Roscommon GAA Discussion Thread

A win is a win is a win, but God there were times in that game I was thinking, if Roscommon lose this they will never get over it.

Unlike the minor match, I thought Roscommon were a much better team, far better defensively and looked much more dangerous in attack, but they tended to give the ball away far too easily. I know the conditions played into that somewhat, but there was some panicky decision-making, especially at the end when leading and a man up.

It was only when I got home and looked at it on Player that I realised Cregg had scored so much, but I still thought Colin Walsh put in one of the greatest full-back displays I've ever seen from a Roscommon player. He was a true leader from start to finish.

The final will certainly be one the neutral will enjoy, but obviously I want Roscommon to win. Enough moral victories and brave defeats. They are certainly good enough, so go and win it!

Excellent summary.

Won't name names, but a few lads what have played well all year were well off the pace today, that's the way it goes sometimes, and if there was one critisism it would probably be that we were a bit slow to react on the sideline and to make changes. However, I'm being harsh, overall a good season at U20 and hopefully a number of those lads will thrive at senior in the coming years.

Congrats to Offaly, closed off the centre well with the dropping of the #11 into the back line and in the end were deserving if narrow winners.

God knows I don't begrudge Offaly, but I'm absolutely gutted at that loss.

The previous post said it all for me: Giving the ball away!!!

I txt my buddy at half-time and said if we stop giving the ball away we'll win. And it really was that simple! Unfortunately, the generosity got even worse in the third quarter. From 0-7 to 0-8 to 0-7 to 0-13, where all five Offaly points came from where Roscommon actually had the ball but gave it away through bad concentration or poor decision-making. And that's where the game was lost. It was so frustrating to watch!

The good thing is that they played to the bitter, bitter end. That's vital. But they should never have been in that position.

I'm just so disappointed that such a good team left a very winable All-Ireland behind them.

The best team in the SFC got over the line. The same in the intermediate. So both of those have a right good chance of a connacht club title.

We've a nominated representative in the junior club championships after St. Josephs were highest progressing junior club, the other 3 teams in the semi final were second teams off bigger clubs.

After corofin gone connacht senior club championship is wide open,. Winter football should suit Pearses big mobile players, while making it harder for clubs with better forwards.

Pearses are excellent. They are very good defensively. Excellent in half back line and midfield. Well managed and experienced in tough, slog fest battle football. They don't panic. Their weakness is their forwards, but in slow heavy pitches this time of year they've a great chance. They also lack depth in the squad... Again not a huge deal at club level.

Carey was poor last year so wouldn't have gotten in squad anyway most likely, he struggled in the two under 20 games. Whether it was injury or lack of form I don't know but he looks right back to 2019 form again and should be in squad for end of league/championship imo because he was excellent today. We have to remember this Knockmore defence kept Ryan O'Donaghue scoreless from play.

Exciting time in Roscommon football. So many talented young players coming through from minor, under 20 and club. We had a major drop-off in talent post 2015 but this might arguably be a better batch of players coming through than 2011-15 group, only time will tell.

No the goalkeeper is a clear weakness for Pearses and not just yesterday. But goalkeeping throughout Roscommon has been major issue for years now. FBD game Saturday night we had a Galway man in goal and a Mayo man as backup, that tells you everything about state of goalkeeping in the county right now..

I wouldn't call him weak. He can't be too weak if the team got this far. But I just think that to go all the way and win an All-Ireland club championship, a team needs a fairly strong keeper - I don't mean physically strong. I mean more confident at kickouts, more confident in possession, more mature in terms of identifying what is happening out the pitch e.g. who is playing well and target that person with kickouts where possible.

Anyway, hope he goes out and has a stormer in the next match.

Congrats to Faithleachs on winning Connacht Intermediate title. Roscommon clubs are now double Connacht champions, first time ever I believe that's happened and an incredible achievement considering the strength of Mayo and Galway club football

There are many pitches at the same venue thay are not indoor. Thee Connacht Council chose to have it in the new dome to show it off, suitability for players was shown to be very much secondary to that.

Anyway, we'll done to St Faithleach's yesterday on winning the Connacht Intermediate. Both of the top club championship to Roscommon teams in the space of a week. Hopefully the rest of 2022 can continue in the same vein.

Just on the Dome.... Our Hurlers are out this evening @6pm in the tent. Feckin ridiculous to ask lads to be in Ballyhaunis ofor 5pm on a Wednesday. Pure folly, making very little of the players

Is there any way to watch the full Roscommon vs Sligo match back/download it without the €10 streaming cost (where you only have access for 24 hours and can't download/watch offline)? Was at in person so didn't pay for the stream thing (which still bugs me that they're charging €10 for it)

As an aside, it was a really good Roscommon performance (although as I mentioned above, the Dome isn't a great Hurling pitch really.

It does go fairly high alright. I would say if you went out of your way to hit it you could. The pitch being so small I’m still a bit confused by (the 65m is the half way line, so it’s only 130m in length).

So any scores from behind the half way line may deceive a little ha. It does lead to a fast over game though.

I do also think that Astro/4G isn’t good for hurling though. Kills ground hurling to an extent, especially if trying to clear the ball.

Good win today.

I was a bit worried beforehand, but as it turned out Roscommon played quite well and (it has to be said) Cork were poor.

Early on there seemed to be a welcome plan of letting the ball in faster to the inside line. It worked well and I hope it continues.

I really liked Richard Hughes' willingness to carry the ball very directly at the opposition. Enda and Cian McKeown also have this directness and this is exactly what Roscommon needs more of. Of course, Brian Stack is also this type of player, but unfortunately (even though he was excellent today and nealy always is) he is in as an emergency full-back at the moment, but the sooner he moves out the field the better for Roscommon.

Hopefully Meath's disaster against Galway today will affect them negatively rather than having them chomping at the bit to prove themselves next week.

Mixed weekend for Roscommon football. I thought Faithleachs had the winning of that game but the Murtaghs both had poor games. Pearses lack of scoring power eventually was their undoing. Scoreline was super-harsh on Pearses in the end. Great season for both though

Was surprised how poor Cork were today. The scoreline flattered them despite losing by 6. Cork never got to grips with Enda Smith all day. Hughes had his best game in a Roscommon Jersey.

Faithleach's have a weak enough squad sans the Murtagh lads, and Trim got on top of them. Best 2 players on the pitch were Trim's 6 and 14, thought #6 dominated the game when on the pitch and completely dominated Ciaran Murtagh's area. Diurmud was quiet, missed a few frees, including one late on to close to a point which was a killer. Difference in the teams illustrated by Cox being left on the #14 for most of the games, he's their best defender really and although he was being well beaten they obviously had no belief in anyone else to do any better.

thought Conelly did well for Faithleach's Brian murtagh too at times did well around the middle and disappeared at other times.

another Meath/Roscommon clash on Sunday. Meath have to respond to their no-show last week, and will be dangerous given the weather. We played pretty OK last week i thought, the new lads showed well which is promising going forward.

Forgot to mention they very pleasing observation that Enda Smith's tracking back and defending has improved out of sight.

It was always his weak point, but in the last two games he has been involved in at least 5-6 legitimate dispossesions, which is probably more than his whole career before that. Hopefully he has seen the light.

A draw was probably a fair reflection on the match, but Roscommon should still be annoyed not putting the game away.

It was a narky, free-ridden game, not helped by a dreadful refereeing performance. The ref seemed to think he was reffing a soccer match. Any tiny little bit of contact was a free it seemed. Roscommon certainly got some very soft frees in the first half, but some of the Derry frees in the second half were ridiculous. Having said that, Roscommon's forwards simply have to learn (a) to tackle correctly (b) when a free is given against them, to stop standing in front of the free-taker. I really don't know what they're trying to achieve by having the ball moved forward.

Speaking of the ref, probably the worst non-use of the advantage rule I've ever seen came against Cathal Heneghan. He was being fouled when running onto the ball, but he turned his man brilliantly to leave him one-on-one with the goale. Ping! Free f*cking kick ??? This is EXACTLY the the type of situation the advantage rule was brought in for. Any goal scored in a game that tight was always going to be huge, so that really messed up Roscommon's chances.

I also thought Roscommon players did far too much play-acting in trying to get bookings/sending offs. I thought it cost Roscommon two points, when a player lay down looking for some soft free/booking. The ref correctly ignored them, but the man down left Derry with an overlap and there you go. Leave that crap to the soccer fairies!!!

I thought Eddie Nolan played well again as did Brian Stack (though he actually did deserve his black card at the end). Donie had a very good first half. Keith Doyle definitly helped the bad kickout situation when he came on and played quite well in that short time.

Overall it was a sloppy enough performance by Roscommon, especially as Derry really weren't as good as advertised.

Agree with nearly everything you say.

Cox should not be starting in my view. His greediness is beyond a joke at this stage. It's underage stuff really and it's not today or yesterday it's been happening. Plus his 'tackling' is terrible, very often ending up with stupid soft frees when the opposition are going nowhere.

Lavin's kickouts were very poor today. I know Derry had a very good kickout strategy on Roscommon's kicks (which included their goalie in the middle of the pitch marking space and contesting kickouts), but he just doesn't find Roscommon players often enough. And he's not comfortable on the ball in play. I was surprised that nobody else was really tried in goals this league.

I'm not convinced most of the 'injured' players were even remotely hurt. And I'm talking about the Roscommon players. Far too much diving for my liking. It disrupted their own game rather than Derry's.

Galway will do us no favours.

We played well today, but Offaly were shocking. The level in D2 is abysmal, playing against the likes of Cork, Down and Offaly is gonna do us no good at all.

Really hope we get a result next week.

Facilities are very good alright.

Cox did well today, I personally think he's been poor enough over the league, I thought Mckeon in particular ought to have gotten the start as he's looked better in the games (granted I don't have any idea if he's carrying a knock or what's happening at training) but Cox got a good start today and it helped him a lot.

Speaking of the grounds, I always thought the stand in Tullamore is exactly the type of stand that should have been put in the Hyde. Close to the pitch, nice elevation, comfortable seats, full length of the pitch and clean.

I also thought it was lovely to see all the kids out on the pitch at half-time.

I thi k his performances weren't great, scoring 4 points including frees, per game against the. likes of Cork, Down etc isn't top level scoring to be honest. Opinions are like arse holes, everyone has one, mine is that Cox hasn't been great in the first few games, but he was in good form yesterday, so Anthony's decision is vindicated. He sees more of the players than we do, so it's up to him.

It's a good place to be in though, the 2 Smith lads are moving well, Ciaran M had his best game yesterday along with Cox, Heneghan and Mckeon having good cameos, a solid looking midfield, and the likes of McCormack and Hughes showing up well in defence. We seem to be back to where we were 2 years ago, with new legs coming into the squad too, big game next week to finish off a good league campaign hopefully.