Tullamore pull off shock coup with appointment of high profile senior football coach

TULLAMORE GAA Club have produced a real rabbit from the hat with the shock appointment of a new high profile coach for their senior football team.

Highly experienced Mayo man Stephen Rochford was ratified as coach at a meeting of the Tullamore GAA committee on Tuesday evening.

He will be working under manager Paul McConway and alongside coaches, Niall Smith and Kevin O'Brien. Rochford's addition will greatly strengthen a novice and inexperienced management team.

An outstanding defender for Tullamore for several years, McConway played last year as they retained the Senior Football Championship. He opted out of playing after that, immediately stepping into the manager's position following the departure of Niall Stack, Tullamore's most successful manager in the modern era.

Stack guided Tullamore to three senior football titles and was in charge for five years. Former Offaly player McConway was joined by Gracefield's Niall Smith and another Tullamore man, Kevin O'Brien. Smith played alongside McConway for Offaly and was a strong midfielder – he played for Gracefield last year in the Senior “B” Football Championship and may also play this year.

O'Brien was a regular in the Tullamore defence for a few years, before departing to Australia. He returned home last year and has developed great expertise and knowledge in the whole strength and conditioning side of things.

Crossmolina man Rochford will bring invaluable experience to the package and he has a proven pedigree. As a player, he won an All-Ireland club senior football medal with Crossmolina in 2001. He managed Corrofin in Galway to All-Ireland club success in 2015 and was the Mayo senior football manager for three years from 2016 to 2018. Rochford impressed observers with his management of Mayo and they were unlucky not to make their long awaited All-Ireland breakthrough, losing the 2016 and '17 finals agonisingly to Dublin, both by a point.

He returned as assistant manager and coach with Kevin McStay in Mayo in 2022 and became interim manager when McStay got ill during this year's campaign. Mayo made a tame exit from the championship and McStay was jettisoned as manager in an absolutely brutal manner by the Mayo County Board.

There has been speculation linking Rochford with a return as manager but irrespective of that, he will be able to work with Tullamore this year.

His appointment represents a big coup for the club. There will be considerable travel from his Mayo home but he will bring a lot to the table. Tullamore have had a great run in recent years, retaining the Offaly title for the first time since 1926 as well as winning their first Leinster club game since 1977 in 2024. They have won three of the last four championships and are clear favourites to win three in a row for the first time since 1926 this year.

They lost the Division 1 Football League final last Sunday with Edenderry snatching a late win with a goal and a point in injury time – Tullamore had won the league for the previous four years but were down a handful of automatic starters, including Cillian Bourke, Daire McDaid, Diarmuid Egan and Harry Plunkett, along with old stagers, Declan Hogan and Michael Brazil.

Fully utilising the new rules and opening up defences will be among the tasks for the new coach and management as Tullamore bid to fulfil their considerable potential.

They have a conveyor belt of young talent coming up and some of the best young footballers in Offaly, including county players in Cormac Egan, John Furlong, Diarmuid Egan, Daire McDaid, Aaron Leavy and the most exciting emerging talent coming onto the scene, Cillian Bourke – there has been renewed speculation lately that he could end up with an Australian Football League club, which would be a grievous blow to club and county.

Tullamore ran eventual All-Ireland champions Cuala close in Leinster last year and making their mark outside Offaly is a natural progression for them, though they are fully aware of the many pitfalls in their own county.

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Rochford's appointment is a signal of Tullamore's ambition and also their potential as he be unlikely to go to a team without serious prospects and targets.

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