Roscommon GAA Discussion Thread

rossie1977

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.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118431436#Comment_118431436

Forwards looked ok to me. I can't remember their names but number 11, 14 and 15 caused a lot of damage.

Seem like a very good club side. If I was to pick out a weakness, I'd have to pick out the poor goalie. I know it's an easy target, but he doesn't seem to have the composure for a keeper at a high level. Maybe he was just having a bad day. He got a black card for messing around and tripping on the Knockmore player. He was at the same thing again some time later - bringing the ball out of defence, but running in to Knockmore players.

rossie1977

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..

rn

No, for sure D'Arcy and carey were excellent for Pearses. Hope they repeat that now. Lots of clubs have weak goalies and Pearses defence is strong, plus they tend to dominate possession. A small bit of luck and they'll be all Ireland champions.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118451957#Comment_118451957

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.

theoneeyedman

It seems the intercounty scene is definitely not for the working man any more, with this evening's FBD final set for a 5.45 throw in in Bekan. Fvckin ridiculous if you ask me, very unfair on lads, many based on the other side of the country, illustrating how out of touch the administrators are to players.

Very experimental line up which is what these competitions are for. Game on TG4 YouTube.

rossie1977

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

megadodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118475679#Comment_118475679

The early throwin was because of the Government induced 8pm 'curfew' on indoor venues.

Everybody had to be out of the dome by 8pm, hence the early start.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118485833#Comment_118485833

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.

beggars_bush

Pearses great value at 7-1. Get on it

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118486062#Comment_118486062

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

callaway92

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118507723#Comment_118507723

The Dome such a strange place for Hurling. The pitch is tiny (65m is the half way line). I don't think 4G pitches work as well for Hurling as they do for other sports where the ball sees less of the ground. I enjoyed that match for what it was though and looking forward to the match on Saturday. €10 for a stream is robbery I think though. Connacht GAA should be streaming it for free.

callaway92

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.

flasher0030

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118512586#Comment_118512586

Must be massive if the ball doesn't hit the roof in hurling.

callaway92

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118525525#Comment_118525525

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.

MacDanger

Good luck to Pearses on Saturday

megadodge

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.

theoneeyedman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118556732#Comment_118556732

Agree with you in the main. Conditions shocking in the 2nd half especially, but some of the newer lads showed up well, I'd add McCann to your list above and the corner back from Dominic's whose name escapes me. Also, Kudos to the evergreen Kilroy who started another year in the shirt in the normal industrious fashion.

We're still in trouble in goals though, we cannot just stick blindly with the same player and expect things to change, very shaky and kicking poor again.

We need a footballer in goals.

Also, while it was nice to acknowledge Cathal Creggs Roscommon career, it's strange to see him receive the hero's welcome, but IIRC none of the other recent retirees did. The likes of Keenan, Donie, Sean Mc, Senan etc have all given loads to the county, but it's bad form IMHO that we start singling out some players and not others.

rossie1977

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.

beggars_bush

Faithleachs relying on the murtaghs all year to drag them through games and Trim had their homework done.

The pitch in the Downs is quite tight and suited a more physical Trim team.

Pearses very naive in lumping ball into the FF line and it came back twice as quick. Kickouts also a big issue for them. They also lacked a bit of raw pace up front. Blood a few young lads next year and they can improve again

theoneeyedman

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.

megadodge

Good win today in Navan.

The sloppy finish took some of the gloss off what was for the majority of the match a very impressive performance from Roscommon.

Virtually all the starting 15 played well, with Eddie Nolan in particular playing his best game yet in a Roscommon jersey.

In the first half with a very strong wind at their backs they didn't move the ball quite as quickly into the full-forward line as against Cork, but the support running was impressive - something which has not been a strong point. The finishing 5 or so minutes in the first half saw some lovely football from Roscommon, when they tacked on 5 points in very quick succession and looked like scoring with every play.

Cathal Heneghan continues to shine and looks a serious prospect, but just a little worrying is that he was taken off again today with a head injury. Second game in a row to be taken off injured, I just hope he isn't one of these frustratingly permanently injured players.

megadodge

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.

rossie1977

Took them time to settle with the conditions but they absolutely blew Meath away in the last 15 minutes of the first half and won the game during that period. Cox/Smiths/Heneghan during that spell Meath simply couldn't handle.

Nolan has started to come into his own.

Little bit worrying for Roscommon was the fact they seemed to lose their shape once Kilroy came off.

megadodge

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.

theoneeyedman

Like Clare, could have won, could have lost, draw probably a fair result, I'd have settled for it when the game went 11 points apiece late on. We were good in parts, but forward were never really to penetrate the D, scores still coming from outside and little goal threat. New lads did well, Hughes was good on the ball, McCormack did OK and will improve, lads like Heneghan and Doyle looked lively. Can't understand how Cox is still first choice starter, he's been poor enough in the games I've been at this year, and his decision making is often very poor. The shennanniggans in the second half disrupted us, and left the game very stop start, and we struggled at times. Kick outs are still an issue, and will be as long as Lavin is first choice. All to do to get promoted now, we'll need a result against Galway it seems either way.

Referee was completely out of his depth, allowed Derry to dictate terms through the second half, these UFC body slams were happening all over the pitch are going to result in a bad injury before long, and they resulted in 2 yellow cards without fail. Really disappointed that an experienced ref like Gough didn't give the man in the middle more help.

megadodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118780209#Comment_118780209

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.

megadodge

Very good performance today, especially the first half.

Scored 1-12 in the first half with no wide. Actually, I believe Roscommon only hit one wide the whole match (open to correction).

A simply atrocious decision by the ref to yellow card Keith Doyle for what looked like bare physical contact, came back to haunt Doyle when he did commit an actual real yellow card offense shortly afterwards. Roscommon coped very well without the full cohort and never really looked in trouble, but the whole 'forwards tackle' thing has to be watched. Against quality opposition the consequences could be an awful lot worse.

The whole team played well and some of the scoring in the first half was top notch. Richard Hughes really is turning into the sort of player that opposition teams need to watch. His energy levels are exceptional; he doesn't need any time after the previous run to start yet another one.

It's in their own hands now. I'd nearly prefer if the game was in Galway; Roscommon haven't played well against Galway in the Hyde for years. I wonder will Galway 'rest' a few players now that they're promoted.

theoneeyedman

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.

se25

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118811502#Comment_118811502

Agreed...Offaly were very poor. Game over once we got first goal...Good chance next Sunday for us to show that we can match the big teams in the League 1.C.Cox very good first half today, will need similar next week.

Fair play to Offaly on the facilities at Tullamore today. Lovely ground, clean toilets, tannoy that is clear and announces subs quickly, pitch in great nick.