Roscommon GAA Discussion Thread

megadodge

Great win today.

Even though Monaghan are a top side, make no mistake about it, Roscommon deserved their win. They were competitive throughout, defended well and most encouragingly showed real fight and determination. Just like the Mayo match, they never stopped playing, just kept going til the bitter end. It's refreshing to see that in Roscommon.

Conor Daly was excellent. I've always liked him but thought he'd have too much football in him to play full-back. So far he's proven me wrong.

Ultan Harney was excellent too, but he's always getting bloody injured. It's hugely frustrating to watch.

Have to see more of Cox to make up my mind, but his free-taking was pretty impressive. Very unusual for a right-footer to kick across the ball from the left side of the pitch. Scored two crackers doing that, but I wonder is it reliable over the long haul.

Coughed up the ball a little too easily at times, but worked hard at creating turnovers. Overall the defending that was so abysmal in the recent past seems to be improving at a decent rate.

There's still plenty to work on but the start to Anthony Cunningham's tenure has been impressive.

Edgware

megadodge wrote: »

Great win today.

Even though Monaghan are a top side, make no mistake about it, Roscommon deserved their win. They were competitive throughout, defended well and most encouragingly showed real fight and determination. Just like the Mayo match, they never stopped playing, just kept going til the bitter end. It's refreshing to see that in Roscommon.

Conor Daly was excellent. I've always liked him but thought he'd have too much football in him to play full-back. So far he's proven me wrong.

Ultan Harney was excellent too, but he's always getting bloody injured. It's hugely frustrating to watch.

Have to see more of Cox to make up my mind, but his free-taking was pretty impressive. Very unusual for a right-footer to kick across the ball from the left side of the pitch. Scored two crackers doing that, but I wonder is it reliable over the long haul.

Coughed up the ball a little too easily at times, but worked hard at creating turnovers. Overall the defending that was so abysmal in the recent past seems to be improving at a decent rate.

There's still plenty to work on but the start to Anthony Cunningham's tenure has been impressive.

Good start. Tighten defence and be aiming for a 16 plus from the forwards will bring them a long way. Stay in Div 1 and last eight at least in the Championship should be the target

nice_guy80

Edgware wrote: »

Good start. Tighten defence and be aiming for a 16 plus from the forwards will bring them a long way. Stay in Div 1 and last eight at least in the Championship should be the target

If we had put away our chances we would have been more comfortable last Sunday
The previous week we would probably have won.

Great to see the tenacity of the Roscommon players back up to the required level. It's in our history to be tough and dish it out when needed..

rossie1977

Outside opening 10 minutes of second half I thought we were better team throughout. Even when it was 13 vs 15 Roscommon looked quite comfortable as Monaghan were quite slow and ponderous.

Conor Cox had a fine game on frees after completely fluffling his lines with his first kick. Didn't get to see much from him from open play but he did make one vital interception close to his own full back line in first half. Niall Daly, Ronan Daly and Evan McGrath had super games overall.

Next up Tyrone who have had an Indian sign over us at every level last 15 years.

Boom__Boom

rossie1977 wrote: »

Outside opening 10 minutes of second half I thought we were better team throughout. Even when it was 13 vs 15 Roscommon looked quite comfortable as Monaghan were quite slow and ponderous.

Conor Cox had a fine game on frees after completely fluffling his lines with his first kick. Didn't get to see much from him from open play but he did make one vital interception close to his own full back line in first half. Niall Daly, Ronan Daly and Evan McGrath had super games overall.

Next up Tyrone who have had an Indian sign over us at every level last 15 years.

Cox is very close to be being amongst the top-level in terms of free-takers, even if sometimes his style looks a bit unusual. The main criticism of him in Kerry when he was around the panel was that his contribution from general play was just a small bit below what other players offered - he was just a bit slow, a small bit selfish, could be a bit better at winning possession, could work a bit harder. Overall just that slight bit below the top level.

There was some (especially from North Kerry) who felt he wasn't given the fairest crack of the whip, in terms of how much of a chance he was given but that's a fairly common story in Kerry as competition for places in the squad tends to be intense and there's nearly always other options available. He performed admirably for the Kerry Juniors over the years - he actually has 3 Junior All-Ireland medals, which I'd imagine is a rare enough achievment in the modern era.
Also when he was trying to make his break-through Bryan Sheehan was well established as the No 1 free-taker so his strongest asset (his free-taking ability) was that bit less valueable.

Overall though he is a very decent player and should make a valueable addition to the squad - I'd be expecting him to be a starting 15 player for Roscommon, especially as there doesn't seem to much in the way of competition for deadball duties. Will be interesting to see how he gets on in the Roscommon v Kerry game later on as he would have played alongside a serious chunk of the current panel.

rossie1977

Boom__Boom wrote: »

Overall though he is a very decent player and should make a valueable addition to the squad - I'd be expecting him to be a starting 15 player for Roscommon, especially as there doesn't seem to much in the way of competition for deadball duties. Will be interesting to see how he gets on in the Roscommon v Kerry game later on as he would have played alongside a serious chunk of the current panel.

He has chance to establish himself with the Murtagh's unavailable although Diarmuid is supposedly close to returning to full fitness.

There is a number of players in same boat as Cox this season such Ronan Daly, Evan McGrath, Conor Hussey, Colin Compton. None of those guys got a look in under McStay outside Daly who got a few league games and then was dropped off 35 man championship panel.

nice_guy80

Big game this weekend
We owe them some friendly treatment

nice_guy80

threw away a point yesterday. Tyrone weren't able to score from play yet we kept giving them frees???
Morgan was sly with the knee into the player on the ground and then hit the ground as if hit by a bullet, but Ultan needs to learn to control himself and he was lucky not to be off the field as well for an earlier incident.

blowitupref

nice_guy80 wrote: »

threw away a point yesterday. Tyrone weren't able to score from play yet we kept giving them frees???
Morgan was sly with the knee into the player on the ground and then hit the ground as if hit by a bullet, but Ultan needs to learn to control himself and he was lucky not to be off the field as well for an earlier incident.

Tyrone know better than most on how to win frees from scoring positions and i think you should give Roscommon a bit more credit for holding AI finalists to just 1-3 from play. 3 points from the Monaghan and Tyrone games is good going and probably wasn't expected when the fixtures first came out.

RossieMan

Tyrone have been the pits this year. They don't look like they have any idea how to create scoring opportunities.
We definitely should have had the win there, and I think we were lucky enough to escape from Monaghan with the win.

Let's hope we push on and start looking like we'll win games, we certainly don't at the moment.

manofwisdom

RossieMan wrote: »

Tyrone have been the pits this year. They don't look like they have any idea how to create scoring opportunities.
We definitely should have had the win there, and I think we were lucky enough to escape from Monaghan with the win.

Let's hope we push on and start looking like we'll win games, we certainly don't at the moment.

I think you need to lower the bar a little considering all the players Roscommon are missing from last year and are under new management now.

But for a overturned free with the last kick of the game Roscommon would have beaten the All Ireland finalists and All Ireland semi finalists in the last two weekends. A 4 weeks ago Roscommon beat Galway in Tuam another All Ireland semi finalists.

franglan

RossieMan wrote: »

Tyrone have been the pits this year. They don't look like they have any idea how to create scoring opportunities.
We definitely should have had the win there, and I think we were lucky enough to escape from Monaghan with the win.

Let's hope we push on and start looking like we'll win games, we certainly don't at the moment.

Have to take you up on your last point. Am I living in a parallel universe or did we not win last week?

Anyway we could of won it in the end yesterday - a harsh lesson for Hárney to take I would think. He lives on the edge too much at times due to his all action nature. Was one of our best players against monaghan and his goal yesterday was key too.

RossieMan

franglan wrote:

Have to take you up on your last point. Am I living in a parallel universe or did we not win last week?

We did, which you'll see i mentioned in my post about being very lucky to get the result there.

We definitely look a more solid outfit than we did last year.

White lighting

Monaghan were lucky it was only a one point loss for them, We should have beaten them by more and deserved too. We should also have won yesterday and had we a free kick taker against Mayo we would have another two points

ProudDUB

White lighting wrote: »

Monaghan were lucky it was only a one point loss for them, We should have beaten them by more and deserved too. We should also have won yesterday and had we a free kick taker against Mayo we would have another two points

You're getting into 'if my auntie had balls...' territory there

Lack of a reliable free taker & poor discipline costs teams victories all the time. There is nothing new there. Adding those caveats to your Mayo & Tyrone results don't make you a better team. Not when half the counties playing on any given day, can probably say the very same thing.

nice_guy80

ProudDUB wrote: »

You're getting into 'if my auntie had balls...' territory there

Lack of a reliable free taker & poor discipline costs teams victories all the time. There is nothing new there. Adding those caveats to your Mayo & Tyrone results don't make you a better team. Not when half the counties playing on any given day, can probably say the very same thing.

We don't get to play most of our championship games at home either

RoscommonTom

ProudDUB wrote: »

You're getting into 'if my auntie had balls...' territory there

Lack of a reliable free taker & poor discipline costs teams victories all the time. There is nothing new there. Adding those caveats to your Mayo & Tyrone results don't make you a better team. Not when half the counties playing on any given day, can probably say the very same thing.

ye didnt do so mighty on saturday against the kerrys, you might be better off not making fun of other counties, home with you

ProudDUB

RoscommonTom wrote: »

ye didnt do so mighty on saturday against the kerrys, you might be better off not making fun of other counties, home with you

Jesus. You're very sensitive. Did someone from Ballagh piss in your cornflakes?

We're playing Roscommon in our next game but one. I wasn't aware we needed written permission from you to read or post here.

RossieMan

ProudDUB wrote:

Jesus. You're very sensitive. Did someone from Ballagh piss in your cornflakes?

Have you not meet Tom before?


Lovely fella, always up for the chat and the craic.

Always_Running

ProudDUB wrote: »

You're getting into 'if my auntie had balls...' territory there

Lack of a reliable free taker & poor discipline costs teams victories all the time. There is nothing new there. Adding those caveats to your Mayo & Tyrone results don't make you a better team. Not when half the counties playing on any given day, can probably say the very same thing.

In fairness Roscommon lost by one point to Mayo in a game they had 9 placed balls and only scored 1. The following game Conor Cox made his debut and scored 5 frees from 6 attempts Roscommon won that game by 2 points.

megadodge

Before the game I'd have been happy to get a draw. With 10 minutes left my buddy and I both agreed we'd settle for a draw, but let's call a spade a spade - Ultan's idiotic behaviour has messed things up considerably!

Not alone did we drop a point, but we gave a very valuable point to one of the serious relegation candidates. Obviously if we beat Cavan we are in a very good position, but stupidity has no place in higher level sport.

Ultan is a fine player, one we need, but in recent games three incidents, all on already fouled players, IN FRONT OF THE REFEREE, really have me wondering about his ability to think correctly under pressure. Against Corofin, after fouling he stomped right down on the fallen player IN FRONT OF THE REFEREE. Yesterday, he landed awkwardly on Peter Harte (I'll give him the benefit of the doubt about his knees), then put his hand on Harte's face twice IN FRONT OF THE REFEREE. We all know what he did at the end, but again IN FRONT OF THE REREREE!! That's extremely worrying. If we could afford to I'd be very much in support of dropping him for the next game, but I think we need him. However, he needs a right bollocking.

megadodge

In relation to the rest of the game, I suppose we have to be pleased with Roscommon's ongoing progress. While Tyrone looked poor yesterday, the last time we met we were 21 points inferior.

The defending again was quite good, but in the first half in particular, the old habit of letting players run through the middle raised its ugly head again. Thankfully it wasn't apparent in the second half. There were some needless frees given away although some were soft decisions by the ref it has to be said. He also gave us some soft ones to be fair.

Midfield was surprisingly good. Tadhg had his best game in a long time and Enda is beginning to lead by example. He does have to learn how to tackle though - stay on your feet and don't have your hands above the opponents chest height. Roscommon won a surprising amount of breaking ball in the middle, which is one of my ongoing bugbears about Roscommon football, so it was great to see, especially since Tyrone are specialists at breaking ball themselves.

The long range kicking in the first half was impressive (Dalys take a bow) and Cox really shone in the first half. He looks really hungry to prove himself. One thing I really like about him is his willingness to show for the ball. It's something Diarmuid Murtagh for all his brilliance could do with imitating. Shane Killoran is well worth his place, but needs to cut out the careless plays. He mixes some really high quality play with really silly things.

Anyway, even though there's still plenty to work on, the overall direction of the team is looking good.

blowitupref

An interesting take on the Harney/Morgan incident https://twitter.com/TheGAAHour/status/1095067747703238659

RoscommonTom

blowitupref wrote: »

An interesting take on the Harney/Morgan incident https://twitter.com/TheGAAHour/status/1095067747703238659

there all at it, the Jack's are forever rolling around and donie did it against Mayo, too much watching the soccer fellas, should be a ban

RoscommonTom

Always_Running wrote: »

In fairness Roscommon lost by one point to Mayo in a game they had 9 placed balls and only scored 1. The following game Conor Cox made his debut and scored 5 frees from 6 attempts Roscommon won that game by 2 points.

i dont know would he have got 5 out of 6 in that wind in Castlebay,

nice_guy80

you even had Sean Cavanagh praising Morgan on RTE radio for 'engineering' the situation of a throw up instead of a free.

Mickey Harte's teams have been at this craic for years and nobody has properly called them out on it

theoneeyedman

nice_guy80 wrote: »

you even had Sean Cavanagh praising Morgan on RTE radio for 'engineering' the situation of a throw up instead of a free.

Mickey Harte's teams have been at this craic for years and nobody has properly called them out on it

I listened to that discussion on the way home. As I said on another forum, it's a bad panel when Frankie Dolan is the most intelligent contributer to it. The presenter should have called out Cavanagh on the praise for Morgan, not doing so only helps normalise diving and play acting.

Cavan_King

Roscommon evens to beat Cavan this weekend - there’s one I can’t understand.

I think the recent record is that we’ve beaten ye once in 10 or 11 attempts at senior and U21 Level - and that game can nearly be discounted as it was a dead rubber where both teams were already promoted.

Rossvet

That's bookies for ya!

blowitupref

Cavan_King wrote: »

Roscommon evens to beat Cavan this weekend - there’s one I can’t understand.

I think the recent record is that we’ve beaten ye once in 10 or 11 attempts at senior and U21 Level - and that game can nearly be discounted as it was a dead rubber where both teams were already promoted.

A 1 point Roscommon win or a draw looking at odds. Not that hard to understand when you consider Kerry and Galway only beat Cavan by a small margin this year and Roscommon in Hyde Park last year only won by 2 points v Cavan.