There is no disguising it, the defeat to Fermanagh last Sunday was one of the most disappointing that I have ever witnessed in the championship for Roscommon footballers.
It’s not that Roscommon played too bad at all but it was an incredible finish as Fermanagh got the bit between their teeth and their momentum became unstoppable as the game came to its conclusion.
What Roscommon needed was a player or two who could catch the ball in the middle of the field and carry it into Fermanagh territory. I doubt if the ball crossed the halfway line in the last nine minutes of play.
Despite the freakish nature of the finish this is a game that Roscommon should not have lost and now we have to reflect on a championship summer in which we lost to both Sligo and Fermanagh.
With the prospect of Division One football coming in February next, the County Board, team management and players from U-21 level to senior will have to sit down and take stock and work out a set of priorities for 2016.
I am convinced that we have a talented young panel of players who are capable of winning a Connacht title or two at least but we are in a quandary with regard to the league now. From the first week in February 2016 we will be facing tough games every week and we will have to try and have our best team on the field for those games. But it is the championship that matters and we have a dismal championship record over the past five years.
The demands being made on our younger players in particular are absolutely huge and we have to look at that too. Lads like Diarmuid Murtagh, Enda Smith and others have a huge amount of football played over the past two years and those demands are only going to increase as 2016 comes into view.
John Evans has had a lot of success with Roscommon. The team has improved out of all proportion and the league performances have been top class. But the bottom line is that Roscommon have made little or no progress in the Connacht Championship.
It was great to play against Cavan and beat them and we probably should have beaten Fermanagh too, but what most Roscommon followers wanted this year was a trip to Castlebar to take on Mayo in a Connacht final. After three years under the current management set-up everyone should take stock now.
Preparations for 2016 will have to start in September/October and it would be prudent for all the stakeholders – players management and County Board – to sit down and to see where they are going.
John Evans said last Sunday that he is going to take stock – and that is only right. Has he taken this group of players as far as he can or can he drive things forward more? These are some of the questions that have to be addressed and answered honestly and in a calm and constructive manner.
There is no point in people getting carried away. Things must proceed in the best manner possible for Roscommon football. There are plenty of good players there. We will have a good U-21 team again in 2016 and there is grounds for optimism for the future.
However it would be a crying shame and a fierce waste of talent if this team were not to win at least one Connacht senior title and challenge the top teams in the country over the next four or five years. We have to get it right, whether it is with the current management set-up or with a new one.
Let everyone have their say and let’s move forward after that.
