'What noise?' - Stephen Rochford says Omagh display more reflective of Mayo side
Stephen Rochford brushed off the impact of the outside noise surrounding Mayo football in recent weeks as the westerners re-ignited their flagging season with a rousing win over Tyrone in O'Neill's Healy Park.
It had been a tumultuous few weeks for Mayo football, with the shock loss to Cavan being followed by manager Kevin McStay taking ill at training and being forced to step away from the role.
Running alongside senior team matters was the wrangling behind the scenes, with GAA President Jarlath Burns and Director General Tom Ryan attending a special county board meeting in Westport, the former hitting out at "bullying, intimidation and threats" which have lately been directed at officers of the county board.
Amidst the gloom and rancour, Rochford, taking interim charge of the side, oversaw Saturday evening's bite-back in Omagh, Mayo overwhelming a Tyrone side which had toppled Donegal seven days earlier.
"We believe that that type of performance is in us. We are frustrated we haven't had that as often as we would like," Rochford told RTÉ Sport after the game.
"It's a step in the right direction. But we know we're going to have to be like that and better if we're going to beat a Donegal team in two weeks time."
The Cavan game had provoked a fire-storm of criticism, with supporters streaming out before the final whistle amid talk that Mayo's season was unrecoverable.
The interim manager admitted they were a wounded beast heading north this weekend.
"Absolutely. But there's no point being wounded or feeling the pain if you don't respond. We were just so, so disappointed in ourselves the last day.
"But we're also working to a point at which believe that that game (against Tyrone) is more what we're at.
"We've had parts of that in the National League. We showed some of it in the Connacht final. But the challenge for us now is to deliver that level of consistency.
"All bets are off now. We've seen over the last two seasons that those final games can go either way.
"We can't entertain anything but getting some sort of a result against Donegal. But the work has to go in over the next two weeks in order to do that."
As for the 'outside noise' that has reverberated around Mayo GAA in recent weeks, Rochford wasn't too concerned.
"What noise?"
Tyrone manager Malachy O'Rourke said his side lacked "freshness" and struggled on kickouts in the absence of midfielder Brian Kennedy.
"The boys are really disappointed in there," he told RTÉ Sport. "We knew what Mayo were going to bring after losing the first game. They've a lot of quality players and they were going to be very hungry coming up here. So, we knew we had to meet that.
"Unfortunately in the first half we didn't get going at all. We didn't seem to have any freshness about us.
"Losing a couple of players, like Brian around the middle, was a big setback. We struggled on the kickouts at different times in the game.
"Half-time, we were in a bit of trouble. In the second half, in fairness, I thought the boys worked really hard and dug in and got the game back to a point. We had a bit of momentum behind us but again we made a couple of mistakes and Mayo made us pay for them."
O'Rourke's side had been in pole position following their win over Ulster champions Donegal in Ballybofey, however Group 1 has been turned on its head again.
On Saturday, of the four sides in action that played last weekend, only Meath avoided defeat, mustering a draw away to Roscommon in Dr Hyde Park.
O'Rourke acknowledged there may have been a fatigue factor impacting Tyrone after their win in Ballybofey.
"We wouldn't have thought that. We certainly wouldn't have been thinking of that coming in.
"There's no doubt there is a lot of fatigue after a game like that. And the seven day turnaround is a big ask.
"But at the same time, we knew what we were facing into. We knew Mayo would be coming fresh and hungry and we thought we'd be ready for that."
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