Roscommon GAA Discussion Thread

yabadabado

So its been confirmed that Evans is the new manager,any word on who his backroom staff will be?

Always_Running

yabadabado wrote: »

Who would you have choose from within the county?

Correct me if i'm wrong, Over the last 10 years apart from Jimmy Gacquin all the successful Roscommon club,inter county managers were Roscommon men . If you have that much home grown talent you should be choosing within the county.

RoscommonTom

Im happy enough, I wonder will he bring in any local fellas for the backroom team. Talk of mcinaney in the paper today buy hope its not true.

yabadabado

Always_Running wrote: »

Correct me if i'm wrong, Over the last 10 years apart from Jimmy Gacquin all the successful Roscommon club,inter county managers were Roscommon men . If you have that much home grown talent you should be choosing within the county.

Im not disagreeing with you ,just wondering who you would choose from within the county?

premierstone

Will be very interesting to see how John Evans gets on, there is no doubt he has ability and he's CV reflects this, but there are huge question marks over he's man management skills, he's tactical nous and he's abrupt personality, he is very direct and not afrad to speak he's mind, this can work well for a while but it does tend to wear off and he burns bridges at an alarming rate.

Giving him credit for the underage sucess in Tipp is very very far removed from reality, the work on these 'development squads' had been started before John Evans even stepped foot in Thurles, what he did do though is instill a belief in the players and also he improved the treatment of footballers by the county board in comparison to the hurlers, but this isn't an issue in Roscommon.

nice_guy80

premierstone wrote: »

Will be very interesting to see how John Evans gets on, there is no doubt he has ability and he's CV reflects this, but there are huge question marks over he's man management skills, he's tactical nous and he's abrupt personality, he is very direct and not afrad to speak he's mind, this can work well for a while but it does tend to wear off and he burns bridges at an alarming rate.

Giving him credit for the underage sucess in Tipp is very very far removed from reality, the work on these 'development squads' had been started before John Evans even stepped foot in Thurles, what he did do though is instill a belief in the players and also he improved the treatment of footballers by the county board in comparison to the hurlers, but this isn't an issue in Roscommon.

hopefully he will improve the treatment of the hurlers in Roscommon so!

Always_Running

yabadabado wrote: »

Im not disagreeing with you ,just wondering who you would choose from within the county?

Anyone of the recent successful club,underage managers could have been chosen. Evans was only given a two year deal maybe one of those managers are primed to take over or O'Donnell will return?

Syferus

Sounds from his RTE interview like Evans didn't even look for more than a two year term. Better for both sides given the circumstances of this process. If the two years go well he's sure to be extended and just as if he had a three year term where the first two went badly he'll be let go.

RoscommonTom

ANY OF YOU FELLAS AY THE MATCH TODAY, I COULDNT GO AS HAD TO DO SOME WORK IN THE YARD, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO US? TERRIBLE STAT TO THE EVANS RAIN,

Syferus

Lost a January game 0-06 to 0-05 after leading for all but the final two minutes of the game. You can draw just about nothing from the result besides the fact that both teams have a hell of a lot of cobwebs to blow off.

Always_Running

RoscommonTom wrote: »

ANY OF YOU FELLAS AY THE MATCH TODAY, I COULDNT GO AS HAD TO DO SOME WORK IN THE YARD, WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO US? TERRIBLE STAT TO THE EVANS RAIN,

Caps lock? Roscommon forward line is toothless without Donal Shine,Senan Kilbride. Leitrim play Mayo next they will do well to get within 6 points of them.

Syferus

Always_Running wrote: »

Caps lock? Roscommon forward line is toothless without Donal Shine,Senan Kilbride. Leitrim play Mayo next they will do well to get within 6 points of them.

We were missing a whole hell of a lot more than Donie and Senan.

Always_Running

Syferus wrote: »

We were missing a whole hell of a lot more than Donie and Senan.

Every team is missing players in these pre-season competitions. Name the other established forwards missing that would be free-scoring for Roscommon?

rossie1977

results over the weekend suggest its going to be a long (or technically short ) 2013 for our seniors and our under 21s, serious problems at under 21 level if you are losing to longford by 13 points

Syferus

Always_Running wrote: »

Every team is missing players in these pre-season competitions. Name the other established forwards missing that would be free-scoring for Roscommon?

That question is designed to exclude the very people who will be able to score plenty this season, Donie Smith and Colin Compton. Cregger only came on as a sub today and David O'Gara had, and has, rust to get off but he is an excellent playmaker.


Scoring potential has never been our problem, it's been defensive lapses and poor midfield play that's been our achile's heel.

Dr. Kenneth Noisewater

I'm not going to read into it too much apart from to say that, and I mean no disrespect to Leitrim, but 5 points is an appalling return against a Division 4 side. Sounds like it was an atrocious game, anyone know what the conditions were like up in Elphin?

Syferus

rossie1977 wrote: »

results over the weekend suggest its going to be a long (or technically short ) 2013 for our seniors and our under 21s, serious problems at under 21 level if you are losing to longford by 13 points

Remember none of last year's minor team featured and most of the returning starters were only on spot duty. I wouldn't go reading anything into either result just yet.

Always_Running

Syferus wrote: »

That question is designed toexcludedthe very people who will be able to score plenty this season, Donie Smith and Colin Compton. Cregger only came on as a sub today and DavidO'Gara had and has rust to get off but he is an excellent playmaker.


Scoring potential has never been our problem, it's been defensive lapses and poor midfield play that's been our achile's heel.

Kilbride,Shine will do most of the scoring again this season O'Gara,Cregg,Compton are all decent footballers but aren't free scoring forwards. Roscommon are missing some like Tony McManus or Frankie Dolan in his prime even now he scores more than some of the forwards you named. Smith has real scoring potential i'll give you that however, sometimes good underage players can't make the step up to senior will Evans pick him during the NFL?

Syferus

Always_Running wrote: »

Kilbride,Shine will do most of the scoring again this season O'Gara,Cregg,Compton are all decent footballers but aren't free scoring forwards. Roscommon are missing some like Tony McManus or Frankie Dolan in his prime even now he scores more than some of the forwards you named. Smith has real scoring potential i'll give you that however, sometimes good underage players can't make the step up to senior will Evans pick him during the NFL?

We have as good a forward division as there is in Connacht. Shine and Cregg carried a far less talented group of players in 2010 while Senan was injured; when the whole panel is together we have plenty of attacking options to chose from. I'd also add Cregg's scoring totals would be far higher were it not for the fact he's the most fouled player on the team by a mile - he certainly is a serious scoring threat but if you look at score sheets points he made are credited as Shine or Kilbride frees - and on a side note, the media really need to start collating and promoting assist stats properly. It's also bizarre to say 'Frankie scores more than you named' - he's a free taker, of course he'll out-score a majority of players. Same goes for Shine and Kilbride.

This concept of 'free-scoring forwards' is incredibly nebulous, honestly. You need players like David O'Gara and Cathal Cregg just as much as the twin towers or else they're just getting poor long balls or balls that leave them surrounded or boxed into a corner. It's a team game for a reason, no?

If they're provided enough effective ball by the middle third and the defense doesn't hemorrhage points like they have on too many occasions we'll be fine.

Again, the focus needs to be on improving our defensive play because just like Galway our greatest failing has always been how ready we are to cut loose going forward and leave gaps at the back. Newton employed a zonal system with two sweepers but clearly that failed or the players never really bought in. Evans' greatest success would be getting the team to operate as a professional unit at the back. Anything less is just building foundations on quicksand.

manofwisdom

That Leitrim result was one of the surprise results of the day. When you see the line-up maybe not so much...


I agree with Mr Running when Roscommon are missing their main forwards they struggle for scores and i think if Sligo,Galway or Mayo were without their two best forwards v Leitrim they would manage better than 0-5. Shine,Kilbride,Dolan even without the frees score more than some of Roscommon's other starting forwards. For example Frankie scored 2 goals in this years Roscommon final. O'Gara,Keenan,Cregg are hard working,honest grafters the rossies need more forwards that know where the posts are.

John Evans has huge task on his hands this year i can't see Roscommon getting out of Div 3 and they are very unlikely to beat Galway,Mayo. As for the U21 it's rare that many minors are brought through from the previous year the team should be made of up 2010,11 minors and something is wrong if you lose by 13 points to less fancied side.

Syferus

manofwisdom wrote: »

That Leitrim result was one of the surprise results of the day. When you see the line-up maybe not so much...


I agree with Mr Running when Roscommon are missing their main forwards they struggle for scores and i think if Sligo,Galway or Mayo were without their two best forwards v Leitrim they would manage better than 0-5. Shine,Kilbride,Dolan even without the frees score more than some of Roscommon's other starting forwards. For example Frankie scored 2 goals in this years Roscommon final. O'Gara,Keenan,Cregg are hard working,honest grafters the rossies need more forwards that know where the posts are.

John Evans has huge task on his hands this year i can't see Roscommon getting out of Div 3 and they are very unlikely to beat Galway,Mayo. As for the U21 it's rare that many minors are brought through from the previous year the team should be made of up 2010,11 minors and something is wrong if you lose by 13 points to less fancied side.

Enda Smith and Thomas Corcoran are almost sure to be starters for the u21s, especially given how we struggled without Cathal Shine in the middle last year. Maybe Smith will be named at HF as at minor but play as a third midfielder. If nothing else players like Hussey, Finn, Kilcline and Barron will be able to provide something off the bench this year. It's still up in the air if Dineen will call on players like Ronan Daly, Cathal Compton and Duirmuid Murtagh to contribute in a part-time capacity, depending on their exam commitments.

I think this year especially we have a fantastic chance of winning back-to-back Connacht u21 titles and if we can do that a run at the AI looms. We can't afford to run out of gas and options off the bench like we did against Dublin last year because we won't get these sorts of opportunities very often.

aidan24326

No point reading too much into results at this time of year. They don't mean a great deal. My own county (Galway) won by 10 pts yesterday but by all accounts NUIG were very poor. This FBD competition is a chance to dust off the cobwebs and for the manager to assess player's fitness and sharpness ahead of the league. But that's all it is really. I'd reserve judgement until a couple of league games have been played.

Syferus

Ref really manufactured a draw for Mayo with late fees and an apathy to clear Ros frees particularly in the final 15. Paddy Brogan - who started - would be my MotM, tough, smart and completely at home against All-Ireland level opposition. Kevin Higgins was impressive in his workrate and vision while Donie Smith showed his potential in the limited chances he got. David Hoey made an impressive cameo late on too. Hard to really pick out a weak link because everyone seemed engaged and working hard, particularly the HB, MF and HF lines in controlling so much procession, a complete reversal of recent trends.

For Mayo Donal Vaughan drove them from the half-back line. The O'Sheas were very effective in limited attacking opportunities. Mayo's free-taking is totally dependant on Cillian O'Connor so they need him to remain healthy or they will go back to the liabilities they were from placed balls before he arrived and were again today.

Very enjoyable and tough game where our defensive unity and midfield dominance was undone somewhat by poor free taking and narrow attacks that rarely offered cross field balls to spread the Mayo backs out. Evans has a great set of lungs on him and it's easy to see why he's regarded as such a good motivator. A good overall performance by us and we can look towards the Sligo game with some optimism.

Donie Shine made a surprise start but was off after 20 with a pulled hamstring again. It's likely nothing serious but I'd wonder should he have featured at all with an injury the previous week and the NFL starting in only two weeks.

RoscommonTom

Here here well said syfrus, delighted with that result and performance, we are on the right trace with Evans by the looks of things, could be a good summer ahead of us

yabadabado

RoscommonTom wrote: »

Here here well said syfrus, delighted with that result and performance, we are on the right trace with Evans by the looks of things, could be a good summer ahead of us

I dunno how you could say we are on the right track with Evans,3 games in.
A win ,a draw and a loss.Loads of work to do yet but hopefully we see things picking up and have a good league campaign.We really need to get out of div. 3.
looking forward to Sunday week .

megadodge

Good win today against Sligo.

Despite Sligo's really impressive start, where their goal and some point scoring could only be described as 'top drawer', Ros came back well and thanks mainly to regular bursts from all the half-back line, creating overlaps, they clawed their way to a deserved one point lead.

Then the ref gave what I thought was a very fortunate penalty to Ros. The Sligo goalie gathered a high ball and was immediately challenged by Cathal Shine, he put out a hand to fend off Shine, who fell over - hey presto, penalty! Smith dispatched it impressively and it gave a 4 point lead to Roscommon.

Ros dominated the next quarter comfortably and went 6 points up at one stage, then strangely a collective loss of concentration saw them turn over hardwon possesion over and over again. It resulted in letting Sligo back into a game that seemed beyond them and Ros hung on for a 3 point win in the end.

Niall Daly was rock solid all-through especially when needed near the end. Same for Niall Carty. Seanie McDermott got better and better as the game went on, but the experiment of playing Conor Daly at corner back has to be finished. He was beaten to the ball over and over again and should really have either been moved or subbed. I really rate him as a half-back and don't understand why one of the most comfortable ball-carriers and scorers I've seen come out of Roscommon is being played at corner back when a more natural full-back line player in Neil Collins is out on the half-back line. Collins was good today, but I'd prefer him back on the full-back line.

Midfield did quite well, with Finneran again putting in a huge effort and seeing an awful lot of ball. The starting half-forward line of Keenan, Fintan Cregg and David O'Gara worked very hard. Donie Shine went off injured and was replaced by Cathal Shine, who scored a spectacular point immediately. He showed really well and got onto a lot of ball, but his handling let him down badly. He looked eager but rusty. Just needs to work on his first touch. Donie Smith is progressing nicely. He's still very young and inexperienced (as shown by not taking a straight forward free late on when 4 points up, instead took a too-quick effort at trying to find another who was in a vastly inferior postition), but he took two nice scores from play and will get more confident the more he plays at this level.

It was an important win for Ros, as I believe their next two games are very winnable, meaning we could end up with 3 wins on the trot when we face Meath. Confidence will be up and more importantly we will have momentum.

Syferus

Niall Daly is desiring of special praise. He made his first starts for the seniors last year and he's always played the game as if he's been in the side for years. Rarely makes a bad pass and a beautiful footballer, indeed the entire family have excellent skills and plenty of senior potential.

To see Daly, Smith and Shine starring is a very good sign for the years to come and there's plenty of time to sand off the rough edges that were on display yesterday.

Dublin Red Devil

Roscommon are probably the 2nd team in Connacht.

Mayo are streets ahead of everyone.

Galway have turned to **** in the last few years

Sligo are probably 3rd closely

London would give Leitrim a game for 4th

NY a distant 6th

premierstone

Dublin Red Devil wrote: »

Roscommon are probably the 2nd team in Connacht.

Mayo are streets ahead of everyone.

Galway have turned to **** in the last few years

Sligo are probably 3rd closely

London would give Leitrim a game for 4th

NY a distant 6th

lol Galway have regressed but not that far. They did beat Roscommon by 14 pts in last years championship.

Syferus

premierstone wrote: »

lol Galway have regressed but not that far. They did beat Roscommon by 14 pts in last years championship.

And we cruised by Antrim in third gear last year while Galway lost to them.

With Roscommon and Galway it's clearly become as much a mental block as a quantifiable one, at the moment there's very little to separate the teams man-for-man and Roscommon have the better results in championship football for number of years now, even despite losing to them by that large a margin last year we were the only Connacht county besides Mayo to beat a Division 1 side in the championship.

Even more so than Mayo there seems to be a deeply ingrained stigma with Galway and it will take a special performance to wipe that slate clean. If we play them these year it'll be in Salthill and few grounds have been unkinder to Roscommon than Pearse Stadium.

Twelve years waiting for a win against your two biggest rivals is a hell of a long time for a county with twenty provincial titles to its name. It'll change one of these years and it seems likely to come as a surprise to everyone but Roscommon supporters.