By Paddy Hickey

Mayo Board chairman Mike Connolly has admitted he's in the dark regarding speculation that football boss Stephen Rochford will have to find three replacements for his backroom team.

Reports yesterday claimed that selectors Donie Buckley and former star goalkeeper Peter Burke, who doubles up as the Mayo goalkeeping coach, have quit Rochford's set-up.

And there is also a strong feeling that Armagh 2002 All-Ireland winner Tony McEntee is due to step away from his role with the Connacht county.

"All I know about the speculation regarding the position of Donie Buckley, Peter Burke and Tony McEntee is what I've read in the newspapers," stressed the top Mayo official.

"And that will remain the position until next week when we're due to have a meeting with Stephen Rochford and the rest of the team management in which we'll be discussing our plans for next year, and which people will be involved in the team-management end of things.

"With so many people on holidays in recent weeks, there was no major rush for us to hold this meeting."

Obviously, losing backroom colleagues of the calibre of Buckley, Burke and McEntee would serve as a major blow to Rochford's hopes of at least improving on his side's qualifiers' third round defeat by Kildare, at Newbridge, on June 30, in next year's Championship campaign.

Kerry native Buckley, winner of an All-Ireland Club medal with Castleisland Desmonds, is one of the most highly regarded coaches in the game, and he has been part of the Mayo set-up since October 2012 when his services were acquired by then team supremo James Horan.

Similarly, Burke has served an even lengthier tenure of eight years, the first six years solely as goalkeeping coach, and the last two years doubling up as a team selector, and former Crossmaglen Rangers boss McEntee has been part of Rochfort's backroom team for the last three years.

On the positive side for Mayo, Connolly is optimistic that long-serving defender Keith Higgins won't follow in the footsteps of utility ace Barry Moran, who recently called time on his inter-county career.

"As well as his football, Keith Higgins enjoys his hurling to a considerable degree and I'd be very surprised if he didn't decide to commit to Mayo for another year," remarked the county chairman.

"Keith is the type of player who always keep himself in great shape throughout the year, and he always maintains a very high degree of fitness.

"So, I'm sure that playing on at inter-county level in 2019 would pose no problem for Keith."

Turning to the Championship elimination by Kildare, and the failure to at least match last year's All-Ireland final loss to Dublin, Connolly said: "Obviously we would prefer to have gone further in this year's Championship.

"But the fact that Tom Parsons and Seamus O'Shea were ruled out of the game because of injury made it very difficult for us.

"As well, playing at Newbridge was worth a few points to Kildare, and there was only two points between the teams at the end of the game."

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