Roscommon GAA Discussion Thread

ya done need to believe an annoymous post 2 mins of league Sunday will do it for ya on the player … that’s a lot less then it took ya to write your few anti galway posts above I’m sure . By the way meself and most galway people would have a soft spot for the rossies and we would certainly rather see them in division 1 then derry .

If ye can’t beat the Galway B team on Sunday then it’s time to .......have a good hard look at yer selves me thinks..

Good win and Div 1 next year

Good campaign, Connacht will be interesting this year

Very good campaign. Today was a good performance, very professional, had an open goal earlier but a cynical Rugby tackle denied Mckeon his goal. We're never in trouble in the second half, Galway added some consolation scores in Garbage time but I wouldn't worry about that TBH. Next week I wouldn't be worried about, a bit of a free hit, a run out in Croke Park but today was the main prize, a fourth promotion in four attempts.

This campaign, unbeaten, top of the table, but better than that an expanded squad, with the likes of McCormack, Hughes, Nolan, Mckeon, Henneghan, all featuring well and bedding in. Also, a good campaign from Harney who has had an injury free run for the first time in a long time. Squad looks stronger now with them lads going well, also the likes of Hussey and Ronan Daly coming back to fitness will leave the lads with options now.

Goalkeeping still an issue, really surprised other options weren't looked at or tried out.... AC and his team are the ones who see the guys in training obviously, but Lavin is a liability in this day and age, simply not good enough IMHO.

Not much to add after my post during the week:another good performance, professional, deserved winners, if a little closer this time. The Galway we were hearing about as all ireland contenders a fortnight ago, that had a half team when beaten last week, were beaten again despite having Conroy, Walsh and Comer all available. We seemed content to let Galway shoot from distance again and it was a dangerous plan, but we were disciplined, didn't give up either scorable frees or any goal chance (apart from an early one that Coneeley missed). We also created several goal chances, and generous refereeing prevented at least one penalty and several close frees/Black card challenges - Galway were really poor in the tackle, all arms and holding and it went largely unpunished.

Still plenty to work on, goalie still an issue for instance, but it's been a very good league.

Very good league campaign. Clare the most concerning performance. But conditions were atrocious. Like overall we knew we'd have to get results from Derry and Galway games to be promoted - only 2 of those were likely to go up. Now fixtures did help us on the first Galway result, but you still have to win it. And that was a good performance over local rivals.

Worrying is that it was a very open game, one for the football purists and that doesn't win championships. So ALOT of work still to be done.

I think we'd something like 5 or 6 weeks between croker and the trip to sligo that time. God remember being at that game and we completely misfired that day, despite having enough possession. It was after John Evans mis judged all Ireland comment.

Fair play.

I personally have no heed on hurling, but you'd have to have admiration for anyone in Roscommon who keeps hurling, there is no support resource or publicity wise. They do deserve lots of credit.

Poor performance.

Gotta say, we were very passive both in defence and attack. We didn't concede a scoreable free until the 68th minute, which to me is indicative of our soft tackling and lack of aggression. We gave huge freedom to Galway players in possession, especially their #9 whose name escapes me, Shane Walsh and Finnerty, who again er made look like an All Star...... Mark my words he'll not play as well for the rest of the year. Walsh is especially annoying, a brilliant player, but he was unmarked throughout, Heneghan was the closest thing to a marker for most of the first half.

Attack was poor, took the safe option too often, didn't pop the passes and engage the defenders, ended up playing outside the Galway screen and missed several scoreable chances when the game was there before half time.

A couple of strange selections, Heneghan off at half time, and McCormack not featuring at all. Two of our better league performers, Heneghan featured well in the first half as well,Murray left on Finnerty for all bar the last 5 or so minutes when the damage was done.

No team named, as is Cunningham normal Modus operandi.

Kit doesn't particularly annoy me, but there are plenty who get het up snout not having a team named early.

There are two ways of looking at it, either teams have to be announced say before 2pm on Friday and then big fines if they are not, and have press releases etc in the sport news bulletins like the Rugby heads do, or else wait until the team lists are provided say 90 minutes before throw in, and make the announcement part of the media coverage. The current free for all does SFA for the promotion of the games.

Once the players know what's happening, I don't thi k it makes any difference whether a team is announced early or late to the public. More traditional supporters like to see it early, but in truth is makes no difference.

Can't see many changes from the Connacht final personally, but there will be some. I'd hope McCormack is brought back in, he was in hard luck to be dropped for the CF, and maybe Hughes too, both good leggy lads who can cover ground. Maybe one of them (Hughes) named at ten to give more solidity? Also, think McKeown is gonna be under pressure, he's had a good league but was very quiet in the 2 Championship games so far.

Very lucky to be just 2 points down at ht. Very poor stuff again, look totally devoid of ideas at times and the ease of some of the Clare scores is unbelievable at this level.

Why aren't we contesting the Clare kick out, their keeper looks very nervy and putting on a full press might give us some impetus and momentum to get back in this game.

Hard luck today lads, it probably was a bit of a snatch and grab job in the end ,but realistically we would not be at this level but for ye

Our template for years was follow Roscommon and Cavan up the divisions in order to be competitive, while we have yet to reach division 1 or win a provincial title Colm Colin's always used ye massive benchmark, especially through the league system

Only thing I would say is if Roscommon want to make the step up into the top 6 in the country ye will need the small clubs to start producing better players , only 9 clubs were represented today for Roscommon , that's not enough to really challenge for all Irelands

Granted no more then Clare most footballers in the county are working outside the county and numbers are low , but club Rossie and the people in London can only do so much ye have serious talent in this county but it all seems to be coming from 3 or 4 clubs

Ye need to be as positive as a typical Willie heagarty or Brian Carney commentary going forward, division 1 football next year and another real shot at a Connacht title, today will not highlight that this has been a really good season for Roscommon

A really gracious bunch that ye are both today and on here I wish ye nothing but the best of luck next year , and days like today will be quickly brushed aside

Silence has been deafening in the 3 or 4 weeks since the Clare debacle.

Have to say, the lack of any announcement of forward planning from either Anthony or the Board is very disappointing at this stage. Say what you like about James Horan, but he realised he's brought Mayo as far as he can, and has stepped aside with honour and with a lot of credit in the bank. The contrast with Anthony is stark, in spite of AC being clearly out of his depth t the top level and with the team at best stagnating or more realistically coming back down the hill.

If Anthony doesn't do the honourable thing, the board has to be proactive IMHO and take the decision out of his hands. This management team is leading us nowhere except into the doldrums.

Do you think we've improved or gone back since he's taken over? Are we improving, stagnant, or going backwards?

I dunno, not going to sh1t on Anthony, but as a management team in my opinion they have not improved the squad. We have certainly plateaued, and are built for a pace suited to league/winter football, rather than summer/championship, while there appears to be a reluctance to change from the established players and go with younger, more pacy players.

There is no panic, but certainly there needs to be some planning and some pathway for the way forward.

We've definitely stayed the same. We've been unlucky with some injuries/walk aways too. I'd agree he's been too loyal to players.

We're still operating much higher than similar sized counties, with similar resources.

It will take something different to bring us to next level. But fundamentally we're not fit enough or intense enough in our play. A few connacht titles and yoyo leagues has peppered over the cracks in the standard of player we've on the squad. And it's been that way for 30 years.

Like our lads already work hard in terms of fitness and preparation and training. So the manager who asks for and gets more out of them, without destroying the playing panel cos it's just too hard... Difficult balancing act for any manager.

I always say the day to prepare the next manager appointment, is the day you appointed the incumbent. I'm not seeing the replacements lining up. And if we've to create a vacancy to get them to line up, that just means we want the next merry go round famous guy. And that's a lottery as to whether you go forward or go backwards.

I met him in the Croke Park Hotel before the All Ireland and he said he was staying another year, for what that's worth.

Thank you Anthony, you have done us some service.

It's the correct decision in my opinion, but it should be acknowledged that Cunningham seems a decent man, did his level best to do a good job for us, and whatever shortcomings there may have been during his time at the helm he conducted himself (as indeed did his team) with integrity and decency.

I said here and have felt a change is needed, and I'll stand by that. The higher we have reached, the more the shortcomings in the management team in terms of coaching and team structure have been exposed, and the inability to get proper top level coaches to back up Anthony over the last few years has been our downfall.

The biggest problem now though is that it's what, seven or eight weeks since we've played Clare (11 June). It's a long time waiting to get moving on a proper coaching ticket and to get it together, woth many counties having a good head start on us.

Covid really screwed Cunningham over. By early 2020 we were Connacht champions with wins over Mayo and Galway away from home. We breezed through Divison 2 then everything went to crap. Roscommon followed the rules re training to the letter while many others did not and got a slap on the wrist.

I wish Cunningham all the best, some great days like that win finally in Castlebar after so long (not many of us there that night but it didn't matter), the second half against Galway in the 19 final where we absolutely blitzed them. The league final this year and Murtaghs goal.