I felt though that we still had a good control of the game – Slaughtneil had hit two or three fabulous points, and that we were slowly getting up to the pace of the game.
“And obviously the second quarter we pushed on and tagged on a nice margin going into half-time.”
He added: “We always try to play a fast brand of football, simply because the lads have that skill set with them.
“But to be honest, the things that satisfy me most is our ability to get back, work hard. In the modern game, half-back lines and midfields are driving forward. Whether you look at it as one team being defensive or not, you’ve got to track and follow your man, and our attitude to do that was super.”
