One accusation that will never be thrown at Stephen Rochford is that he is predictable.
While last year’s All-Ireland final replay decision to drop the experienced David Clarke in favour of Robbie Hennelly didn’t work out, one thing it did prove is that he doesn’t shy away from the big calls.
The Mayo manager’s biggest curve-ball on Sunday was the deployment of Aidan O’Shea at full back to mark Kieran Donaghy.
A whole host of opinions were divided on whether this was a good call, or indeed a bad call.
What was just as surprising as the O’Shea decision, however, was Lee Keegan’s positioning at centre half forward, where he was tightly marked by Kerry’s Paul Murphy.
Keegan, usually the life and soul of this Mayo side, with his direct attacking runs from deep, was unusually quiet in terms of the amount of possessions of the ball he enjoyed.
The majority of onlookers felt that Keegan’s lack of direct involvement in the game was an indictment of a poor decision by Rochford.
The Crossmolina tactician didn’t see it like that.
Speaking to Colm Parkinson after the titanic clash, Rochford claimed that it was his intention to provide Keegan with respite from his defensive duties by moving him up the field.
This tactic was nullified by Paul Murphy’s refined man-marking skills, but what it crucially did do, according to Rochford, was provide Mayo’s other forwards with more freedom and space due to the fact that Keegan’s mere presence drew Kerry centre back Paul Murphy out of his position.
A centre back’s priority is always to hold the centre, and the Mayo manger felt that Keegan’s roving tendencies were crucial in providing the Mayo full forward line with the space and direct ball that they enjoyed.
It’s hard to argue with this, considering fifteen of Mayo’s sixteen scores were from open play, 1-09 of which came from their inside forward line.
“We tried to play Lee out as a third midfielder. I thought Jason Doherty did quite well, there was more space there around the top of the D and the centre back wasn’t in the centre back to close off those areas.
“We didn’t give any consideration to what Kerry did to be honest. We thought we’d play Lee a little bit more advanced where he wouldn’t have to pick up a guy and have to play a little bit more defensively.
“At the same time, Lee was creating space for other forwards – we got 15 scores from play. You give up something on all these things to try and gain something else. Everything didn’t work out today and we will go back and look at these things.
“I said when I came into this job that I wasn’t going to die wondering. Anytime we’ve gone out, we’ve selected a team not to be conservative. We’re going out to have a cut at teams, to try and win the games and to learn from possible mistakes that we have made.
Hard to argue with.
You can listen to the full Rochford interview (from 17″30′) and much more tactical analysis during The GAA Hour right here.
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