By Cian O'Connell

Despite suffering a harrowing one point loss Mayo manager Stephen Rochford was 'proud' of how his Green and Red team performed during a thrilling All Ireland SFC replay at Croke Park.

“Extremely proud of all the Mayo players," Rochford remarked. "I thought they left every sinew of energy out there. 

"Obviously, that’s matched with a huge amount of disappointment but when you come out of a battle like that and come second and to lose by the smallest margin makes it hurt a little bit more.

“When you look at a one-point defeat you look at every single play, every single decision, every single moment in it and question what could have been. That’s just the way it is."

Rochford explained why Robert Hennelly started instead of David Clarke. “We did our analysis on Dublin," Rochford said. 
"They had pushed with a formation in the first game, pushing four guys inside. 

"They were trying to cut off our short kick-out and as the game developed in the drawn game they were getting more comfort or more reward and it was probably something they were going to try to maximise further. 

"Robbie’s kick-out gave us a bit more length, a bit more option and that was the reason behind it."

How did Rochford feel the plan worked?  "In some cases maybe it did, but I'm not thinking through every kickout now at this moment in time to wonder about that."

Mayo boss Rochford acknowledged it was a particularly painful loss. "Do you know, the majority of that group have been in four All-Ireland finals – now three defeats out of that four.

"They're very crestfallen. Devastated. I mean, you don't put the last nine-10 months of your life into an inter-county scene in the way it is at the moment, and take anything out of this year but absolute and utter dejection.

"But they've been doing that for a number of years, and we continue to fall short. I'm sure that will be the central point to a lot of column inches over the next couple of weeks, but I couldn't be prouder of them.

"We had a free maybe to draw the game and we could be still all outside looking at extra-time. But it's not to be, and we'll see what the future brings then as regards how we move on and regroup."