Roscommon passion should be admired
LAST Sunday Sligo minors had the opportunity to bridge a 49 year gap and win a Connacht Minor Championship. It’s hard to believe in all those years we haven’t been able to get one over the line and unfortunately that statistic is not going to change after Sunday’s game. In what was a disappointing afternoon for our minors, in a game that we never played to potential with the exception of the first twelve minutes, but then stopped doing the things that put us three points up when playing smartly? As part of the management team I am hurting and looking at what went wrong on the day as I feel the team are better than the result. While these players are never going to play in a Minor final again, as this competition is reverting to an under 17 grade next year where none of the current squad are eligible, they do however get a second chance in the All-Ireland Quarter Final in four weeks’ time, against the winners of next Sundays Ulster final between Cavan and Derry.
Looking back on the game we made too many fundamental errors bringing balls into the tackle and getting turned over, nor taking the correct options when in possession. In the first half against Galway we only converted six out of fourteen attempts at goal compared to a conversation rate of 15 out of 19 in the entire game against Leitrim. In addition to this I felt over all our hunger and desire wasn’t what it needed to be to win a game of this magnitude. Having said all that Galway are a very good side with a number of players eligible from last year’s team which reached the All- Ireland final and will fancy their chances going forward where they will play the losers of the same Cavan/Derry game. The positives for us, we know there is plenty of improvement from this performance as many players played below the level they would expect from themselves and hopefully they will embrace the opportunity and strive to reach a last four place at Croke Park in August.
Now for the Senior game, where do you start with that Roscommon performance. It’s a long time since I’ve seen a team performance like it for pure desire, intensity and will to win, not to mention some unbelievable scores particularly in the second half when playing against the traditional wind at Salthill. For manager Kevin McStay and his brother-in-law Liam McHale this was a tremendous achievement in the face of regular criticism from within Roscommon, with Fergal O’Donnell stepping down as Joint Manager after last year’s campaign.
Roscommon started in whirlwind fashion putting down markers all over the pitch telling us that they were not just making up the numbers.
Roscommon’s physicality in the tackle was relentless putting bodies on the line contesting 30/70 balls which they had no right to win but consistently came out with the possession such was their yearning for Connacht glory.
It looked at one point when Roscommon were leading by 1.6 to 0.2 that they could rue some missed chances when getting careless with a number of missed opportunities to put Galway out of sight when they were in the ascendancy. Galway did rally again in the second half but once again Roscommon broke for an excellently executed individual goal. I realised after watching the recorded version on Sunday night that the TV did not reflect this game as I saw it live.
The energy and passion of this Roscommon team was as good as I’ve seen close up in a long number of years with the performance of Enda Smith sensational. The passion also extended to the side-line where Kevin McStay similar to Irish soccer manager Martin O’Neill nearly banged his head on the roof of the stand when Roscommon scored both goals such was his leap in the air.
Roscommon for the second time in seven years has ambushed a Kevin Walsh team, similar to Sligo at that time Galway were odds on favourites to win but were totally outplayed and over confident going into the game.
Kevin Walsh is a good manager no doubt, and is excellent setting up a team when his side are the underdogs such as the Mayo games over the last two years and many games as Sligo manager but struggles when his side are the favourites. You only have to look at some of his losses to validate this point such as last year’s game against Tipperary, Sligo’s losses to Leitrim and London and that ill-fated Connacht final where we supposedly only had to turn up and now yesterday’s final.
Anyway, for those advocating for the abolishment of the provincials, they got their answer last Sunday.