Roscommon waiting in the long grass

At the launch of the Connacht Senior Football Championship back in April, Roscommon manager Davy Burke was asked about what had taken place to ensure that for the first time in several years, the county would have more or less every key player available for selection in 2025, writes Kevin Egan.

There were exceptions – Niall Daly continues to battle with plantar fasciitis and his younger brother Conor, another defensive stalwart, hasn’t been involved. But on the other side of the ledger, players such as Ciaráin Murtagh, Colm Neary, Shane Killoran, Ultan Harney, Ben O’Carroll, Cian McKeon and Eddie Nolan were all either absent or injured for long chunks of 2024, while a handful of new talents such as Senan Lambe, Conor Hand and Pearse Frost emerged as well.

Burke told reporters that this universal buy-in was player-led, and he accepted that with this endowment of riches came an accompanying level of expectation and pressure.

If ever a side could be said to have fallen short of expectations while still securing promotion in the league, then Roscommon are that team. After taking six points from their first three games and looking as if the new rules would suit them and their army of shooters, defeat in Navan in round four was followed by a win in Cork, a second half collapse against Cavan, and a draw in Mullingar in a game where they led by 2-10 to 1-1 at one stage.

They stumbled into the championship, and with their knees wobbling, Galway well and truly knocked them to the canvas in Salthill.

All politics is local

To an outsider looking in, all is well with the Rossies under Burke. They’ll play Div 1 football next Spring, the local club scene is very strong, they’ve a strong minor team and reached a Connacht u-20 final, and they have far more depth than should be expected for a county with a population of just under a third that of Meath.

In 2024, they beat Tyrone in a knockout championship game and before their exit came in the All-Ireland quarter-final at the hands of Armagh, and they lost out to the eventual champions by two scores (2-12 to 0-12) in a game where Ruaidhrí Fallon was harshly dismissed in the first half.

Put all that together, and no wonder it surprises many people to learn that the sense in Roscommon for many people is that the time to deliver is now, and if there isn’t a significant upturn in fortunes from where things were in March and April, there might not be that much appetite to persist with Burke at the helm.

Were the Clane man to leave, he would leave with plenty of goodwill and appreciation from the natives, but even though he’s in his third season, his management team has lacked continuity and as a result, the team’s tactical approach, or even their footballing identity, hasn’t always been plainly obvious to the untrained eye.

Key individuals

It’s customary for a section like this to focus on players that are playing well, those that are capable of causing real problems for opponents. The problem for Roscommon is that while it would be easy to cite the Murtagh brothers, or perhaps Conor Hand and new Navan O’Mahonys recruit Niall Higgins as players who are playing well, the Rossies will stand or fall depending on the performance of their elite stars.

The two men in that bracket are Brian Stack and Enda Smith.

Stack is the classic under-rated modern footballer. He was nominated for an All-Star at full-back, a role he took on because even though he would arguably be much more at home at centre-back, midfield or half-forward, he’s such a talented all-rounder that he was perceived a possible solution for a real problem position.

This year, Stack missed some time with injury in the second half of the league, and he didn’t quite get back to where he needed to be by the start of the Galway game. If he has been able to use the time to rediscover his sharpness, Stack is a class act and a player that elevates the whole team around him.

And while the St Brigid’s player is a man who never puts a foot wrong, the other type of impact player is Enda Smith; a powerful, fast, two-footed scorer who breaks lines and opens up defences. He won’t handle the ball 25 times in a game, but it’s entirely in his wheelhouse to have seven possessions, and from those to score 1-3 and set up another couple of scores, or to win frees.

With Smith in 2025, the problem isn’t injury, but just a lack of form. Part of it is that other teams are alive to the threat he poses, but great players need to find a way to break those shackles. Smith, who is by far the team’s leading goalscorer despite usually lining out at 9 or 12, is facing that challenge now.

Strictly from the perspective of the Meath game in Dr Hyde Park, watch out too for Keith Doyle. In a county without fielders, the big man with Carlow lineage is around six foot five with a huge vertical leap and excellent athleticism. Four or five midfield marks in a game is not uncommon for the St Dominic’s player. Against a Meath side that will be armed with a spectacular array of fielders, a strong showing from Doyle looks vital if Roscommon aren’t to be starved of ball.

Outlook

The games have fallen nicely for Roscommon in that their away game is to Kerry, who would arguably have beaten them anyway, and they will face Meath at home and Cork a week after Cork suffer another psychologically scarring defeat. (Of course Cork could win in theory, but how many Meath Chronicle readers really believe that’s possible?)

Because of that schedule, finishing second in the group is attainable.

But can they beat an equal or slightly superior opponent in a knockout game? The short-term and even the medium-term history of the side would suggest not.