Have to respect that.
Stephen Rochford is a man that lives and dies by the sword.
He makes ballsy moves, sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don’t.
He’ll always stand over his thought process, you don’t make two consecutive All-Ireland finals without taking some risks that pay off.
And the Crossmolina man also knows the importance of small victories ahead of big matches and wasted no time with mind games.
On the latest episode of the GAA Hour show host Colm Parkinson highlighted how Rochford didn’t miss a beat at his press conference.
“He was talking about the big calls that went against him, he was talking about Lee Keegan’s black card, still a difficult one to deal with on the back of the publicity he got in the lead up to the game so he’s bringing back up the publicity, he’s bringing up Lee Keegan,” the Parkinson said on the show.
Rochford also decided to highlight how Maurice Deegan missed a blatant hand trip from John Small on Andy Moran in last year’s replay between Dublin and Mayo.
“That actually had a bearing on the game so he was clever enough to throw that into the mix,” said Parkinson of Rochford’s comments.
“And then he said ‘In the days after the All-Ireland final replay last year I did feel that it was a consorted effort’ this was about the media campaign against Lee Keegan. ‘It’s something we’ve moved on from and we just look forward to getting onto the field.’
“Saying they’ve moved on, there’s definitely a bit of thought put into what he’s going to say here in the press conference.
“What good it does I’m not sure but that’s the game managers play now.”
In what is, by far, the most eagerly anticipated match of the year there is a serious appetite for Sunday’s final after the two mammoth encounters between the two sides last year.
Throw in is at 3:30 PM on Sunday in Croke Park.
You can listen to the full show below
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