Darragh Ó Sé believes Mayo manager Stephen Rochford has come in for unfair flak over his decision to start Rob Hennelly in last Saturday's All-Ireland SFC final replay.
Rochford and his selectors dropped a bombshell when replacing the in-form David Clarke between the posts with Hennelly and it turned out to be switch that backfired badly.
Writing in his Irish Times column, Kerry legend Ó Sé jumped to the Mayo manager's defence: "For what it's worth, I think Rochford is getting way too much blame here.
"What do people want from their manager? They want him to assess all the information he has that people on the outside don't have. They want him to make an honest decision with that information. They want him to send out his team with a plan to win.
"If anyone could make an argument that Rochford didn't do those things here, then fine, lambast him away. But I don't think anyone is saying any of those things.
"What they're saying is he took a gamble in changing goalkeepers and it didn't pay off.
"Well, sorry now, but that's sport.
"Cormac Costello hadn't kicked a point all summer. Not one!
"Are you telling me that throwing a 22-year-old into the last 20 minutes of an All-Ireland final replay when he hadn't scored a point for six months wasn't a big gamble?
"Of course it was. But Gavin made his decision on information he had that the rest of us didn't. Rochford did the same.
"It worked out for Dublin, it blew up in Mayo's face. It happens."
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