At Corofin, Stephen Rochford helped turn an already modestly successful outfit into one of the greatest club teams of the last twenty years as they sauntered to the 2014-15 club championship.
On assuming the top job in Mayo, he drafted in another All-Ireland winning club manager as part of his backroom team. Tony McEntee was joint manager of the Crossmaglen team which won back to back All-Ireland titles in 2011 and 2012.
Together with Donie Buckley. Gavin Duffy, Barry Solan and Maurice Horan, he forms part of a powerful looking backroom team.
At the launch of the Allianz National League yesterday, Rochford spoke to us about his reasons for bringing McEntee into the fold.
Interestingly, he said that McEntee's status as an outsider and someone who wasn't 'emotionally invested' in Mayo's quest for an All-Ireland was an important factor.
I think Tony's reputation and what he's achieved as a player at both club and county and what he's achieved as a manager in Crossmaglen.
And his own opinions that you would have read in the press and he would have stood out to me as a guy who has a really deep knowledge of the GAA and the inter-county football scene.
He's going to offer us a fresh voice. He wasn't going to be emotionally invested necessarily in Mayo and he was going to be able to give to the management team and me right between the eyes and be able to give it to players as well.
All of those things have come to the fore since he's been involved.
He dismisses the hypothesis that McEntee was brought in with a specific remit to tighten up their defence, a perceived weakness which haunted Mayo in the past two All-Ireland semi-finals. Indeed, McEntee's influence has been felt in attack as much as defence.
I wouldn't say the idea was that he would come with any one simple area to look to address. Tony's influence at the moment has been as much with the attack as it had been with defence.
Mayo are gunning for a sixth successive provincial title but Rochford feels it has become a very competitive province again, highlighting Roscommon's presence in Division 1 and in Galway (a scene he knows very well), he points to the 2011 and 2013 All-Ireland winning U21 teams.
