It has been one of the dominant themes of the last few springtimes and so it remains in 2016.

Mayo. It's an inevitability of two All-Ireland final defeats and three All-Ireland semi-final defeats (two of them replays) in the last five seasons, but as ever, talk of their prospects intrigue.

This year, the 'will they, won't they' narrative thread has been racheted up by the arrival of new manager Stephen Rochford, the All-Ireland senior club-winning former Corofin boss who comes with a big reputation.

The nature of Rochford's appointment - coming as it did after the players moved against the outgoing management team of Noel Connelly and Pat Holmes - has perhaps increased the pressure on the Ballinrobe native, but as Mayo prepare to face Cork in their Allianz League opener this Sunday, he insists he has avoided that particular topic with his new players.

"I wasn’t there, I genuinely haven’t asked the questions," he said of the heave at the Allianz Football League launch at Croke Park on Monday. "There was a process in place with the board and they’ve been working on aspects of that. 2016 is my view."

Yet, it would be foolish to think that Rochford is not acutely aware that the manner of the departure of Holmes and Connelly is a clear indication of just how determined this group of Mayo players are to succeed and finally win an All-Ireland.

Rochford has appointed a formidable backroom team. Donie Buckley, Tony McEntee, Gavin Duffy and Barry Solan all involved and when you have a former inter-county manager - Maurice Horan - doing the stats, you know ambitions are high. Rochford admits he is in charge of a demanding group of players.

"As they should (be)," he said. "It would be what I’d be demanding of my management team, it’s what I demand of the players also. That isn’t something that’s bothering me. It hasn’t been of any focus or any discussion. When you are missing so many players and you are looking towards FBD games - we had our first training session on December 29, a couple of days later we had our first FBD game - we have had no time to spend reflecting, we weren’t there to do that."

Rochford is slowly feeling his way into a role which now comes with huge expectations and pressure. The superb work of James Horan for four years from 2011-2014, combined with last year's stunning two-game battle with Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final, now guarantees Mayo's name being mentioned in practically every speculative conversation about the destination of the forthcoming All-Ireland.

The flip side of that is that Mayo's much maligned inability to get over the line in the All-Ireland race means that practically everyone has an opinion about where Mayo have been going wrong. If the five-in-a-row Connacht champions are not being told they have no top class forwards, they are being told they concede too many goals. If it's not that, it's because they're not ruthless enough.

Rochford sees a basis for improvement in all those areas, but he doesn't pretend that there's any magic solution either.

"I think, yeah, there's definitely an argument for both and I don't think I would be coming down heavier on one side or the other, they're two areas that need to be addressed," he said, referring to the charges of conceding too many key goals and supposedly not being ruthless enough.

"But I think that it's no big secret that any manager wants to concede less and score more but in the aspects of which you do that, there are items around introducing new players, trying maybe some of the players that have been there in the past, experiment with them in a couple of positions, see how we go from there. Yeah, certainly we have to tighten up and we need to score more than at the far end. It sounds simple and it probably is."

Another charge, levelled at Mayo less regularly but occasionally present nonetheless, is the one that they haven't introduced enough new players in the last few seasons, with the core group remaining largely unchanged for six seasons. "The current group have been there or thereabouts for a number of years with all due respect," admits Rochford.

"Whether that’s the old faces in different places or if that’s one new face from the 2013 minor team now that the majority of them are 21 years of age, or whether it’s a year too early for some of them...but then again Diarmuid O’Connor got Young Player of the Year last year. There might be another player or two in that crop but I don’t think it’s a necessity, personally. I don’t think it’ll be a case of everybody in the exact same 15 positions or something like that but we will be trying things out and seeing what we can get out of that."

Rochford says that fate - injuries, club commitments - have forced him to turn to some new faces ahead of the league and he expects up to four or five newcomers for Sunday's encounter against Cork. With Castlebar Mitchels, Hollymount/Carramore and Ardnaree all still involved in the All-Ireland Club Championships and a number of players still out injured, Rochford's options have clearly been restricted.

"Obviously the Castlebar contingent, there are a couple out of Hollymount-Carramore," he said.

"Then you have Alan Dillon, Andy Moran, Seamus O’Shea and Chris Barrett. Keith Higgins is very, very unlikely to play this weekend, we’ll just have to see how things go for him over the weekend in terms of his rehab for whether he’ll be available for Dublin the following week. So in that you are probably looking at 15 players."

Rochford says all of those players will be out for most of the Allianz League, while he says Higgins has a chance of making it back for the Dublin game in Round 2.

"His scans have shown up that there is no structural damage per se, but the bone bruising aspect of it is quite sore. He’s no longer the right side of 30 so you have to be careful with that and let it settle down," he said of the Ballyhaunis man, who picked up an injury a week ago in the Connacht FBD League.

One man whom Rochford says will most likely miss the entire Allianz Football League is Cillian O'Connor. "Cillian had quite a serious knee surgery in the very start of November. His return to play would be probably some time in late April or early May. At this moment in time the summary is that he won't play any part in the national league," the manager explained.

It's early days for Rochford in Mayo, and as previous seasons have shown, the big questions about the Westerners surface in August and September, not in January or February. It's something the new manager is clearly aware of - and ready for.

"As regards the question about myself being under pressure, it’s part of the job and I was well aware of that coming into it," he said.

"But look, we’ll embrace that – I’m more happy that we’re viewed as being a team that can be competitive for the two competitions more than coming in under the radar so it is what it is and we’ll deal with it as best we can and see how we go throughout the year with it."

Stephen Rochford was speaking at the launch of the 2016 Allianz Football League in Croke Park on Monday. Division I champions Dublin face Kerry in the curtain-raiser under lights in Croke Park this Saturday, while Cork welcome Mayo to Pairc Ui Rinn on Sunday.

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