Former Mayo manager Stephen Rochford to coach Tullamore senior footballers

FORMER MAYO MANAGER Stephen Rochford has been appointed as coach of the Tullamore senior football team.

The Offaly Express reported that Rochford was ratified at a Tullamore GAA committee meeting on Tuesday evening, and the appointment has since been confirmed to The 42.

The highly-experienced Crossmolina man will work under manager Paul McConway and alongside coaches Niall Smith and Kevin O’Brien.

Rochford has most recently been involved in Kevin McStay’s Mayo management team. The assistant manager and coach took charge this summer when McStay stepped back due to health issues. They were “relieved of their duties” — as Mayo GAA put it in a controversial statement they later apologised for — after their All-Ireland SFC group stage exit last month.

As a player, Rochford won an All-Ireland club senior football medal with Crossmolina in 2001. He managed Galway’s Corofin to All-Ireland success in 2015, before serving as Mayo senior manager from 2016 to 2018. Rochford led the Green and Red to the ’16 and ’17 All-Ireland finals, where they lost to Dublin by the minimum.

Former Tullamore player McConway has been in charge this season following the departure of Niall Stack.

Stack guided the team to three Offaly senior championship titles in four years (2021, 2023 and 2024), as well as their first Leinster club win since 1977 last season. Tullamore are now looking to repeat their Offaly three in a row feat of 1924-1926.

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