Mayo star Lee Keegan says Stephen Rochford deserved more support from the powers that be before stepping down as the county's senior football manager.

Having overseen the team's fortunes since the end of 2015, Rochford confirmed his resignation on Monday night amid tensions with the county board and thanked all those who supported him over the past three seasons.

Speaking on Off The Ball this morning in the build-up to Sunday's All-Ireland SFC final, Keegan felt the situation should have been handled differently and that Rochford deserved more support from the board.

"Definitely (deserved more support) you saw from the way we played over the last, well particularly the two years, we were within a breeze of beating probably one of the greatest teams out there and that's not down to luck or any fluke at all," the Westport man stated.

"That's down to brilliant management, brilliant planning and having that tactical know-how, he did believe that we could beat Dublin. The only thing that probably went against us as players is we never won a medal under Stephen which is disappointing for management and probably a player point of view. 

"We had Connacht medals it was all about landing the big one I think Stephen deserves any bit of praise he got or any congrats. I think it was handled a bit poorly. Stephen couldn't give us much more as a manager and from a player point of view I know he was highly regarded within the group of guys.

"Stephen's biggest challenge was trying to fill a team of guys who were with us for four or five years or six years. If that was happening in any other county, including Dublin or Kerry or Tyrone, that's a huge void to fill and a lot of pressure on guys and I think you need to take your time in doing a process and look at the best possible candidates coming in and pick up what was left behind.

"Stephen deserves huge praise and from a personal point of view and a group point of view we can't say no more than thanks to him because he did so much with us and he pushed us to the boundaries we never thought we would never go."

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