By Michael Devlin

Stephen Rochford’s decision to stay on as Mayo manager has been welcomed by Jason Doherty.

Rochford recently met with county chairman Mike Connelly, as well as the members of the Mayo senior football squad, and stated his intention to return in 2019 for his fourth season in charge.

The 39-year-old Crossmolina man was given a two-year extension on his term last October, but has not spoken publicly since Mayo’s All-Ireland round three qualifier exit to Kildare six weeks ago.

Rochford’s backroom team will be overhauled however, with long-serving coach Donie Buckley, goalkeeping coach Peter Burke and selector Tony McEntee all stepping away from their roles.

“Stephen has done some great work with us over the last number of years,” Doherty told GAA.ie at the launch of the 2018 Croke Park Charity Challenge at Croke Park. “We have definitely developed our game and new selectors coming on board will bring in new ideas.”

“As a player you look forward to that, the anticipation of who will be in. And, as a player, it makes you look at yourself. One thing that Stephen has brought in is that nobody is safe, whether you are there 15 years or six months. He constantly challenges you to question your own game. You can’t rest on stuff you have do in the past, you have to be showing up on the Tuesday and the Friday before the game. He picks teams to meet the opposition as well.”

Looking back over Mayo’s summer, Doherty concedes the season was a frustrating one. After bowing out of the Connacht Championship at the first hurdle to arch-rivals Galway, a two-point loss to the Lilywhites at St Conleth’s Park ended Mayo’s Championship.

It was the first year the Green and Red failed to make the last eight since 2010, and Doherty insists the county need to re-assert themselves as provincial kingpins before they can set about mounting yet another challenge for that long-awaited Sam Maguire triumph

“Going back to the Galway game, we played better against them this year than we did last year, and we probably could have won the All-Ireland last year potentially.

“In fairness Galway are a different animal now, they are a top side and they got a late goal against us which stung us and hurt us. We did a huge amount right in that game, obviously we didn’t do enough to get over the line and that’s something we need to address.

“Kildare turned up in Newbridge obviously and they were phenomenal. It’s not that we played tremendously poor either, we did a lot right, but we made a lot of mistakes and they did enough to squeeze over the line and we ran a bit out of steam, which is slightly disappointing.

“But I suppose now we have this longer break to reset, re-energise and go back with the club and take your learnings like you do every year. But obviously, we are well aware that there are areas that we do need to address to get further than that.

“First and foremost, we need to perform in Connacht, which we haven’t done for a few years. That’s more disappointing than anything. We need to get a bit of momentum there and not be relying on just expecting to land into the sun in the first weekend in August and then all of a sudden at Croke Park, we’ll take off.”

The early exit has presented some positives in the shadow of that disappointment however. Such has been Mayo’s interest in the business end of the football calendar over the best part of the last decade, the inter-county’s seasons have often segued straight into lengthy involvement in club championships, with little for players to enjoy the off-season until preparations for the next campaign begins.

This winter has offered an opportunity for Doherty and his team-mates to “reassess and re-energise".

“You are always scrambling for the holidays and time off in the winter. In the back of your head you are thinking that there is a big fitness test coming on and you need to get a few runs in before that and you have two or three weeks off, doing nothing.

“I’ve already had five or six weeks now where I stepped away from the club and just did my own thing in the gym and running and playing a bit of tag rugby for the first time or doing a bit of yoga.

“One thing I have noticed is that you are saying yes to things in Whatsapp groups that you haven’t said yes to in about eight or nine years, whether it is meeting up with friends or going to the hurling semi-final, catching up with friends from college, weddings and stuff like this. You’re so used to saying you have training or a match.

“That’s been enjoyable, getting back into those circles. It is definitely a great opportunity for us re-energise, new faces all over the panel, and if anything, we can start 2019 with possibly less lads catching up with injuries and operations.

“We’ll get everything done a bit earlier and we can hit the ground running because we will need a big league next year and get a bit of consistency going, because we were a bit up and down.”