Mayo manager Stephen Rochford has lauded the performance of Barry Moran after the Castlebar Mitchels player was deployed to great effect in a sweeper role in the 2-13 to 0-14 victory over Tipperary in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final at Croke Park.
Moran, who played a similarly defensive role for Mayo in last season’s win over Donegal in the championship, neutralised the significant aerial threat posed by Michael Quinlivan and Conor Sweeney superbly.
“I think people saw last year, Barry had played that role against Donegal and he’d done quite well,” Rochford told viewers on the The Sunday Game Live.
“We saw the aerial threat that both Michael Quinlivan and Conor Sweeney had throughout a number of games. They’re two big lads, well over six foot.
“Barry had really an assistance role there to help with that and I though he did it quite admirably and also gave us a bit more option around the middle of the field.”
Manager Stephen Rochford has guided Mayo to an All-Ireland SFC final in his very first year at the helm. https://t.co/2RKGVbFuG4
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) August 21, 2016
The adage that ‘goals win games’ was again vindicated, but they also put a gloss on a Mayo performance that lacked cohesion for much of the 70 minutes.
“We were finding it hard to get our flow right,” Rochford confessed who singled out goalscoring substitute Conor O’Shea for praise.
“We had a couple of shots into the goalies’ hands and Jason had missed a shot coming in on his left foot.
“We were struggling for that little period.
“We were leaving Tipperary in the game, but fair play to Conor, he came in and he’s been quite impressive for us in training in the last couple of games.
“Maybe a little bit fortuitous that he got the touch on it, but you’ll take them.”
Resting on their laurels ahead of September’s final against defending champions Dublin or Kerry isn’t something Mayo could do even if they wished too, with Rochford, who is in his first season in charge of Mayo revealing: “We’ve got a busy week coming up, there will be club championship scheduled in Mayo next week.
“Lads will go back to their clubs and we’ll start getting our heads down from tomorrow morning around preparing, and let Dublin and Kerry look after themselves.
“No doubt they’ll go hammer and tongs at it next week.”
