Devaney has high hopes for Rossies
WHEN Roscommon stole a march on the rest of Connacht to lift the Nestor Cup in 2010, Conor Devaney was on the other side of the world.
Instead of being on the field at the final whistle, the All-Ireland minor winner of 2006 celebrated victory with a champagne breakfast in a San Francisco bar in the early hours, taking it all in as Donie Shine’s late free sailed between the posts and secured the provincial crown.
He took another sabbatical at the tail-end of 2013, not quite seeing eye-to-eye with then manager John Evans as he juggled the workload of studying for his HDip in Dublin at the same time. When Fergal O’Donnell and Kevin McStay were appointed, he jumped at the chance of getting back on board and hasn’t looked back. On Sunday, Roscommon take on Cavan in the Division 2 final, raising the curtain at Croke Park to the Dublin-Galway showpiece.
A national medal would sit nicely with the Connacht honour he finally got his hands on last summer, his dynamic performances from wing-back playing a big part. His 2-4, including three points in the final against Galway, made him Roscommon’s leading scorer from open play in the Connacht Championship.
He admits there were times, though, when silverware never seemed a possibility. ‘Yeah of course. There was times where I thought I’d never win a Connacht title but I got the sense when I came back in, that the team had the potential to win a Connacht title. We were building towards that. Although we did get hammered by Galway in the replay of the Connacht final the previous year, I still thought that we could win one so there was definitely hope there. Luckily we did last year.’
Roscommon’s promotion means that there will be three Connacht teams in Division 1 next year, a sign of the province’s rude health. Mayo’s last-gasp draw against Donegal at the weekend means they will compete in the top flight for a 21st season next year — no other county has remained at the summit during the same period — while Galway are bidding for a first top-tier title since 1981 on Sunday.
‘It’s great,’ says Devaney. ‘Galway are doing particularly well this year, [they’re] in the League final. Hopefully it means any of the three teams could win the Connacht Championship. I’m sure the other teams will have a say as well. It’s very healthy for the province.
‘I know Mayo have been on top and I’m sure they will continue to get to semi-finals and finals in championship but ourselves and Galway really need to push on and compete with Mayo at the top level.
‘It would have been one of our goals to get promoted. We did it the hard way. Our first couple of games weren’t so good. Drew with Meath, lost to Down. Two poor performances. We picked it up from there. We played the FBD final against Galway and from there we’ve won each game. Some of them haven’t been easy but we’ve improved from the low point at the start. It was our goal. We’re very happy to be going back up to Division 1.
‘We felt last year that we very much under-achieved in Division 1, if you compare to the previous year where we were here in a League semi-final. Now I know we got hammered by Kerry in it — we were poor on the day.
‘To improve, to try to get to quarter-finals — that’s our aim, to try to get to that stage more consistently in the Championship, we need to be competing in Division 1. If you go back through the years, you’ll find that Division 1 teams are the ones competing in All-Ireland quarter-finals. I don’t think it’s any harm setting yourself targets, whether that’s privately or publicly. We’re just lucky to have achieved it.’
That they have put the painful ending of last summer’s 4-19 to 0-9 All-Ireland quarter-final replay rout by Mayo behind them is a testament to the side’s character. ‘It was very tough to take the second day, considering how close we were to beating Mayo the first day and then realising how much of a gap there really is between ourselves and Mayo. That made us think what do we need to do to close that gap. It’s very hard to know because they’re that much ahead at the moment.’
A narrow win over Cavan the weekend before last was in keeping with the nature of the rivalry that has seen them win seven of the last nine meetings. A Division 2 title, a Connacht title defence and a chance of making the new round-robin All-Ireland quarterfinals are motivational goals.
‘Of course they are. I think that’s where we’re at. I think you have to be realistic and make small gains each year. I don’t think we are going to come up here and beat Dublin in the All-Ireland final, but I do think we can progress year on year.’