Stephen Coen hoping long road to Croke Park ends in Mayo glory

For six straight years between 2004 and 2009, Kerry players marked autumn by the failing evening light as they trained in Fitzgerald Stadium. Stephen Coen has measured it the last two seasons by getting back on the bus from Dublin to Mayo.

In the final year of his agricultural science degree in UCD, he returned to Belfield on Monday having spent the summer at home. It meant getting back on board with the rest of the Dublin-based players in Stephen Rochford’s panel, who have been returning for training once during the week and at weekends.

The bilocation of the Mayo panel is a moot point. Former backroom team member and Irish Examiner columnist Ed Coughlan believes those logistics have held them back. Rochford is more diplomatic: “From a Division 1 perspective, between ourselves and Donegal, we have the larger demand on players commuting. But Dublin is the capital of the country and that’s where a lot of the jobs are, a lot of the top jobs, and where an awful lot of guys go to college. I think in the earlier part of the year it’s a lot more challenging. Certainly, from about a mid-May perspective, when lads get home from college, it allows us a bit more time to be consistent with what we’re trying on the field.”