Conor and Co. love to attack

CONOR Devaney claims it’s too simplistic to look at the Connacht final as a clash of styles – even if he loves Roscommon’s attack-minded approach.

It speaks volumes for the football philosophy of Kevin Mcstay that the Rossies stalwart, one of only three survivors on the panel from the county’s All-ireland minor winning side of 2006, scored 2-6 last year from the half-back line.

It was a year that yielded a Connacht title – Devaney’s first as a senior player – and while the Rossies only played four Championship matches, the 30-year-old (above) was an All-star nominee on the back of it.

In this era of blanket defences and employment of two sweepers, the Roscommon approach is a refreshing break from the norm.

Devaney said: “It’s definitely more enjoyable – being a forward mostly, coming to training knowing that is the approach and the philosophy, so that we are allowed to do the attacking play more than defensive play.

“I don’t know if I would be looking forward to training as much if I was playing wing-forward and corner-forward and was told that I had to play as a third sweeper.”

Appointed Roscommon captain last December, Devaney insists it’s wrong to label Galway as the antithesis of his own team.

“A lot of people are saying they are defensive but they have a lot of good forwards too, Comer,

Burke, Walsh,

Armstrong,

Heaney and

Brannigan.

“They can score no matter what style of play they’re playing.

“We don’t know what way they are going to set-up against us but we would be very mindful of the fact that they have very good forwards, especially given the talk that we are not as good defensively as we possibly should be.”