Carr the commuter anxious to start new life with Roscommon

Ian O'Riordan talks to the former Dublin football manager as he prepares to begin his campaign as manager of the Connacht county

Several dubious tales surrounded the appointment of Tom Carr as the new Roscommon football manager. Some said the county desperately wanted such a strict disciplinarian, that Carr needed to escape Dublin, and that the county board had bought him a big house in Mullingar to help break the commute.

Ask Carr why he came into the job and he'll talk only about the challenge, and the quest to restore some pride in Roscommon football. Taking over from John Tobin (who moved into a Connacht coaching position), was also the chance to sustain the great satisfaction he has always got from intercounty management.

This weekend Carr makes his first public appearance as Roscommon manager with two games in the Connacht senior football league, opening on Saturday away to Sligo, followed on Sunday with a home game against Leitrim. For various reasons he doesn't expect it to be the smoothest of starts, though there is no hiding his sense of excitement.

"As things stand we have a number of players with injuries," says Carr, "and several more who won't be available because of club matches. So with the two games in two days we are going to have some difficulty trying to split our reserves."

Among those unavailable are the experienced names such as Seamus O'Neill, Francie Grehan and Frankie Dolan, and, with confirmation too that Fergal O'Donnell has retired, Carr's team for the weekend will be built on the younger players, many of whom are still in the under-21 ranks. But he has had no confirmation that Kildare's Dermot Earley was about to switch allegiance and join Roscommon.

Along with his selection team of Jimmy Deane, who previously worked with the county's under-21s, and former player Gary Wynne, the former Dublin manager has set the National Football League as the main target in the months ahead.

"It's a case of every one of those league games being a big challenge for us," he says. "None of them can be described as a non-pressure game. So it really is a case of going out with all guns blazing for every game, hoping for the best, and getting enough points to have had a reasonably successful league campaign.

"But we have had five or six good challenge games already, and we have been training reasonably well for the last two months. It hasn't been overly stressful, and a lot of it has been about trying out new players ahead of the league."

It promises to be a demanding campaign, starting with current champions Tyrone, followed by Kerry, Cork, Armagh and Galway before the sure-to-be-hyped visit of Dublin on March 23rd.

The most important thing, says Carr, is to get the focus back onto the playing field - rather than off it, where some of the player antics of last summer drew it.

"Of course it's very important that all those things are put to bed, and I think they have been. The players know there is no point in licking the wounds, and everything that happened last year is totally irrelevant at this stage. And at the end of the day the public are only interested in what happens on the pitch."

While it is true that Carr has left Dublin and is now living in Mullingar, the move had nothing to do with his new appointment in Roscommon - nor with his infamous ousting from his position as Dublin football manager in October 2001.

"The move has nothing whatsoever to do with football," he explains. "It was strictly for domestic reasons, and to get the family out of Dublin and into a better place for raising the kids and that. But I'm still working in Dublin, which does make for an exhaustive commute between the city, my home and also Roscommon.

"But while the travelling part has been difficult, so far the job has been hugely satisfying. And the response I've had from all the players and the board has been excellent."