Diarmuid Murtagh’s acceptance speech in the Hyde on Sunday hit on a specific theme. It suggested this group of Roscommon players are harnessing energy from tapping into the significance of representing where you are from and what the county jersey represents.
In recognising Roscommon’s 2001 Connacht winning team, Murtagh also mentioned the three members of that team who passed away – Don Connellan, Conor Connelly and Ger Michael Grogan.
He remarked on the success of the county’s minors and under-20s too in winning their respective Connacht championships. A rising tide lifting all the Roscommon boats.
Jason Sherlock is part of Mark Dowd’s backroom team. During Sherlock’s time working with Dublin, you would have heard the Dublin players speak about standing on the shoulders of those who went before them.
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Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but the Roscommon players appeared to be embracing a similar concept on Sunday – linking the teams of the past with the teams of the present and the future.
Right now, if there was a vote for Manager of the Year, Dowd would have to be right up there.
They had several significant wins in the league, but with Roscommon it can be easy to feel you’ve seen this movie before.
They also posted some really good league wins under Davy Burke, Kevin McStay, Fergal O’Donnell and Anthony Cunningham. But more often than not, they couldn’t replicate it come championship.
That has not been the case this year, though. Roscommon have backed it up.
I remember walking down McHale Road after the league game between Mayo and Roscommon in March and wondering if Dowd’s team selection that day would be something he’d come to regret.
Mayo won by 21 points and despite having plenty of talent on the bench, Roscommon didn’t look to empty it and stem the bleeding. They were prepared to take the hit.
Roscommon would be returning to Castlebar five weeks later to play the same opposition. That’s the game of poker Dowd played.
When that championship game arrived, Roscommon started just six of the team from the league game and beat Mayo by 10 points.
Clearly, by the time they played Mayo in the league, Roscommon had determined they were done with the competition – their focus had already switched to the championship.
And they played the league essentially without the St Brigid’s players, who were only slowly reintroduced. In their absence, it allowed other players to get their wings.
Roscommon never blinked last Sunday. They stuck to their process, refused to panic. After 20 minutes, they were eight points down. But they came back. After 61 minutes, they were six points down. And back they came again.
They were on the ropes in the aftermath of Damien Comer’s goal, but the home side grabbed back the initiative. They came out swinging and suddenly forced Galway up against the turnbuckle – Roscommon registered five unanswered scores, equating to eight points.
That level of belief was carved out from their league campaign.
We are not merely talking about Enda Smith or Diarmuid Murtagh. We’re talking about Senan Lambe, we’re talking about Conor Ryan, we are talking about Colm Neary and we are talking about the outstanding Darragh Heneghan.
Heneghan scored 2-2 and could have had a third goal. He won frees, snatched breaking ball, tackled back. It was a brilliant display.
We put a lot of focus on the middle eight players in Gaelic football. For me, though, wing forward is nearly the hardest position. You are expected to get back tracking a roadrunner of a wing back while at the same time you need to be up the field to link defence to attack. You are required to get scores off at one end and stop them being created at the other. You have to be all things to all men. Heneghan seems to be managing it.
I will caveat that by saying he has now become a marked man. Malachy O’Rourke and Ryan Porter are already hatching a plan for Heneghan.
I’m giving Darragh close to two weeks’ notice – you will be tagged by Tyrone. But that’s out of respect and should be seen as a reflection of his strong performances.
The ambush is over now for Roscommon. They are out front and centre. How will they handle it?
If they beat Tyrone, then Roscommon need to enter the All-Ireland discussion. But Tyrone will love the build-up to this game, because they get the chance to set the trap. Roscommon must be careful not to become the ambushed.
As for Galway’s part in Sunday’s Connacht final, they were six points up coming down the stretch but didn’t have another shot apart from Shane Walsh’s effort at the very end.
Defensively, I think they will be very disappointed by how they conceded the goals. They will have learned a huge amount from the defeat.
In the first half, playing with the breeze, they certainly had a plan around kicking two-pointers. But they also had eight wides in that period and were only three points up at half-time.
Teams must strike a balance – they are playing with the elements, but are they playing to the elements?
Galway could have used the conditions a little bit differently in the first half. After just 60 seconds, they kicked a ball in on top of Ryan Roche and got a goal from the play. But it was almost like the pass inside happened by mistake.
Watching it in real time, my immediate thought was that it had been a brilliant ploy by Galway, forcing Roscommon to second-guess their defensive setup. “Do we move Caelim Keogh or Eoin McCormack to Roche but then free up maybe Shane Walsh or Robert Finnerty?” Galway had created that worry and doubt.
But, inexplicably, they never used Roche as a target man again thereafter. One ball and that was it! They did get some reward from kicking two-pointers, but is that two-point shot-taking reducing from decision making?
The scenes at the end of the game demonstrated how much winning a Nestor Cup is still valued by players.
There was a lot of discussion last week as to the impact of the All-Ireland series draw, with many feeling it devalued the importance of the provincial finals. But there was no sense of that in Dr Hyde Park or Fitzgerald Stadium on Sunday given the provincial finals we got in both packed venues.
The GAA are damned if they do and damned if they don’t with these things, but for those who have been quibbling about the draws, chances are they probably haven’t had to ring hotels in Killarney looking for 20 bedrooms for a football team at short notice.
Logistically, these fixtures are a significant challenge.
When Mayo played Kerry in Killarney in 2023, we couldn’t get any hotel closer than Limerick. It isn’t a case of renting out a few Airbnbs. You must get an establishment of a certain quality and one that has a track record of hosting sports teams with suitable facilities. You are approaching holiday season now as well, so teams need as much time as possible to overcome the logistical challenges these matches bring.
As for Sunday, both the Connacht and Munster showdowns proved provincial finals remain a draw in their own right.
