The Official Roscommon Thread

[Syferus]

Roscommon are the only team in the top two divisions that don't play any sort of a defensive system. No signs of any structure to their defence and they give the opposition so much time and room on the ball to either kick pass or shoot for points. In that type of chaos even Dublin or Mayos best individual defender would look average in.

League football is there to show signs of encouragement for the championship ahead yet for Roscommon they seem to be getting worse the longer the league has gone on. Don't care how good Dublin are when you lose any game by 21 points and concede 2-29 you have simply down your tools. Biggest concern for McStay is he seems to have lost the dressing room before the championship looking at him in recent interviews I don't think he believes half the nonsense he says it sounds scripted and he looks to have aged 10 years in the last 12 months.

The joint management was given 3 years but lasted 1 year in hindsight they should have done 2 years and if it didn't work out then both McStay and O Donnell should have left together and then have a fresh start in 2018 .

McStay should have put in a proper defensive structure. Probably fluting around with the stuff Liam was at with Mayo back in 2004 and we all know how that ended that September. Can't see McStay change now though.

Last time we were relegated we won Connacht, Moy.

Yer not exactly looking like yer up to much yerselves..

[Rossfan]

Oliver has some love affair going with Johneen Evans.
If he's that good I presume he's been snapped up by some other County.
As for McStay McHale. .... major disappointment to put it mildly.
No game plan,  no defence strategy, no sign of improvement or settled 3,6,8,9,14 after 6 NFL games, opposite g forwards getting loads of shooting practice, lot of better players sitting at home.....
And now we're hearing waffle about 3 year plans.
Got news for you Kevin - you're half way through it already and we're regressing at a rate of knots.

[oliverkelly]

Oliver has some love affair going with Johneen Evans.
If he's that good I presume he's been snapped up by some other County.
As for McStay McHale. .... major disappointment to put it mildly.
No game plan,  no defence strategy, no sign of improvement or settled 3,6,8,9,14 after 6 NFL games, opposite g forwards getting loads of shooting practice, lot of better players sitting at home.....
And now we're hearing waffle about 3 year plans.
Got news for you Kevin - you're half way through it already and we're regressing at a rate of knots.

The reason I have such a big opinion of Evans is because he is the only senior manager we have made progress under in last 15 years.  No he hasn't been snapped up by anyone yet I am sure now that his wife is recovering he may look for a job for next year and I am sure he will get one if it suits.

McStay/McHale have been a disaster so far like it was last year with O Donnell/Casey/Bohan/McStay/McHale. Similar to last year were we played backs in midfield we have now started to play forwards/Midfielders in the backs. At least we are saving ourselves 100 thousand plus on management this year I suppose

[Rossfan]

We could have saved another 100k if we had cleared the other pair out as well and appointed any club manager in Roscommon.
They couldn't do any worse anyway and could be just given vouched expenses and a few free dinners.

[oliverkelly]

We could have saved another 100k if we had cleared the other pair out as well and appointed any club manager in Roscommon.
They couldn't do any worse anyway and could be just given vouched expenses and a few free dinners.

Totally agree that should have been done. And agree any club manager would do no worse and probably better than we are currently. Tbh the money is mad what was given to all 5 lads involved last year I was surprised to hear the Roscommon born lads were even looking for money never mind the amount the got I would have taught basic expenses would have been enough to lads involved with managing there own county

[Syferus]

Oliver has some love affair going with Johneen Evans.
If he's that good I presume he's been snapped up by some other County.
As for McStay McHale. .... major disappointment to put it mildly.
No game plan,  no defence strategy, no sign of improvement or settled 3,6,8,9,14 after 6 NFL games, opposite g forwards getting loads of shooting practice, lot of better players sitting at home.....
And now we're hearing waffle about 3 year plans.
Got news for you Kevin - you're half way through it already and we're regressing at a rate of knots.

TOR is as settled at 8 as any player on the team.

[moysider]

Roscommon are the only team in the top two divisions that don't play any sort of a defensive system. No signs of any structure to their defence and they give the opposition so much time and room on the ball to either kick pass or shoot for points. In that type of chaos even Dublin or Mayos best individual defender would look average in.

League football is there to show signs of encouragement for the championship ahead yet for Roscommon they seem to be getting worse the longer the league has gone on. Don't care how good Dublin are when you lose any game by 21 points and concede 2-29 you have simply down your tools. Biggest concern for McStay is he seems to have lost the dressing room before the championship looking at him in recent interviews I don't think he believes half the nonsense he says it sounds scripted and he looks to have aged 10 years in the last 12 months.

The joint management was given 3 years but lasted 1 year in hindsight they should have done 2 years and if it didn't work out then both McStay and O Donnell should have left together and then have a fresh start in 2018 .

McStay should have put in a proper defensive structure. Probably fluting around with the stuff Liam was at with Mayo back in 2004 and we all know how that ended that September. Can't see McStay change now though.

Last time we were relegated we won Connacht, Moy.

Yer not exactly looking like yer up to much yerselves..

If we stay up we'll be doing nicely for the time of year. Happy out with a lot of what I've seen. Plenty time to work on the rest.

[twohands!!!]

Oliver has some love affair going with Johneen Evans.
If he's that good I presume he's been snapped up by some other County.
As for McStay McHale. .... major disappointment to put it mildly.
No game plan,  no defence strategy, no sign of improvement or settled 3,6,8,9,14 after 6 NFL games, opposite g forwards getting loads of shooting practice, lot of better players sitting at home.....
And now we're hearing waffle about 3 year plans.
Got news for you Kevin - you're half way through it already and we're regressing at a rate of knots.

The reason I have such a big opinion of Evans is because he is the only senior manager we have made progress under in last 15 years.  No he hasn't been snapped up by anyone yet I am sure now that his wife is recovering he may look for a job for next year and I am sure he will get one if it suits.

Heard he  has  been involved with Fossa Gaa (the 4th club in Killarney) His nephews play with them. His nephew is apparently David Clifford the Kerry underage star. Lot of talk the nephew will be off to Oz next year.

[seafoid]

What happened Roscommon over the last year? Were they just fitter  than everyone in the 2016 League? I was reading this article the other day and it's so strange that they had such a bad league this year


http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/roscommon-s-rise-adds-intrigue-to-connacht-battle-1.2572975
Roscommon's rise adds intrigue to Connacht battle

March 2016

The Allianz Football League is threatening to become more unpredictable than the All-Ireland championship. When the fixtures for this year's programme were announced, the smart forecast was that Roscommon would probably need a win against neighbours Mayo in order to survive.
Instead, Kevin McStay will return to MacHale Park in the knowledge that a fifth win in a stunningly confident campaign might well consign his home county to a year in Division Two. Given he went for the Mayo post two years ago along with current Roscommon selector Liam McHale, the day is bound to stir mixed emotions.
"It's not personal," McStay says. "I don't want to understate me playing my own county, or overstate it either. These are very important games but in terms of excitement these games are what they are. For our team, it's another great part of their development. Mayo . . . great team, Mayo. It'll tell us in two weeks' time how far we are behind, if we are even behind."
Straight bat
McStay has played a straight bat all through this league, understandably crestfallen after Roscommon's narrow loss on opening day and delighted with the returns since. It wasn't so much the fact of Sunday's win in Letterkenny against Donegal that impressed as the manner of it. This was no dour, hang-on-for-dear-life scrap on the road. A playbook of 1-19, filled with quality scores and just four wides. Their confidence could not be higher.
"We started looking like a Division One team who deserves on merit to be here," says McStay of their latest win. "That's my sense of it. This win – of the wins – is the best of them. When we beat Kerry we weren't 100 per cent sure where they were. I'm not sure about Killarney; there were shocking conditions.
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"But I think we know Donegal were trying to get points there. Look at the players they used. It was a good day for football and now we know we can play a brand of football that can survive in this division.
"Maybe I'm going to get a rude awakening or we're going to be found out. But I don't think so. We're just giving it our best cut all the time. We're a very honest group."
League form comes with all kinds of health warnings – many of them issued by the form teams themselves. The refreshing thing about Roscommon is that they are not disguising that these games matter in their own right.
McStay and co-manager Fergal O'Donnell have made no secret of the fact they were prioritising a strong league season. Under John Evans, the Rossie's climbed from Division Three to Division One. Staying in the top eight matters. Mickey Harte's observation – that winning an All-Ireland from Division Two is all but impossible – carried clout. People are watching Roscommon now with one eye on the Connacht championship, which Mayo are seeking to retain for the sixth successive summer.
With Galway on a roll in Division Two, Roscommon are forcing the bookies to review their early price offers. It is March, yes, but Roscommon are travelling at a rate of knots. Castlrea's Geoffrey Claffey is back in the team after a couple of season's absence. The Roscommon defence was so sticky that the goalkeeper didn't have a single chance to practise his shot-stopping skills. That action was at the other end. If Roscommon can scold themselves for anything, it is for not leaving Donegal with more goals.
"I think their goalkeeper did quite well for a few of them," says Claffey. "So at least we are creating the chances. We kept doing the simple things well and kept to our gameplan. That is something that we are probably learning from the better teams . . . they keep doing the simple things well.
Simple things
"Monaghan, in the first round of the league, although I suppose they were under quite a bit of pressure at the time, kept trying to do the simple things well and it got them over the line. So we are just trying to do that ourselves. And we are conscious that if we get it in there, our forwards are able to kick the scores."
McStay acknowledges Roscommon were clearly on a different plane of fitness to Donegal. "They can look further down the year than we can. And that's fine. They deserve that as they've been champions."
Those discrepancies will have disappeared in the summer. The league is all about smoke and mirrors: most teams aren't willing to fully show their hand just now. Roscommon are at the place where Donegal were in 2011: running hard and with enthusiasm, discovering as much as they can about themselves. They are the first team out in the championship, with a visit to New York on May 1st.
"I don't want to talk too much about other teams," says McStay. "For us, [the Donegal game] was championship Sunday. That's the only way we can go. Who would we be to take anything lightly?"

[Rossfan]

We're playing club Championships these days.
County lads supposed to be doing savage training.
And we have a 3 year plan.
So move along Seafóid -nothing to see here.

[twohands!!!]

What happened Roscommon over the last year? Were they just fitter  than everyone in the 2016 League? I was reading this article the other day and it's so strange that they had such a bad league this year

Basically they overachieved somewhat in the league last year and the media basically created a bit of a story off the back of it.

They narrowly beat a Kerry team in Kerry that was barely back training and had a few lads who haven't been seen in a Kerry geansai since, they then followed this up by hammering the cr@p out of Cork in Cork (the only teams Cork have beaten since then have been Monaghan, Down,Limerick, Longford, Fermanagh and Derry - the list of teams Cork have lost to or have failed to beat since then is Dublin, Kerry, Tipperary, Donegal, Galway, Kildare, Clare, Meath, which says a lot about where Cork are at recently and how much real value a win over them represents) then they handed out a serious beating to Down and then got a decent win (5 points) against a Donegal side in Donegal who were very slow out of the blocks on the day and had no real desire in terms of getting to the league playoff stages (they barely bothered to show up against Dublin in the semi-final). The four wins in a row (especially with 3 of them away wins) caused expectations to increase but out of the four wins both Cork and Down got relegated, both had miserable championships last year and both were in the relegation mix in Division 2 this year.  The Kerry game was typical of Kerry under Fitzmaurice in the league in that their form tends to fluctuate a lot (the 10 point stroll in the league semi against the same opposition 2 months later being a perfect example of this)

[Cunny Funt]

Cork would have stayed up last year if they didn't receive such a hammering off Roscommon. Monaghan,Mayo on scoring difference stayed up instead by the skin of their teeth. I'm not sure of stats but I'd say few teams had good championships after division 1 relegation and down and Cork struggling in division 2 this year is a warning to Roscommon though I do think the rossies will fare better in the league next year if the 3 Dalys,C Cregg,N Collins etc return.

[Rossfan]

Will they return if present management still there I wonder?
We could certainly do with them .......

[Syferus]

Will they return if present management still there I wonder?
We could certainly do with them .......

Weren't you one of the ones lampooning 'Cregger'? Your tune changed quick sharp..

[Rossfan]

Don't "lampoon" our lads.
Just didn't think he was as good as you used to make him out to be in your usual hyperbolic fashion.
We'd have a stronger panel if him, Collins the 2 Shines and 3 Dalys were included.
Anyway your cool clean hero has  3 year plan so everything will be just grand