STEPHEN ROCHFORD WILL make a call on his future as Mayo boss at the end of October as he comes to terms with another All-Ireland defeat.
Like his predecessor James Horan, Rochford has now been beaten in consecutive finals and he’ll weigh everything up before he decides whether or not to commit to the final season of his three-year term.
“I have to do a bit of thinking about that during the month of October and see how it is,” said Rochford at the Citywest Hotel yesterday morning.
“I’ve got into a new job with work and I have two young kids so there’s a good bit to consider now at this stage. So we’ll do that during October and talk to the county board.”
Rochford’s side came agonisingly close to beating Dublin once again, with Jim Gavin’s side now being lauded as the greatest football team of all-time.
“It’s not any easier,” he said of the latest defeat. “It’s very difficult losing finals by one point. We didn’t have an ambition to come up and be a good second we were quite happy to be a poor first but it wasn’t to be.
“We know we played reasonably well. Still don’t think we played our best but I think when you’ve got two extremely competitive teams up against each other they’ll negate you on some things and other things played well but it’s disappointing, yeah.
“It’s a long trek to get back here but I have no doubt the lads will look to regroup over the winter and see what that takes them next spring and into the summer.
“We don’t take any solace in coming a good second. We were totally invested in winning that game. It wasn’t to be. Tight calls, tight margins, a post. I’ve no doubt when we sit down at the end of this week or early next week and look back, we’ll pick out a number of things that we could have done better.
“In that I know that we didn’t play to our best. And in that way I think that there’s still room for improvement in the lads.”
The 38-year-old refused to lay the blame of the defeat at the door of Donal Vaughan, who was dismissed in the 45th minute for a strike on John Small.
“Out of the mayhem that is out here, I haven’t got to speak to him yet. I definitely will in the next couple of hours. I haven’t seen the incident but I thought from pitchside that it possibly looked worse than it was.
“I thought it was just a case of him running in to remonstrate, I thought. Honestly I haven’t seen it on video but with Colm on the ground he sort of had to jump over him and maybe that made it look worse.
“It’s one of these things, he’s been super for us all year and he was having a fine game yesterday. There’ll be no victimisation here of anybody. All 35 that’s in that squad worked each other to the bone to get us into that position to be able to be competitive and go to that 78th minute yesterday. It is what it is, that’s what happens sometimes. Things happen and you just get on with it.
“Moments within these games don’t define these guys. If it was, they’d have been finished four or five years ago. Mentally they are a very strong group, they are a very tight group and we know again that there’s more percentage points to improve on and I’ve no doubt the talent is there.
“I think five of the six guys we brought on were under the age of 25 yesterday, three of them at 22. While Dublin were brining on All-Ireland winners and experience, we were certainly bringing on All-Ireland winners at minor and under-21 with youth and that’s encouraging as well for the years ahead.”
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