Mayo manager Stephen Rochford said this week that he is in no rush to fast-track through a large group of Michael Solan's All Ireland U21 winning side into the senior set up. Brian Reape has been brought in to the senior championship squad recently alongside four others, Diarmuid O'Connor, Stephen Coen, Michael Hall, and Conor Loftus, who have all been with the senior set up previously.
"We've five of the U21 guys who won the All Ireland in so that's where we are squad wise, four of the guys would have had game time during the league, Brian Reape was only in for the one FBD game, he'd freshers with DCU and other things. Is he fit to play tomorrow, no, but his injury isn't anything of a delay. With any of these injuries you give them a time frame, but he's a young guy of 19. Whether he's able to play championship football in three weeks' time at inter-county level, maybe not, but the expectation is that we're bringing him along and we see a lot of potential in him, but not necessarily pocketing him for the London game," the Crossmolina man said.
He went on to explain: "We have to be mindful to remember that these guys are 19, 20, and 21 years of age. I think we all have a responsibility within the county of managing that level of expectation with that group.
“I think there was a number of guys that had made their debuts for Mayo that was on the previous All-Ireland U21 winning team and a number of those guys that weren’t seniors at that time, it took them three or four years.
“Ger Cafferkey, Chris Barrett, all those guys are now stalwarts on the Mayo senior team. They didn’t play in the year they won the All-Ireland. It was a couple of years. I think we have to be mindful of managing that correctly and properly. Half that team are underage again next year.
“Whether we will [call up more], we may or may not, there is no decision made. Whether we bring in one or two or decide to go with fellows over the age of 21, there is no hard and fast rule on it.”
As for how Mayo are set for the London trip at the end of the month, Rochford is hoping that his squad will come through this weekend's first round of club championship games with no ill effects. “Well, we are still two-and-a-half weeks before London. We have made a couple of changes to what we were carrying for the league, so we are at about 33 players now, with no substantial injuries. We have a couple of bumps and bangs, but guys are playing club championship this weekend and we could have an A&E ward again on Tuesday night, but hopefully not. The players are back to their clubs now this week for the remainder of the week so we’ll see them next Tuesday night, so we are down to four sessions before we head for London. That’s tightening in.”
