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I was extremely sceptical about the new rules but based on the Ros Sligo game today I feel they might be worth persevering with. The main rule out of them all is the 3 hand passes. It is actually forcing a fundamental change away from the possession/recycling style that's evolved over the last few years. You could see lads today consciously avoiding making that second and third hand pass in case it landed your teammate in trouble. There was much more foot passing on display, admittedly much of it short and safe but I'd prefer that to the looping around the 45 popping hand passes x infinity we've become accustomed to. There were plenty of turnovers and I felt it exciting to watch that if 2 hand passes were made you were acutely aware that the next pass choice was critical - putting a man in possession after 3 hand passes puts him in dodgy territory, thus there was more ambitious balls kicked inside and definitely more lads taking riskier shots rather than fisting it out again to "hold possession".

Even the maligned sideline kick forward might be a positive. Sligo got one in near the 21. They had no option but to go for the point, it landed in around the small square and there was a bit of a scramble to get it clear. That's better for both teams and sets of spectators than a kick back to the 45 and another round of looping runs and fist passes across in front of the blanket.

I'd be inclined to give all this a chance based on,admittedly , only one viewing.

Stream anyone?

Syferus, you need to take a break from the Internet. Take up a totally new hobby or something. You first surfaced a few years ago as an ovely enthusiastic but naive Roscommon fanatic. You've taken a fair bit of flak over the years and you now come across as a fairly bitter and entrenched know it all, whose lack of genuine knowledge is stark on many occasions. Take a break from this shite lad, for your own good.

Just as an aside doesn't the fact that the majority of Dublin supporters thougth lowndes was Connolly highlight the fact that the majority of people who go to county football are not real gaa enthusiast who probably never go to a club game.

And to think that the reason Dublin have been allowed to make Croke park their permanent ground is to accommodate these fools who belong on a barstool.

The ole ole craic when keeping possession, the Brit style terrace singing..... Silly bolixes.

I thought as a neutral it was shocking to watch. I can't stand this possession recycling stuff. Watching fellas boom over points with unerring accuracy doesn't thrill me either. I'd sooner a blood n guts club game, 1-9 to 0-12 type stuff with a healthy mix of the ridiculous and the sublime. The Dubs bore the fuckin life out of me. Fair play to them and all that. But f**k them. Making a balls of the championship since they went pro.

13 steps I counted. Wrecks my head that practice of getting free steps just cos a tackle is coming in. That's the f**king game. You can risk barreling through all you like but you still have to play the ball under physical pressure from the backs. And I used to be a forward.

There's far too much know how in that Mayo team for our lads I fear.  My hope is we put it up to them, hit hard and let them know they were in a game. And maybe if things are in the balance with 15 to go we can push and try and win the f**kin thing

What would be a rough breakdown of "Mayo people" and "Roscommon people" in Ballaghaderreen? 50/50? What about the clubs rural catchment area, is that considered Mayo or Ros territory? What about blow ins ie people with no previous Mayo or Ros connection for example Akram that plays for Mayo. Would they say they were from Roscommon or Mayo? Are there any Ros people in the Ballaghaderreen GAA catchment that travel out to Eire Og or Western Gaels so they can play in Roscommon? What about the Ballagh club hierarchy, is that staunchly Mayo or do Rossies get involved and just accept that the situation as it's been for years?

I'm not on the windup, just genuinely interested. Don't know anyone from Ballagh!

Clare should win. It would be more of a surprise if Ros put in a 70 minute championship performance than a hungry Clare with momentum putting us on our arses again.

I'd say about 60/40 in favour of Galway. Roscommon could do something and win the game, if all things fall in to place for us. But it's championship football against Galway and the pecking order in the province makes them the most likely winners when there is not that much difference in quality between the sides, added to the fact that the thing we have most form for is making a balls of it.

Should be interesting anyway!

Some awful junior B stuff from us yesterday mixed with some great stuff in the 2nd half.Thatt 2nd quarter was a disgrace.
Still trying to come to terms with that turnaround. 4-10 to 0-5 !!!!
Lot of thinking for management - put in some bloody midfielders and where will we get a half back line?
Also our 3 starting full forwards ( Syfín's heroes) need to be benched and let the Smiths and hopefully Diarmuid start.
1-2 from our starting FF line over 3 quarter of the game, 1-3 from the Smiths in the last 15 minutes.
Qe are where we wanted to be but by  Jaysus are we a work in progress.....
Still a lot to do and it will be next Spring before McFod ( a Syfínism) get their right starting 15 on the field.
Meanwhile anything us possible ...from disaster to an AI SF......

either Donie or Senan should play not both. Cregg should be in the half forward line.

Senan was involved in 3/6 of the first half scores. set up a goal chance for cregg. scored the goal and laid off for the 7th point also was the player who won the penalty and still didn't play well!
need to work on the  basic errors we repeatedly  make

And who exactly would give way to facilitate Cregg? The half forward line have been excellent all year. I think Cregg should be tried out in the half backline, other than Murray we are poor here. Would agree that Senan and Donie can't play in the same line. Senan did ok yesterday, bar a couple of good passes and a fine point the game passed Donie by. Sligo were shocking poor in the second half and were lucky not to concede 10 goals over the course of the game.

the time for trying out for this year is over.  a final isnt the place anyway. we lost a yr or two development with JE IMO.

rudi i'd drop fintan.  it's a tough decision and he has played well but I think he is just a little slow to release possession and prone to taking wrong options.

you could easily pick any 4 from Kilbride, smith x2; shine, cregg x2, connolly, harney, devaney and you won't be any worst or better off. murtaghs are a touch above them I think and when fit should always start.

Cathal Cregg played centre back/sweeper in at least one FBD game this year. The one in Croans for definite and did well, though it goes without saying the opposition and pace is on a different planet to this time of year. But shows management are considering this option. I was actually a bit disappointed to see him in the FF line for the league. He has a bit of ball carrying ability I was hoping to see more of in our problem CB position. We have more forwards than we've ever had. And a dearth of half backs. I assume the management have dismissed his redeployment to this area based on evidence in games/training.

Fintan Cregg I would not drop. For me our most important player this year. Looks the leader of the team to my eyes. We have no midfield and this lad does more than anyone to paper over those cracks. Always looking for ball and willing to handle it in dangerous areas, including on Sunday when he wasn't having his best game. There was one point early in the second half where we got a free in our left half back position. We are desperately needing leadership to get back in the game and put scores on the board. No show-ers, free taker thinking of popping back to the full back line as a restart. F Cregg made a burst from the HF line right up through midfield demanding ball from the free taker, in a fairly populated and dangerous area. He gathered the ball and set us motoring. These small acts of leadership are huge, especially in the context of yesterday's game and the time it happened in. We are most definitely brittle mentally. Fintan Cregg is not one of these and is first name on team sheet for me.

Regarding the "learning curve" narrative I'm hearing about Ros, do players learn much in the twilight of their career?

Cos Ros have the likes of McDermott, I Kilbride, S Kilbride, C Cregg, F Cregg, Claffey, Keenan, D Shine, Purcell, Devanney etc that are about years and slogged in division 4 a few years ago.

I get the impression there's a perception that this is a young ,green team full of u21 when in reality it's a mix of youth and old heads. Will the old heads be improving anything at this late stage?

El Bomber do you always have to tear down every body?Try posting some thing positive for a change

Il Bomber - I'm Italian.

My postings are a reaction to the circumstances. A lot of the Roscommon lads are utterly delusional as to the level their team are at, they have a badly misplaced arrogance to football matters. They haven't done anything significant at Championship level in quite some time, in fact when was the last time they actually beat the big two in Connacht (Mayo and Galway) in Championship football? They want to run with the wolves while they aren't even able to spar with cubs. They should lose some of the delusionaly gained superiority complex they have over other minnows until they actually go and do something of note at Championship.

An average team with delusional fans, that's the reality of the matter but sometimes the truth can hurt.

Ah there is no harm in a bit of hope. They have had a few decent underage teams who have taught both Galway and Mayo lessons the last couple of years, so naturally there is hope and a bit of confidence emerging.

There's a difference between confidence and arrogance, and if there is a fine line between both then Roscommon have exceeded it by the proverbial country mile.

You are the most tiresome poster on this site. Let the Ros stuff go will you. I don't know where you get this notion of arrogance from. Ros people are mad about football, not arrogant.

Anyway, destroyed today all over by a real top side. We have several deficiencies we may or may not be able to rectify. However we're going far better than we have been in years so it's still happy days for me and let's hope we can do something in Connacht this year for a change.

It's a disgrace we have no county pitch fit to host a Division 1 league game in April. However I wouldn't be crying too much over the Dublin supporters plight. The very reason they get all games in Croke Park, supposedly the national venue, a neutral venue, is so they can all be accommodated. How can they be expected to play down in Longford or Mullingar or Navan when all the summer supporters wouldn't fit in? So every GAA convention or tradition is abandoned when it comes to the fair weather Dub fan because he must get in to the game so the GAA can rake in his money. This money is then redistributed throughout the capital in order to create a hurling team out of nothing and keep the Boys In Blue footballers a box office entity. So f**k them, basically. They are in an almost permanent state of special treatment so I'm delighted a late change from one waterlogged bog of a kip of a pitch to another cabbage patch has them so put out. This is GAA down the country. Driving home past Kilmore's pitch I almost wished we'd brought them to that beautiful place instead!

On the game. Best team won. Though we showed admirable fight in the second half. Mannion is a class act. I cannot stand McManamons style of play. Bulling through taking 10 steps and manufacturing frees out of nowhere. Ref was a bolox today. Black card rule has to be binned ASAP. The ginger corner forward is a nice wee player for Dublin too. Though I did laugh when he nearly sank in swallow hole near the corner flag while trying to foot pass and ended up on his arse.

Fair fucks to Mayo as much as it pains me to say it. You get rode early on, take whatever bit of luck or break goes your way and try and inch out the win from nothing in the closing stages, hoping all the while that it's not your opponents day.  Nothing wrong with that and nothing any other team in Ireland would scoff at. Fortunate but fair and square win for the red and green again.

Back to the senior set up for us now. We have had a great run at U21 for several years and I would be very disappointed if that didn't translate that into one or two senior Connacht titles in the coming years. But we are coming from a lowly position and in my lifetime (33yrs) I've barely seen us beat Galway or Mayo so any kind of provincial achievement would be most welcome in my book.

A respectable championship showing would do me, as I'm accustomed to little but ignominy and shame.

The league and recent years underage has been great for us, but until we produce on the senior championship field we are nobodies.