BORDERING ON HISTORY
ROSCOMMON shares a border with seven counties, so some rivalries are more tribal than others depending on where you come from.
But for Conor Hussey, of Ballinlough, Mayo, Sunday’s oppponents, is the fixture that means most to him.
“Big-time, yeah,” he says. “So I would’ve went to school in Ballyhaunis and I’d know many Mayo fans and whatnot and yeah, I definitely think I’d be at the coalface, as they say.
“Our club is uniquely positioned, right on the border from Galway, Mayo and Roscommon and even I’d have clubmates from Cloonfad who would have went to school in Dunmore and they would feel that Galway would be their biggest rivals and we’re only a stone’s throw away from each other.
“Definitely it’s a very uniquely-situated part of the country too so I do feel the heat of it alright and there’s always good banter around the town when you have a victory or a loss but something you have to learn to take.”
Last year Roscommon comfortably retained their Division One status and then dumped Mayo out of the Connacht Championship.
But they only won one of their subsequent five Championship games, with Hussey describing their exit against Cork in the preliminary quarter-final as “a massive kick in the teeth”.
Teams
“Last year we’d have put a lot of stock into the League in terms of staying up and that was a big priority for us and to be able to show that you can match it with the top teams and it’s possible maybe that after putting that mental effort as much as anything that when it came to the All-Ireland series that maybe we lacked that few percentage to get over the line against the likes of Kildare and the likes of the Cork game.
“So it could flip on its head this year maybe and we’re hopeful.”