Mayo manager Stephen Rochford says his team’s energetic performance against Roscommon at Croke Park was founded in frustration.
Rochford’s side blew the Connacht champions out of the water, winning by 4-19 to 0-09, having drawn with the Rossies in their All-Ireland quarter-final just a week earlier.
"I do think that these guys that I’m on about, inter-county footballers, are trained from a conditioning point of view, to within an inch of their lives," he said. "Nothing is left to chance.
"We trained once during the week because we knew from a fitness point of view we were fine. The challenge was the mental fatigue part of it.
"When we sat down and reviewed the tape of the drawn game we were so frustrated with all of the mistakes we made and that led to that energy when we got back to Croke Park."
Mayo looked a different team to the outfit that lost to Galway in Connacht and then stumbled through their three qualifier games, requiring extra-time to get past Derry and Cork through the backdoor.
"Possession is nine tenths of the law and we got our hands on the ball a lot more than we did last week"
They conceded two early goals against the Rossies in the drawn game to give themselves a mountain to climb, but they were ruthless, efficient and clinical as they took their second chance.
Rochford didn’t want to use the word ‘easy’ in relation to the win and he was keen to play up his side’s excellent work-rate.
"I wouldn’t use that sort of language, we just played with a more consistent tempo," he explained. "We stopped operating in spurts and taking our foot of the throttle like we had been. We allowed the scoreboard to keep ticking.
"We put a bit more pace into he game and that’s what Tom (Parsons) and Donal (Vaughan) were really good at in the middle third. Possession is nine tenths of the law and we got our hands on the ball a lot more than we did last week, which was a big cause of frustration in our camp last week."
Stephen Rochford: "It's not our intention to chain the guys" pic.twitter.com/obStoT9h5h
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) August 7, 2017
Footballer of the Year Lee Keegan was withdrawn from the Mayo starting team after he spent time in hospital in the week before the game following a foot injury.
He recovered quickly, according to his manager, and he would have been available had the cavalry been needed in a close closing quarter.
"It was documented that Lee spent a bit of time in hospital this week and he would have been available for 20 or 25 minutes if we needed him at the end," said Rochford. "He made a good recovery and we have to compliment our medical team and the medical team in Mayo General Hospital."
Mayo now take on Kerry in the first of the All-Ireland football semi-finals on 20 August.
