nice_guy80 wrote: » I very much doubt many county players are running laps McHale has a great background in basketball, I'm willing to give them the benefit of a year building a team and sorting out the spine of the team
TCDStudent1 wrote: » But shouldn't they have done that last year?!
megadodge wrote: » Well, today's match at least was an improvement. There was determination and spirit on display right throughout, even though some of the ongoing issues with giving the ball away far too easily were still in evidence. Strangely, Roscommon played their best football once John McManus was stupidly sent off. I'd be interested to see how many Kerry scores came from frees in the first half, because they didn't seem hectic from play in that period, despite having a decent breeze at their backs. Most of those frees were of the pointless variety, with David Murray up to his old tricks again. I thought he had gotten out of that habit, but he gave away a number of really stupid frees in the first half and John McManus did similar until he needlessly got sent off. Both players are worth their place, but David needs to be much more disciplined in the tackle and John needs to calm down in possession. Something that I didn't mention in the Mayo game, but meant to, as it was obvious again today was the lack of patience in Roscommon's play. There's an element of rushing everything, just because there's nothing on at that moment. Mayo the last day, gave a good display of poking and prodding and recycling until an opportunity presented itself and that's something Roscommon just don't do. Some of the fault may lay with the isolated players inside who IMO just didn't work hard enough on making themselves available for longer passes when Ros had the ball in the half-back / midfield area. There was huge areas of space to run into that Donie Smith and Cian Connolly didn't use. These two are talented players who are quick enough to lose a marker and should really be working harder to show. And there's another thing, Cian Connolly just has to be more selfish on the ball. He does the same in club matches. Wins the ball and stands up waiting to lay it off to fellas who aren't within an asses roar of him yet, when he has the class, knackiness and finishing ability to be taking on his man every time. Plus, being smallish, there's always the old 'soft free for the small lad' factor that still works if the back makes even the slightest mistake. Delighted to see Diarmuid Murtagh back. And straight away he made a huge difference, no sign of rust. The class is there to see and we need him badly. I was disgusted with Kerry's systematic delaying of Roscommon's frees. Time and time again, they cynically wouldn't give the ball back / kicked the ball away / blocked or attempted to block the free and while the ref brought the ball up fairly often, it was awful to look at and obviously achieved the objective of stopping momentum and allowing Kerry players to funnel back. The fact that as a team they weren't punished for it made me think about the basketball 'team foul' rule and how it needs to be brought it into football to punish the cynical teams. On the subject of the ref, I felt a lot of the frees he gave to Kerry were deserved, but there were definitely a number of similar situations where Roscommon players didn't receive frees that were every bit as deserving. It was frustrating, even for a person who doesn't have much history of bitching about refs - unlike some rather unreasonable Rossies behind me who complained about everything. The funny thing was, there was a group of Kerry supporters in front of us who were doing the exact same thing, even when things were going well for them. Twas like a comedy sketch at times wondering who could be more unreasonable.
nice_guy80 wrote: » Roscommon have never been a team with the patience to wait for an opportunity to score. It stems from the fact we don't seem able to craft a space for a player to get a shot off on their strong foot, or players able to cut back inside onto the outside of their boot.if you repeatedly slow down frees by kicking the ball away, running across the freetaker the ball should be brought up to the 21 and you're given a free shot. I'd love to see a free taker some day just throw the ball up and swing his leg as hard as possible at a fella running across as a free is about to be taken. What could a referee do?
TheRiverman wrote: » Those missing players,where are they and why are they not playing?
rrs wrote: » David Keenan was another. He was a decent half back.
nice_guy80 wrote: » problem with David was that he was always playing junior club football he picked up a bad injury last September.
flandabieduzie wrote: » Did Meath win an all Ireland with a fair few junior club players and Claire hurlers the same? Might be wrong on that though. He also scored a goal in croke park and has invaluable experience playing at the top level in this county. He could have been left on the panel to upskill again after a long term injury. He's still worth a place in the top 30 imo.
megadodge wrote: » Who do you think should be in there instead? I'm not convinced there are too many quality defenders out there that could be brought in.
nice_guy80 wrote: » Junior football in Roscommon is not the same as junior football in Kerry or eg Dublin Keenan always gave everything for the cause since he was a minor in 06
manofwisdom wrote: » It's up to the county manager and his selectors to watch club football closely to see what capable defenders are there aged 24 to 30. When Roscommon won the minor All Ireland in 2016 their success was built on a solid defence where I believe no goal was conceded throughout that championship. From that team Roscommon lost two of its best defenders Stephen Ormsby,Peter Domican to overseas work but I think both are back home now but are they worth a recall now? Then you had Paul Gleeson, David Flynn, Colm Garvey; James McKeague who were on the extended senior panel before but never got extended run in the side like Mullooly,McInerney,Murray etc are getting now.
nice_guy80 wrote: » problem with David was that he was always playing junior club football
megadodge wrote: » Finally a win! I have to admit, Cavan were a little disappointing, but still if the two points are there, take them and that's what Roscommon did where they didn't do it before. Firstly, I want to compliment Niall Kilroy on his best ever display in a Roscommon jersey. I have criticised him before, but in fairness to the lad, he was excellent in the sweeper position today. He read the game brilliantly, took the ball at pace out of the defense and was very incisive up front, scoring three impressive points. Maybe, just maybe he might be deployed there in future? I'm still not convinced he's good enough in the forward line. Conor Devanney was probably the best player on the pitch and is really the instigator of most that is good about Roscommon's attacking play. Cian Connolly was very good in the first half. More incisive than usual (good), but still inclined to lay the ball off when he is easily capable of finishing. He showed this when he slotted over the first score of the game from around 60 yards out, as if it was nothing. He should take advise from Donie Smith's interview in the programme where he says he was once told "all good forwards are a little greedy". Tom Corcoran made a spectacular introduction, running with the ball out of defense, punting a beautiful 50 yard pass into Compton then got it back and he slotted it over. He was heavily involved from then on and I really think he should start. He's physical and a good footballer. The defense was much improved and overall the rate of turnovers was cut down dramatically, though the caveat is we were playing the weakest opposition in our division. Taking into consideration that Cavan drew with Kerry and Tyrone and beat Mayo, I'm not sure what to make of them today. They had a huge crowd there, possibly outnumbering Roscommon supporters and they were very disappointed leaving the grounds. I think Roscommon just have the Indian sign over them. I heard one of their supporters say that Roscommon have only lost to them once in their last 11 meetings. Not sure of the accuracy but we've certainly beaten them lots in recent years.
blazermel wrote: » A much improved performance and at last - a bit of fight - which has been absent in recent games. Very impressed with Kilroy, he is a hard worker but unsure as to what his best position is. The way the lads defended and tackled in the second half was great to see, Cavan are a difficult team to play against at the best of times and we got the win we badly needed.Is Ian Kilbride now back from duty with the defence forces, named at 10 today?
yabadabado wrote: » AFAIK Kilbride only home on a break and isn't finished his tour until May.
megadodge wrote: » Don't know if he's back, but he definitely wasn't togged today.
BullBauld wrote: » He definitely was togged yesterday and involved in the warm up. He was wearing the no. 10 jersey in Fintan Cregg's absence due to illness.
