Having enjoyed the sweet taste of All-Ireland club glory as a player with his native Crossmolina back in 2001, Stephen Rochford created a little bit of history in Croke Park yesterday.

He became the first All-Ireland club medalist to manage a different club to Andy Merrigan glory but that fact meant little to him after the final whistle.

He was more interested in deflecting all the praise on to his players.

"I'm just absolutely delighted to get across the line, no matter what shape it took," he said to The Irish Times.

"Okay, so I've won it now as a manager and won it as a player. They're two separate emotions but two that are very, very satisfying.

"It makes very little difference from the point of view of it being the first time ever.

"But they do differ. As a player, you feel that you've got control within the 60 minutes.

"As a manager, you've got to relinquish that control, maybe half-an-hour before the game, and you hope the guys go out and execute the agreed plan.

"And thankfully they all did that, and in fairness to the boys, they've done it over the 10 games of the championship."

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