Mayo manager Stephen Rochford has revealed that his main target in the Allianz National League is preserve his county’s Division One status.
Rochford has been handed something of a baptism of fire as his side start their campaign away to Cork at Pairc Ui Rinn, missing a host of regular players.
Club and college duties along with injuries have forced the new Mayo boss to cast his net wider than usual and there are 14 new faces on his panel going into the league.
"The short term focus has got to be survival in Division One," he insisted. "We’re short a number of players between club and college games, along with some guys turning up with injuries.
"But we’re looking forward to it, we’ll take one game at a time, see how we go and we’ll look forward to the Championship after the league.
"It's a difficult assignment away in Cork this weekend but we’re raring to go. It’s a big challenge but we’re certainly looking forward to it," he added.
Expectation is high in the county as they head into the new season with players and supporters alike keen to lose the ‘nearly men’ tag they’ve picked up on the last decade.
Dreams of lifting Sam Maguire will once more be in the minds of the Mayo faithful, but Rochford refuses to look beyond the league campaign for the time being.
"We’re looking forward to going to Cork and then Dublin six days later. Our approach really is going to be one game at a time and build towards – hopefully – a good summer.
"We’re an ambitious group and we’re going to leave no stone unturned to get as far as we can [in the Championship]. It’s a long way away, August and September, but the league will be our number one focus at the moment.
"We’ve got 14 players involved in the squad who are new compared to what was there in 2015 and that’s what the league is about, experimenting with some of the older guys that have been there and looking at a couple of the new guys."
Listen to Dublin v Kerry live on RTÉ Radio 1 from 6.55pm on Saturday and watch highlights from the first round of Allianz Football League action on 'League Sunday' at 7.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.
