Roscommon GAA Discussion Thread

Roscommon league fixtures for 2026

Kerry (A)

Monaghan (H)

Armagh (H)

Galway (A)

Dublin (H)

Donegal (H)

Mayo (A)

Comfortable win today for Brigids. By far the better team, despite some poor finishing at times.

I thought Ballina were only middling and representative of the drop in Mayo club standards in the last 10 years or so. And yet they still scored three goals. I mentioned after the county final replay that Brigids being cut open at the back for goal chances could cost them against better teams and after today I'm still of the same opinion.

Brigids certainly looked very dangerous every time they got the ball and some of their points from counter-attacks were textbook perfect. In this regard I thought Conor Hand was outstanding throughout.

Ben O'Carroll was outstanding at winning the ball and making space, but unfortunately his finishing is still not top-notch. Still a tough hour for any corner back.

Shane Cunnane continues to frustrate. On more than one occasion he chose to punch a ball he could easily have caught and for a big guy his fielding has always been suspect. His kicking from the hand is his strong point, but from the ground I think they should try Carroll instead. Even when Cunnane was lining up both long range frees from the ground I stated out loud that he was lining them up wrong and they were going to pull wide to the left. And that's exactly what happened. If I can see that from the stand, surely some kicking coach or just ordinary coach should be able to see it. He was eventually taken off and luckily Daly is a decent midfielder to have as a sub.

Anyway, the Connacht final has the look of a serious contest and there's no reason Brigids can't win it, but they need to be much more solid at the back.

Brigid's showed their guts today, as they were in bother more than once, but just ground out the win against a physically very strong Moycullen side.

Hand was very impressive again, as was Rory Fallon, who did an excellent job on the normally influencial Cooke and then buried the goal that won the game.

I haven't seen a replay yet, but the goal looked very soft. Again! It seemed to be part of a very sluggish start from the entire team, but in fairness they improved as the game went on.

They need to sort the freekicks from the ground too as Cunnane just doesn't look comfortable on them. I think they should try Carroll, though his kickouts in the second half weren't particularly impressive either.

Anyway, well done and they are in with a good chance now to make up for the near-miss two years ago.

It's frustrating really watching our club teams dominate the best Mayo and Galway senior and intermediate clubs and yet we have struggled so badly (albeit the rare wins in 2017/19) against Mayo and Galway senior teams these past 3 decades. Next year will be 36 years since we last beat Galway in the Hyde in senior Championship and 25 years with Mayo :(

Bridgets yesterday completely nullified Sean Kelly yet had it been Roscommon vs Galway Kelly would have been allowed run riot, same with Cooke when he came on.

Conor Hand was absolutely fantastic yesterday, reminded me of his performance down in Cork in the league earlier this year. Fallon was immense both in defence (didn't give Cooke a second to breathe) and going forward.

Bridgets full back line looks weakest part of team but they have options to change it.

Congratulations to Strokestown too on their win last week. McGinley and Colm Neary the standouts. Would love to see McGinley in senior setup next season, he was incredible for u20s last season.

Very very quite on here considering the club All Ireland final on Sunday

First challenge is back to back County titles, no easy feat.

When ya look at the impact of the new squad additions it really highlights how last year was really wasted by continually going with the same core players and not trusting the wider panel.

Three fine performances, which is really what it's all about with Roscommon. Getting the team to perform consistently. Irrespective of results.

I was actually expecting a loss v Monaghan, as the performance v Kerry was so unexpected and Roscommon tradionally don't fare well with favouritism, but fair play they played well there and did well for two thirds of the game today, but boy they were hanging on at the end.

The scoring in the first half was very clinical and something we are getting used to for quite a few years with quality finishing forwards. The pressing of the opposition in their own half is a highlight for me. Roscommon are now forcing turnovers all over the field with a genuine hunger and hard-working attitude that is something we're not used to.

But the complete wipeout on kickouts in the second half is a big worry. I know Armagh are very strong around the middle, but it was one-way traffic for the last 20 minutes. Thankfully Armagh were quite wasteful.

The way teams are looking at the moment, I think the Dublin game is a winnable one and that could be enough to stay up. Galway are looking strong (in all senses of the word) and the Salthill match will give us a good indicator where Roscommon are at

Jesus, that comeback came out of the depths of despair.

The first half was simply a continuation of the second half in Armagh game. Annihilated at midfield.

Roscommon barely won a kickout in the entire first half. The goalie kicked three over the sideline and two others straight to Galway players. The players out the field simply weren't competing in the air or on the ground and were being overrun by Galway's good attacking play (which was made a lot easier by a lot of ball-watching from Roscommon). Cregg and Murtagh looked very dangerous the few times the ball came their way, but 11 down at halftime and 13 early in the second was actually a fair reflection on how the game had gone.

Then…… Roscommon started to get aggressive, especially on the kickouts. For the last 25 minutes or so, they completely dominated all kickouts and from there, as we know, the forwards finally had enough ball to do their thing and the scoring was very clinical. I don't know the stats, but I'd say Roscommon might only have had 3-4 wides.

The second goal was created from fantastic pressuring on the Galway defenders, who simply had to hoof the ball off-balance, Roscommon gathered and created the killer score.

Great attitude shown in the second half, but the first half (and Armagh second half) is a big worry. I know big leads on a windy day are no longer 'big' leads, but more play like that needs to be avoided like the plague.

I think Roscommon are well capable of beating Dublin, which would put us in with a good chance of making the League final, especially if Donegal 'lose interest' like they did last year.

Kickouts, kickouts, kickouts.

The lessons from the last two games have not been learned.

Under the new rules, short kickouts are nearly extinct, which means you simply have to win near 50% in order to give yourself a chance. Last year's All-Ireland final was a perfect example. Donegal were very efficient with the ball, but simply didn't have it often enough to win the match, because Kerry dominated the kickouts.

Roscommon did look tired. But that aside they still had a number of goal chances which they butchered and if they had gone in who knows? Dublin on the other hand looked a completely different team to what we had seen so far in the league. They shot the lights out in the first half, with some superb scores and their defending was top-notch. I don't believe Roscommon got a single free inside Dublin's 45m line.

I thought Conor Hand was playing very well, so was confused when he was taken off. I thought Neary and Senan Lambe played well. Although Senan made some poor mistakes, he still covers an enormous amount of ground with ball in hand and is the type of player every successful team needs.

Whatever about getting beaten, it's the size of the defeat that rankles. Roscommon need to be ALWAYS competitive, win, lose or draw. Three defeats on the trot will not be a good leadup to championship after a promising start to the league.

Kick out weren't as you remember from last years All-Ireland final

The stats

Kerry kick outs

Won 15 Lost 9

Donegal kick outs

Won 19 lost 10

One of the key differences in that final was Kerry scoring 5 two pointers and Donegal none.

Last Sunday Roscommon might have avoided a 11 point defeat if Dublin didn't score 5 two pointers or had Roscommon managed to score more than just one. Dublin in their previous 4 games scored 6 two pointers in total which suggests the Roscommon lack of defending played a big part in Dublin's sudden improvement in scoring two pointers.

That is not dominating the kick-outs - 28 won for Kerry versus 24 won for Donegal. It was the long range shooting that did a lot of the damage in last years All-Ireland. Clifford scored 9 points from only a handful of plays.

I took the stats from Matt Hurley a sports reporter from the southern star who's an informed individual has been running match stats on social media for a number of years so in short he's far from dodgy.

his stats are pure shite