Rossie relegation woes parked as Hussey craves Mayo rebound
Conor Hussey doesn’t try and sugarcoat what was a pretty grim spring. “We have to accept we probably deserved to be relegated,” says the Roscommon defender.
But four weeks after enduring the drop comes a chance for renewal, hosting Mayo in Dr Hyde Park this Sunday, with a Connacht final prize on offer.
Manager Davy Burke has spoken previously about the cumulative impact of injuries, Sigerson commitments and St Brigid’s run to the All-Ireland club final.
“We need to get everyone on the field and we’ll cause anyone problems in Connacht and the summer,” he declared after losing to Kerry last month.
Hussey knows all about disruption, having missed chunks of league action because of a “lingering little hamstring thing.”
He started but didn’t finish three games (Dublin, Monaghan and Kerry) before finishing up with a fourth quarter cameo against Derry. Still, hope springs eternal that R os common can hit their straps when it matters rather than peaking too early.
The latter transpired in 2023 when they ambushed Mayo in Connacht and were the only team to avoid championship defeat to Dublin – but still didn’t reach the quarter-finals.
“That’s our focus, without a doubt,” Hussey confirms. “Last year we’d have put a lot of stock into the league in terms of staying up.
“That was a big priority for us, to be able to show that you can match it with the top teams.
“It’s possible that after putting in that mental effort as much as anything, when it came to the All-Ireland series maybe we lacked that few percentage points to get over the line against the likes of Kildare and Cork.
“So it could flip on its head this year maybe, and we’re hopeful. We’re lucky to have a semi-final [against Mayo] but, regardless, there’s still three guaranteed All-Ireland games where, at the end of the day, we’re really hoping to perform in.”
Hussey (pictured) knows all about life at the Connacht football interface. His home club is Michael Glaveys of Ballinlough but he went to school in Ballyhaunis, just up the road. A few miles in another direction will take you into Galway.
“I’d know many Mayo fans ... I definitely think I’d be at the coalface, as they say,” Hussey remarks. “Our club is uniquely positioned, right on the border of Galway, Mayo and Roscommon. I’d have clubmates from Cloonfad who went to school in Dunmore, and they’d feel Galway would be their biggest rivals.”
But this Sunday it’s all about the Roscommon/Mayo rivalry. Twelve months ago, a week after achieving league glory, Kevin McStay’s men were brought back to earth with a mighty thud, beaten by Roscommon in Castlebar.
The Rossies had also approached that fixtures in relatively rude health, having finished third in Division 1. The question now is whether they can halt the slide after losing their last three NFL games this year en route to relegation.
“Our [league] performances weren’t good enough compared to last year where we were competitive in most games,” the 29-year-old teacher accepts. “But it’s something you have to park.”
What went wrong? He accepts that injuries had an effect, but stresses: “The players who are left playing probably haven’t got back to the level. I think that’s the real crux of the matter. As a player you can take losing if you play well ... but this year, too often, we didn’t play to the level we could play to, the players who were on the field.”
Sunday should offer a sizeable clue about Roscommon’s readiness to rebound. Last year in Castlebar was “just a day where things happened to click for us,” Hussey remembers. “We got the two goals. Stephen Coen hit the crossbar. Again, momentum is a big part of life. If that goal had gone in [for Mayo] early on, it could have been a totally different game.”
Two-and-a-half months later, it all ended in last-12 trauma at the death against Cork.
“A massive kick in the teeth,” he says. “Overall it was disappointing but you can take a lot of solace and heart from the fact that we were really competitive in all those games and I think it’s something that we need to get back to now.”