AFTER three years on the line with Stephen Rochford, few are better placed to evaluate exactly what the former Mayo boss brings to the Donegal set-up than Tony McEntee.
Alongside Donie Buckley, Gavin Duffy, Barry Solan and Maurice Horan, the Crossmaglen man came on board as coach and selector when Rochford took the reins in his native county towards the end of 2015.
What unfolded was a remarkable rollercoaster journey that brought Mayo to the brink, twice, only for Rochford and co to be left with heads in hands on both occasions – the first after a replay – following three titanic battles with the all-conquering Dubs.
When they failed to scale those same heights last summer, their noses bloodied by Kildare’s raucous ‘Newbridge or Nowhere’ campaign, Rochford’s reign would fizzle out after the Mayo county executive opted not to endorse his new backroom team.
Less than two months later, the man who led Corofin to the 2015 All-Ireland club title had been enlisted by Donegal boss Declan Bonner - the same Donegal who have been among Mayo’s fiercest rivals since their 2012 All-Ireland final showdown.
It was a move that came from leftfield, and on Saturday night Rochford finds himself plotting the downfall of a group he almost led to the promised land as Donegal travel to Castlebar for a winner-takes-all clash, an All-Ireland semi-final spot at stake.
McEntee has watched with interest as the campaign has unfolded, and will be inside MacHale Park to witness the final act for one of these old foes. But what will Stephen Rochford’s impact be?
STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN
Rochford’s move up along the western seaboard, and the swiftness of it, caught many unaware – except Tony McEntee.
He wasn’t at all surprised to see the Ballinrobe man pitch up in Donegal to continue his footballing education.
“Not particularly. Stephen has spent all his time in Connacht, between club football and inter-county and Donegal are, in my mind, clearly the best team in Ulster. They have shown that, and the quality of players they have presently and coming through is very strong.
“When you’ve experienced Connacht football, you’d certainly appreciate the value that Ulster football brings. So if you can move from Connacht to Ulster, irrespective of what team you’re with, it’s a learning experience.
“That’s something Stephen is about; he’s about learning, new challenges, new environments, he’s about improving himself and therefore groups around him when he does that.
“For those reasons, I didn’t see Stephen being worried about taking on another management role in another top-six county set-up. While he’s in Donegal he’ll learn a lot because, firstly, it’s a completely different way they play football, a different mentality coming from Ulster, and the high calibre of footballers he’s now working with, he’ll obviously learn from them as well.
“And you have to remember this is his first role in inter-county football as a coach – previously he was manager, so again he’s trying to develop his skills and his ways of working with people.”
THE INFLUENCE OF THE OUTSIDER
McEntee has experienced being part of a high-profile backroom team in a football-mad county, and knows all too well how quickly perceptions can be formed.
“People tend to look for improvements once somebody new joins the panel. Say for example myself, there were people saying ‘Tony adds this or adds that’, and then they look for something to reinforce whatever bias they might have.
“To be honest, I would say that’s probably the same with Donegal and Stephen. Donegal were a strong team last year, they lost [Patrick] McBrearty early in the year and that obviously resulted in a change in the way they played football, detrimentally because they didn’t have a replacement for McBrearty.
“Also because Jamie Brennan wasn’t playing as well last year and, at least up until the last game [against Kerry], he’s been playing very well. Stephen clearly would have an impact, but people tend to overstate the impact of somebody new coming in because it simply takes more than that couple of months to have a real positive impact on players.
“However, what has changed in Donegal – and this may be due to what Stephen is bringing – is the opportunity to give earlier ball in. Like the last day Michael Murphy looked up five or six times and played 50 yard passes into McBrearty.
“They seem to be working on moving the ball a bit quicker and more often than they would’ve done this time last year, though they didn’t have McBrearty at that time.”
THE BOUNCE
We’ve seen it many times with new managers coming in and immediately lifting a group of players to the next level – can the same not be expected when such a well-regarded coach is brought on board?
Not necessarily, insists McEntee.
“The bounce you often see is in teams coming from a lower base, and you bring structure, direction, a better attitude… Jim McGuinness is a good example of that. He took a Donegal team that was after getting beat by Armagh and he turned them around.
“When you’re working with a team who are at a high level, that bounce is rarely seen. It’s not impossible, but it’s rarely seen unless you’re bringing huge change – whether it’s tactical or mentally or whatever.
“What often happens in those better teams is that a new person actually takes as much time to settle in as he does to have an influence. If that person is looking for a change in direction, he has to get buy-in from players, buy-in from the management structure, the county board… really that buy-in is a leap of faith as much as anything else.
“If it works well, magic, it looks brilliant. If it doesn’t work well, there becomes unrest, the team manager doesn’t know what to do and so on. That settling in period may take up to 12 months and beyond, and if you can ride your luck in those 12 months you’ll do well in year two.
“If you don’t, it’s an uphill battle.”
RISK OR REWARD?
When Odhran McFadden-Ferry was drafted into the Donegal side for their Ulster final date with Cavan, despite not having featured as either a starter or a sub all year, there were knowing nods in Stephen Rochford’s direction.
Throughout his three years at the helm in Mayo, there were some surprising calls made. Some worked, like Aidan O’Shea’s redeployment as an emergency full-back to deal with the threat of Kerry’s Kieran Donaghy in the 2017 All-Ireland semi-final.
Others didn’t – most famously the decision to drop goalkeeper David Clarke in favour of Rob Hennelly for the 2016 All-Ireland final replay. Hennelly was shown a black card and Dublin awarded a penalty after clattering Paddy Andrews following a handling error early in the second half.
And McEntee insists Rochford will never shy away from making suggestions he feels can benefit the team.
“One of the things Stephen is strong at, that he’ll bring to the Donegal set-up, is that he will challenge decisions. Now, some of those will be decisions that may not make a lot of sense, on the face of it, but they’ll be decisions that are worthwhile considering.
“So if we look back at Aidan O’Shea and Kieran Donaghy – Mayo had a gap at that stage at full-back, we had a huge problem with injuries and people not being in form, and obviously Donaghy, the force that he is, there had to be a decision taken on it.
“Who made that decision is irrelevant, when it turns out it’s the manager’s call. While Stephen’s in Donegal, whatever happens will be Declan Bonner’s call. Stephen may make a suggestion but the trouble with it or the success of it lies with Declan Bonner because he’s the man making that call.
“That’s the value of having the three or four people Declan Bonner has in his management team – when you have those ideas, you discuss them, and then somebody has to make that decision.
“In Mayo, it was Stephen who had to make the call that he could stand over, and in Donegal while Stephen may well come up with ideas, and that part he’s good at, the final call lies with Declan Bonner.
“So it is Declan who takes the credit, or the fall when it doesn’t go well.”
COMING HOME TO HAUNT MAYO
Anybody who sat in the post-match press conferences immediately after those All-Ireland final disappointments of 2016 and 2017 will have been left in doubt about what Mayo, and this group of Mayo players, means to Stephen Rochford.
Finding himself plotting their demise so soon after relocating to Donegal is unlikely to have been a situation he had given too much thought. Sentiment, though, will go out the window in these crucial days leading into that Castlebar clash, according to McEntee.
“For Mayo, a few weeks ago it was Donie Buckley - a previous coach with Mayo, now with Kerry - who would have contributed towards the Kerry victory over Mayo. Now it’s Stephen Rochford, a previous manager, coaching in Donegal.
“The Donegal draw last week against Kerry now puts Mayo in a really positive position. And it may put Mayo in a position where, if Mayo get over Donegal, the view of Stephen Rochford in Donegal is completely tainted; that Donegal will have gone backwards from last year.
“That would be a difficult one for Stephen and Donegal people. Mayo in Castlebar are not good, and they haven’t been good over a number of years, but that Mayo team digs out results most of the time, when it’s needed.
“If you go back to 2017/18 when we had to beat Donegal in Ballybofey to stay up [in Division One of the National League], the likes of Aidan and Kevin McLoughlin pulled that team through.
“It’s certainly not a fait accompli for Donegal, or for Mayo, but we may well be looking at a situation next Monday where Donegal – who I do believe are a better team – are out of the Championship.”
