The curtain came down on Roscommon senior footballers’ championship campaign for 2015 in Brewster Park in Enniskillen last Sunday evening.
It has turned out to be a nightmare of a campaign this year with the only saving grace being a win against a mediocre Cavan team.
John Evans can talk all he wants about the cups in the cupboard but he cannot sugar-coat the fact that it was a very disappointing end to the 2015 campaign.
Every year at the start of the season teams lay down their goals for the year, culminating in trying to get things right for the premier competition, the championship. Throughout this year we have been touted as realistic contenders for the Connacht title, especially when we got what looked like a favourable draw. But it has turned out to be a major disappointment. With due respect to Sligo and Fermanagh they could not be considered as teams who are at or near the top table, yet both managed championship wins against Roscommon.
After all the work which has been done at underage level over the years we have now assembled a strong group of quality young players. While it was good to see progress in the league it is their championship performance that teams are judged on. John Evans made a big issue last Sunday evening about the inexperience of our players, implying that was probably the cause of our defeat. I would disagree with him on that score.
There have been huge issues with regard to team selection and game management and those factors come under his watch. We saw last week that the Kerry manager Eamon Fitzmaurice put his hand up and acknowledged that he had made mistakes in the drawn Munster final.
When someone is taking the credit when things are going well then they must be prepared to stand up and take responsibility when things are going the other way. There is no doubt that we should have won that match last Sunday as we were in control for almost the entire game. Having said that Fermanagh had a number of bad misses in the first half, especially from their talisman Sean Quigley.
For Roscommon there were some very good displays and they played some excellent football in patches. Seanie McDermott and Cathal Cregg deserve special mention for outstanding displays but we made some strange substitutions which allowed Fermanagh back into the match. While that was true, the Fermanagh comeback was also aided and abetted by some poor refereeing from Cormac Reilly. The penalty award was a joke, but not very amusing if you were a Roscommon supporter. What annoys me about this referee and several others is that we continue to see them throughout the championship, regardless of what blunders they make.
Everybody agrees that the real All-Ireland Championship does not really start until August, so it is very disappointing that we did not make it that far. But if we learn from our mistakes it might be worth it in the long run. We are a better team than we showed in this championship.
This weekend’s action
This coming weekend we have the Connacht SFC Final in Dr Hyde Park. Mayo will be hot favourites and Sligo will do well to make a match of it. Mayo, while not looking great, easily dispatched Galway in the semi-final.
Sligo had a great win over Roscommon but they will face a bigger challenge on Sunday. Mayo look too powerful and I expect that they will win with a bit to spare. In Ulster Donegal will have to be at their best if they are to overcome Monaghan.
Don’t expect this to be pretty – I don’t think Mick O’Connell will be watching. It will be tense and tough and I expect Donegal will double-mark Conor McManus, thus reducing Monaghan’s scoring power. Donegal to win a low-scoring game.
In the qualifiers I am predicting wins for Tyrone and Galway. Galway did very well last weekend to beat Armagh but might find Derry more difficult this weekend. Galway are playing a more defensive system now and while it appears to be the way to go, the northern teams are more used to playing it and are better at it. I am not sure about this Derry team so I am going for Galway to get to the next round.
