Rochford enjoying Ardagh’s first final countdown

Taken as a whole, the Mayo club championship, to a large degree this season, has been a story of the underdog and rural clubs. The junior final is no exception.

Ardagh are preparing for their first championship final against an Eastern Gaels side that this time 12 months ago was exactly the same, preparing for their first every county final. Whatever happens next Sunday, one of them will be lifting the McDonnell Cup for the first time in history – unless of course there’s a draw!

The Ardagh community has rallied behind their team in what is an exciting time for the parish and their players.

“It is something we haven’t experienced before in Ardagh. It is savage when you are driving and see all the flags up along all the houses on the main road, on the schools, the agri services; it is something the club hasn’t seen before, and there is great hype around it,” says Stephen Rochford who last year captained the team to the Division 3 league title. For players like him, this final appearance has been a long time coming but one that is bringing great excitement to the locality.

“It is great to bring a bit of joy. Even all the younger kids playing football, it is new to all of them seeing this. Hopefully that will help the likes of them to stay involved and keep their interests high and play football for Ardagh.

“There are a few players that have played at a higher level for a team, but 90 per cent of players have just played for Ardagh. There is a few boys that have played for college teams and some Mayo set-ups but they probably haven’t experienced the crowd that was at the last game; Shrule probably was the largest crowd a lot of people have played in front of.

“It is probably a first experience for a lot of people, so it brings great excitement,” says Stephen, who tends to operate around the half-forward line in an exciting Ardagh attack.

After coming up short in the semi-final last season, the club situated between Ballina and Crossmolina have corrected some wrongs and are now in the showpiece they have waited for.

While this may be new to the players, their manager Sean Carey has seen it all before.

A coach involved in the Mayo senior football set-up in 2016, when under a different Stephen Rochford Mayo got to the All-Ireland final, Sean experienced plenty of big championship days in the colours of his native Kiltane. Stephen has praised Carey for his impact on the squad in the lead-up to the final.

“Sean has a great name for coaching, and he probably brought us on that little bit more on the football pitch.

“We are very lucky as a junior club to have a man of Sean Carey’s experience. We are fortunate he is in the area, he has his three sons, Tony, Darragh, and Conor all involved in the club and playing.

“He has been a super addition for not just our team, but at underage. He has brought players and the club on so much.

“When Sean Carey says to jump, you say how high, there are no questions, and that is it. There is nothing complicated with him; it is very simple. He doesn’t try anything mad, doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel, he is just trying to get the best out of everyone. And that is it.

“He will ring James Carr and have an hour conversation with him as a Mayo player, and he will ring number 30 on the panel and have an hour conversation with him. Everyone is in the same boat, and he is just trying to bring everyone on.” 

When Stephen Rochford made his way into Ardagh’s first team however, the biggest issue any given day simply being how to get enough numbers to fulfil a fixture. For kids in Ardagh today however, those days seem impossible to imagine. The football team is what everyone in the community talks about these days.

“I remember James (Carr) said before, when we first started playing, he was 17 and I was 18, there were six or seven people at training. That genuinely was the case.

“We were at matches and we were counting people in the changing room to make sure we had a team to come out and play. We played a team before with 14 players, you were allowed to play a 15-a-side game with 13 or 14 players.

“The area expanded. I don’t know is it due to the population of Ballina expanding to the countryside or is it more people getting interested in playing football.

“As a result, the club gets a small bit more success. Kids get more interested and want to play football for Ardagh. If the Ardagh senior team is losing all the time, kids on the fence about playing for Ardagh aren’t going to want to get involved. What they are seeing us do is encouragement to want to wait on.

“Whether you are in the local pub, you are outside Mass chatting, you meet someone in a hardware store chatting, it is the main talk. There is not much else to talk about. Even the crowd at Breaffy the last day, everyone knows everyone so personally.” 

Despite youth being central to Ardagh’s rise in the past few years, Stephen Rochford is keen to remind players it will not always be about finals and big occasions. But to lift silverware and go up to intermediate would be a day to remember for everyone involved, in what should be a hard-fought encounter with Eastern Gaels.

“These young lads came in and they were in a county final straightaway. When I was their age, I got to a semi-final when I started playing that first year, I thought this is the norm.

“I think it was six years later when we got to another semi-final. Getting to semi-finals and finals is very difficult.

“We are under no illusions; Eastern Gaels are coming in as strong favourites. But it would be pure relief and excitement, it would bring the club on so much. For a club of our size to be of intermediate status, it would be massive really.”