“I KNOW THE patience is wearing thin at home,” Kevin McStay told the gathered media in the aftermath of Roscommon’s 21-beating by Dublin in the league in March.
“It’s a young team. People just have to be patient. They’re 22, 23 years of age. People just have to hold their nerve and stay with it.”
James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
The knock on Roscommon in 2016 was they peaked far too early in the day. A stunning Division 1 league campaign where they took the scalps of Kerry, Cork and Donegal flamed out with a league semi-final loss to the Kingdom in Croke Park.
“Going down and beating Kerry, beating Cork in Pairc Ui Rinn, going up to Donegal and beating them, it was massive,” says Donie Smith.
“I suppose we didn’t even see it coming ourselves. Obviously you’d have to admit those teams probably weren’t up to their peak physical fitness at that time whereas we probably were. We were training very hard, but it was a great journey.”
They scraped past New York and Sligo before drawing a dour Connacht final with Galway. Smith kicked the pivotal final point of the game that send the provincial decider to a replay.
The Tribesmen blitzed Roscommon in the replay, and the latter went down to Clare in the qualifiers six days later.
“We did let ourselves down to a point,” continues Smith. “We did make progress in getting to the final but the manner of how we were knocked out – in the replay and then against Clare – did leave a sour taste.
“And if you look back in ten years at the 2016 championship, you’ll see Roscommon lost to Galway in a Connacht final replay and lost to Clare in the qualifiers and you’ll forget about how good we did in the league. So that definitely does leave kind of a sour taste.”
A season that promised so much had derailed spectacularly by the time the summer came around. Under joint-managers McStay and Fergal O’Donnell, Roscommon put down a hard winter of physical work. By the time the ground hardened up, the spark that served them so well in the spring had disappeared from their legs.
Over the winter, McStay made a few bold calls as he attempted to right the wrongs from the 2016 campaign.
Having asked O’Donnell on-board 12 months earlier, he felt the partnership wasn’t working as well as he’d hoped. They had conflicting views on the style of play the team should employ and agreed a break-up was best for all parties.
Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
McStay told O’Donnell he’d have no issue if he wanted to run against him for the position of manager, but O’Donnell declined and stepped away.
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The Mayo native also assessed the season-defining defeats Roscommon shipped to Galway and Clare in the championship, and Mayo and Kerry in the league.
He felt his team’s lack of physicality was what separated them with the country’s elite sides. The former St Brigid’s boss decided to build the team around the U21 side who reached the All-Ireland final in 2014.
From the team that lost to Dublin in that final, a remarkable eight players will start for the seniors against Leitrim today: Colm Lavin, Niall McInerney, Seán Mullooly, David Murray, John McManus, Enda Smith, Diarmuid Murtagh and Donie Smith.
Despite the narrative, the difference between Roscomon’s final championship game of 2016 and their first one of 2017 is not quite as stark as you’d imagine.
Of the 21 players who featured in the defeat to Clare, only David Keenan, Sean Purcell, Niall Daly and Cathal Cregg are no longer involved.
David Keenan and Sean Purcell, both joined the senior set-up over 10 years ago and didn’t make the squad this year.
Daly walked from the panel before they played Donegal in February after being left out of the starting lineup, while Cathal Cregg’s PhD studies didn’t allow him the time to commit to the time-consuming nature of inter-county football.
Neil Collins, who was injured last summer, would be a certain starter but he decided to follow his heart and pursue a fashion career in New York.
Yet the narrative of disarray and an unhappy Roscommon camp was set. It wasn’t long before the knives were aimed at McStay’s back.
He wasn’t the first Rossie manager to suffer local criticism and it’s likely he won’t be the last. It’s worth noting the county’s has a turbulent history with recent managers.
In 2000 Gay Sheerin, who criticised McStay earlier this year for his Mayo roots, resigned after suffering the ignominy of a championship defeat to Leitrim.
John Maughan suffered intense criticism during the 2008 league after a string of poor results, and he departed at the end of that season. John Evans led the county to Division 3 to the top flight but poor championship results and disapproval of his style of football led to his departure.
Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
“I don’t know how it started or where it started but there were a lot of rumblings going on that we could be doing a lot better,” Evans said shortly after his resignation in August 2015.
“There was an active canvass then to remove John Evans and that’s the way it went. I know that two or three of the people involved had sons that I didn’t bring onto the team or bring onto the panel.”
Now it’s McStay, the only manager to deliver an All-Ireland club title to the county, who’s feeling the heat both locally and nationally.
What’s lost in the narrative is the fact Roscommon brought Galway to a replay in last year’s provincial decider. Roscommon had possession in the dying minutes but failed to pull the trigger, and the Galway ran out 3-14 to 0-16 winners in the replay.
It was a case of chance missed for Roscommon, who had run out of gas by the turnaround a week later.
“Getting to a Connacht final, it was our first one since 2011 and we had the ball in the drawn game in the closing moments,” says Smith. “Look, maybe if the ref didn’t blow it up – it mightn’t have made a difference, it might have – but in the replay we can have no excuses, Galway were far superior.”
It’s interesting to note the converging paths Roscommon and Galway have seemingly taken since the drawn final.
James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Galway’s shocking All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Tipperary has been quickly swept from the memory. They secured the Division 2 title in April and then dumped Mayo out of Connacht for a second straight year.
Roscommon were relegated from the far more competitive Division 1 bear pit, but they clearly had one eye on peaking in the summer this time around. There’s every chance they’ll be a different animal given the 11-week gap between competitive fixtures.
With no distraction of a trip Stateside in the Connacht preliminary round, they’ve had the bulk of three uninterrupted months to taper perfectly for the summer.
“When we kind of realised we were going to be relegated, we kind of said ‘look championship is where we are going to be remembered.’ That’s where all of the best teams are remembered.
Smith adds: “Look back even to last year, Tyrone were in Division 2 but they ended up as Ulster champions and that’s what everybody remembers of them last year.”
Defeat Leitrim today and the Rossies will appear in back-to-back Connacht finals for just the second time in the last 25 years.
They’d arrive in well and truly under the radar against Galway in the provincial decider.
Galway are the current darlings of the media, despite stinking out the Division 2 league final by employing 14-men behind the ball and almost blowing a four-point lead late on against 14-man Mayo.
Amid all the apparent negativity, there could be a sting in the tail of the Rossies yet.
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Kevin McStay and Roscommon continue to fall victim to false narratives
“I KNOW THE patience is wearing thin at home,” Kevin McStay told the gathered media in the aftermath of Roscommon’s 21-beating by Dublin in the league in March.
“It’s a young team. People just have to be patient. They’re 22, 23 years of age. People just have to hold their nerve and stay with it.”
The knock on Roscommon in 2016 was they peaked far too early in the day. A stunning Division 1 league campaign where they took the scalps of Kerry, Cork and Donegal flamed out with a league semi-final loss to the Kingdom in Croke Park.
“Going down and beating Kerry, beating Cork in Pairc Ui Rinn, going up to Donegal and beating them, it was massive,” says Donie Smith.
“I suppose we didn’t even see it coming ourselves. Obviously you’d have to admit those teams probably weren’t up to their peak physical fitness at that time whereas we probably were. We were training very hard, but it was a great journey.”
They scraped past New York and Sligo before drawing a dour Connacht final with Galway. Smith kicked the pivotal final point of the game that send the provincial decider to a replay.
The Tribesmen blitzed Roscommon in the replay, and the latter went down to Clare in the qualifiers six days later.
“We did let ourselves down to a point,” continues Smith. “We did make progress in getting to the final but the manner of how we were knocked out – in the replay and then against Clare – did leave a sour taste.
“And if you look back in ten years at the 2016 championship, you’ll see Roscommon lost to Galway in a Connacht final replay and lost to Clare in the qualifiers and you’ll forget about how good we did in the league. So that definitely does leave kind of a sour taste.”
A season that promised so much had derailed spectacularly by the time the summer came around. Under joint-managers McStay and Fergal O’Donnell, Roscommon put down a hard winter of physical work. By the time the ground hardened up, the spark that served them so well in the spring had disappeared from their legs.
Over the winter, McStay made a few bold calls as he attempted to right the wrongs from the 2016 campaign.
Having asked O’Donnell on-board 12 months earlier, he felt the partnership wasn’t working as well as he’d hoped. They had conflicting views on the style of play the team should employ and agreed a break-up was best for all parties.
McStay told O’Donnell he’d have no issue if he wanted to run against him for the position of manager, but O’Donnell declined and stepped away.
The Mayo native also assessed the season-defining defeats Roscommon shipped to Galway and Clare in the championship, and Mayo and Kerry in the league.
He felt his team’s lack of physicality was what separated them with the country’s elite sides. The former St Brigid’s boss decided to build the team around the U21 side who reached the All-Ireland final in 2014.
From the team that lost to Dublin in that final, a remarkable eight players will start for the seniors against Leitrim today: Colm Lavin, Niall McInerney, Seán Mullooly, David Murray, John McManus, Enda Smith, Diarmuid Murtagh and Donie Smith.
Despite the narrative, the difference between Roscomon’s final championship game of 2016 and their first one of 2017 is not quite as stark as you’d imagine.
Of the 21 players who featured in the defeat to Clare, only David Keenan, Sean Purcell, Niall Daly and Cathal Cregg are no longer involved.
David Keenan and Sean Purcell, both joined the senior set-up over 10 years ago and didn’t make the squad this year.
Daly walked from the panel before they played Donegal in February after being left out of the starting lineup, while Cathal Cregg’s PhD studies didn’t allow him the time to commit to the time-consuming nature of inter-county football.
Neil Collins, who was injured last summer, would be a certain starter but he decided to follow his heart and pursue a fashion career in New York.
Yet the narrative of disarray and an unhappy Roscommon camp was set. It wasn’t long before the knives were aimed at McStay’s back.
He wasn’t the first Rossie manager to suffer local criticism and it’s likely he won’t be the last. It’s worth noting the county’s has a turbulent history with recent managers.
In 2000 Gay Sheerin, who criticised McStay earlier this year for his Mayo roots, resigned after suffering the ignominy of a championship defeat to Leitrim.
John Maughan suffered intense criticism during the 2008 league after a string of poor results, and he departed at the end of that season. John Evans led the county to Division 3 to the top flight but poor championship results and disapproval of his style of football led to his departure.
“I don’t know how it started or where it started but there were a lot of rumblings going on that we could be doing a lot better,” Evans said shortly after his resignation in August 2015.
“There was an active canvass then to remove John Evans and that’s the way it went. I know that two or three of the people involved had sons that I didn’t bring onto the team or bring onto the panel.”
Now it’s McStay, the only manager to deliver an All-Ireland club title to the county, who’s feeling the heat both locally and nationally.
What’s lost in the narrative is the fact Roscommon brought Galway to a replay in last year’s provincial decider. Roscommon had possession in the dying minutes but failed to pull the trigger, and the Galway ran out 3-14 to 0-16 winners in the replay.
It was a case of chance missed for Roscommon, who had run out of gas by the turnaround a week later.
“Getting to a Connacht final, it was our first one since 2011 and we had the ball in the drawn game in the closing moments,” says Smith. “Look, maybe if the ref didn’t blow it up – it mightn’t have made a difference, it might have – but in the replay we can have no excuses, Galway were far superior.”
It’s interesting to note the converging paths Roscommon and Galway have seemingly taken since the drawn final.
Galway’s shocking All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Tipperary has been quickly swept from the memory. They secured the Division 2 title in April and then dumped Mayo out of Connacht for a second straight year.
Roscommon were relegated from the far more competitive Division 1 bear pit, but they clearly had one eye on peaking in the summer this time around. There’s every chance they’ll be a different animal given the 11-week gap between competitive fixtures.
With no distraction of a trip Stateside in the Connacht preliminary round, they’ve had the bulk of three uninterrupted months to taper perfectly for the summer.
“When we kind of realised we were going to be relegated, we kind of said ‘look championship is where we are going to be remembered.’ That’s where all of the best teams are remembered.
Smith adds: “Look back even to last year, Tyrone were in Division 2 but they ended up as Ulster champions and that’s what everybody remembers of them last year.”
Defeat Leitrim today and the Rossies will appear in back-to-back Connacht finals for just the second time in the last 25 years.
They’d arrive in well and truly under the radar against Galway in the provincial decider.
Galway are the current darlings of the media, despite stinking out the Division 2 league final by employing 14-men behind the ball and almost blowing a four-point lead late on against 14-man Mayo.
Amid all the apparent negativity, there could be a sting in the tail of the Rossies yet.
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