STEPHEN ROCHFORD knows Mayo can climb the mountain again – but they are nowhere near the top just yet.
The Green and Red are into year three under Kevin McStay, but their last championship silverware was the 2021 Connacht title.
They reached back to back All-Ireland finals in 2017 when Rochford was boss, but fell agonisingly short in both as their rivalry with Dublin hit boiling point.
The Sky Blues banished them after a replay in 2016, and Dean Rock’s last-gasp free a year later ensured Sam stayed in the capital after a final for the ages.
Rochford departed as manager in 2018 and joined Donegal as a coach, before home called once more and McStay summoned him for the 2023 campaign.
But the hazy days of All-Ireland finals seem like a distant memory. Stars like Colm Boyle, Keith Higgins, Andy Moran, Lee Keegan and Kevin McLoughlin are long gone and all-time championship scorer Cillian O’Connor has opted out for the year.
Padraic Joyce’s men fly the flag for the west in All-Ireland finals now, but endured their own hurt when they lost to Kerry in the 2022 showpiece before Armagh sent them packing last July.
Mayo failed to reach the last eight when Derry stunned them on penalties in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-finals on June 22.
A trophy is on the table in today’s NFL Division 1 final against Kerry at Croke Park as they finished top dogs in a hectic final day a week ago.
Rochford knows that counts for nothing in the grand scheme of things as their Connacht championship opener against Sligo looms next Sunday.
McStay’s pilgrims are ready to go again at the foot of the mountain, – but the Crossmolina coach insists the journey needs patience.
He told SunSport: “I understand that we need to drive on – there is more in this group. The potential that is there, but we are nowhere, we believe, near to that.
“There’s nothing really between being first in the league table, and that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re the best team in the country.
“We don’t see that in ourselves – we see that we’re a team on the up. We feel that we’re progressing in the right way but we’re far, far away from our potential and we don’t have any ceiling for this group.
“Division 1 is a pressure cooker, and when you reflect on it, the team that finished first and the team that finished seventh, there were two points between them, just as if it didn’t need to be said.
“But anyway, it’s just how tight a group that is. We are looking forward to the season from a championship point of view, a very competitive championship.
“There may be some bumps along the way but we are set up to contest and be competitive across that environment.”
An in-depth review of the 2024 campaign took months to complete, and the public wanted answers.
The process was wrapped up last September but patience in the county can be thin, especially when rivals Galway won their third provincial crown on the bounce.
Connor Gleeson’s free sealed Mayo’s fate at the death but a promising group stage saw them sweep Cavan and Roscommon aside.
But a pulsating round 3 draw against Dublin denied them top spot and a straight path to the last eight, before Derry took them out on spot-kicks.
Rochford takes the positives but Mayo are judged on results – no more than his whirlwind stint in the job when he took the reins almost a decade ago.
TREASURE HUNT
He said: “I suppose my own perspective is probably that the glass is half full.
“Obviously people look at the same glass and see it as being half empty. Everybody is entitled to their own opinions and perspectives on that.
“We were disappointed at the way the season ended. We put ourselves in a really strong position in the Connacht final.
“We didn’t get across the line and we would have been really disappointed with that.
“We applied ourselves really well in the group stages, Won two and drew one and probably should have won all three games.
“Then we found ourselves tightening up a tad in the Derry game, but we had a moment to win that game in normal time and didn’t take it.
“Ultimately for spectators the scoreboard becomes a narrative, and that has to be understood. We are in a results-based game.
“We could still see that the ingredients were evident in those to plough on. We ran a critical, but constructive review process. It probably went on a little bit longer than it needed to, but it was robust.
“We have a hunger coming out of that to drive on. We have a very competitive environment. I won’t say we are content, but we are happy with where we are at this moment.”
Rochford knows what it takes to get teams to All-Ireland finals and come within a whisker of winning them.
His Mayo sides brought all-conquering Dublin to the brink. They lost both the 2016 replay and 2017 thrillers by a point.
The pressure of delivering for the Green and Red never goes away no matter how far a team goes, but the current crop are still starting their own quest.
Rochford said: “When you are in a coaching environment you do need to look at performance.
“In the overall assessment, we felt that performances were more positive than negative but not at the level we needed to do to break into the final four or get to Croke Park on the biggest day.
“I don’t think it’s tougher in Mayo any more than it is in Donegal or Tyrone or Derry, Dublin, Roscommon, Monaghan.
“People demand a consistent level of performance and we’re demanding that of each other as well and we aren’t being distracted by that.
“We know that if we continue to do the things that we’re supposed to do, collectively, we’ll get a reward for it.”