New Offaly manager John Maughan believes that the reason behind Stephen Rochford's departure as Mayo manager has yet to be revealed, and that he had the backing of the county board until very recently indeed.

Maughan was speaking to Off The Ball following his appointment as Offaly manager, and also expressed his happiness at being involved in a county setup that he, until recently, thought unlikely. On the situation in Mayo, John gave his thoughts on the situation surrounding fellow Crossmolina man Rochford.

When asked whether the county board had made up their mind as to moving on without the now ex-Mayo boss, John said he "[knows] for a fact that would have not been case."

"I know they were quite keen to have Stephen in charge. I don't know the exact details and I certainly wouldn't speculate as to what happened, but we all read Stephen's statement where he hadn't got the support of the executive, but I know that up until last week he certainly would have had the support of a number of the executive - I don't know what happened in the interim."

John was clear that he would have advised Rochford to step aside himself, had he been privy to the circumstances at the time, and has urged his native county to get better at controlling the messages coming from the county setup.

"It's sad in a way that we have the uncanny knack of landing ourselves in the headlines because we are a high-profile team in many ways that I would rather we weren't, in issues of this nature. Issues like the management upheavals that we have seen in recent times, I would prefer were done behind closed doors. 

"For some reason, we appear to wash this dirty linen in public."

John also believes that Rochford will be welcomed back into management soon enough, saying he has 'no doubt' that will be the case.

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