NFL Division 3 Thread

[boojangles]

In fairness shine was the one bright light coming from the match sunday.

The problem is 3 or 4 forwards around him and our lack of a midfield.

Our u21s should do well this year and the future looks bright but i remember saying that back in 1999 as well
One of two things couls happen on saturday in enniskillen.
Ros taking the beating on sunday to heart and come out all guns blazing or fermanagh will just devour us like dogs and heap more misery on us.

I know which one ill be backing.

Well if yas win a Connacht title by 2012 you would have to be happy?

[mylestheslasher]

One thing I have noted about Ros under this management is that there seems to have been a total clearout of men in their late 20's to be replaced by lads still learning. For me, for young lads to prosper they need older hands to bring them through. Ros are in danger of throwing these young lads to the wolves and basically destroying them. There are only so many hammerings you can get before you start to question your ability and your morale slips away as does your dedication to the cause. That would be my biggest fear for Roscommon. Surely there has to be some semi experienced older lads in a county the size of roscommon that are not wasters and would be interested in playing county football?

[ross4life]

No disrespect to Cavan as bad as Roscommon are they should not be losing By 13 points at home, but I'm afraid it's a sign of things to come this year, Quite clearly the Rossies best player's are 21/22 Year olds with only a hand full of county Games among them, to much too expect them to carry the team!

when the Rossies won their Last Connaught Title (In 2001) they had many Leaders in  Grehan, Dolan, O Donnell & even a Young O' Neill & these players were replaced by leaderless Average Club Players

it's gonna take some time for the Rebuilding to be complete but i believe the Future will be brighter for Roscommon

[SLIGONIAN]

Ya the Ross result was a shock even to Cavan people especially without Jonston. Ross is a bit of an enigma, I know a fair few rossies, and they were always worried the AI team wouldnt come through becuase there was no stars in that team and everyone was of even eonugh ability with shine and ogara the leaders...

I can only see ross improving from last weekend, first day out and all that but would expect Fermanagh to beat them.

Huge game for us on Sunday against the wee county, I was at the game in doudalls hill in dundalk in 2008, some decent players for sure unlucky not make a bigger break through a few yrs ago. We gave away 2 soft goals in quick succession but enough of the bad memories, theyre coming to our patch this time and should be worth a few points to us. Have to win.

Hope McGee makes the squad, hope to see a few changes aswell to 15 with midfield being a priority. Hope theres decent home support aswell. Best of luck to our lads.

[Rossfan]

One thing I have noted about Ros under this management is that there seems to have been a total clearout of men in their late 20's ..... Surely there has to be some semi experienced older lads in a county the size of roscommon that are not wasters and would be interested in playing county football?

Problem is 10 or 15 years of very poor under age teams is coming home to roost.
We have damn all of Inter Co standard between 23 and 32.
On Sunday we scored 1-10  all but one point from the class of 06...Shine ,Paul Garvey and O'Gara. Donie and Paul are  U 21s this year.
There is only one serious midfielder over 22 in Ros ..Seamie O'Neill who I'm told is no longer interested. The 2 lads last Sunday are not inter co footballers and  neither are the 2 second choices ..James McDermott and Freeman.
Defence was over run due to total weakness in the middle third. After all 1-10 isnt a bad score in Div 3 in February .
Next Saturday in Enniskillen could be painful but I suspect we'll be going defensive in puke blanket style and hope Donie and co. can get enough scores to get something out of a terrible game of football.

[FermGael]

Aye . We can concentrate on giving London a game and dont be worrying about th'oul League 
Disaster day but sure we'll improve ..........................










Wont we?

I don't know, but if this isn't a wake up call, it's time to give up. Theres a 6 page thread on Stolen Sheep outlining where Fergie's going wrong, some posters outlining what he needs to do to win an all-ireland.



Honestly, like...

The same usual muck from rossie fans.
Start analysing where the manager is doing things wrong when in fact the simple problem lies with the players not being in the county.End of story we dont have the players at the moment.
The manager has proved his worth already and in my eyes shouldnt have taken the job in the first place because its a poisoned chalice.
He should have been given the u21 job first and then work with the same group of players all the way but no in roscommon we as usual put the cart before the horse.

The clubs in the county wont play the championship until the county is finished in the championship which is a big problem in my eyes.
Numerous motions brought to the convention have been defeated on this over the years.

Optimism is a big part of every rossie fans life and even when i was walking into the game sunday i said to the missus i have a good feeling about this year and that it good one to remember.I wont repeat what she said to me with ten minutes to go.
Alas we probably have to endure another year of pain.
I have my tickets booked for london but if the league continues on a same level as sunday i genuinely fear for that game.
Anyone from fermanagh down in tullamore sunday?
What do you fancy about youre chances on saturday?
I will be travelling but not with much expectation.

we will have a very experimental team on Saturday
Missing McGrath, McCluskey, E maguire, B Owens to name a few. 
Ronan and Rory Gallagher played last weekend but can't see them playing this weekend because of the St Gall's game.

Of our starting 6 forwards last weekend, 4 were 23 or younger. 
It will be tigher than you think.  We will be happy with a win. 

[spectator]

Your Goalkeeper was a big problem today lads,he must have kicked it to a Cavan man 6 or 7 times today.Some of your fans were saying he was one of your best players last year so maybe an off-day for him.

He had a disastrous day with his kick-outs all right, but Cavan played a clever tactic in bringing out one of their forwards to midfield for the kick-outs every time, while his man generally stayed inside in defence. Unfortunately, our kick-outs arrowed like a magnet to the free man nearly every time, until the sideline lads noticed & there was a slight improvement in the way the kick-outs were placed thereafter. To be fair to him, he's way better than that, hopefully it's just a bad day at the office. When the midfielders aren't there, it's time for a Plan B or C even.

A lack of experience & lack of leadership are at the root of our problems. Too many of the young lads were expeditiously drafted into the side for the 2008 league campaign, after the older lads had been prematurely dispensed with. Unsurprisingly, that's when we started experiencing large defeats - you have to hope it hasn't drained our lads confidence totally at this stage. We've gone over that ground before in any case, so no need to do so again. This is just the inevitable consequence of that expediency which we're seeing now.

We have to hope that another game or two will bring us on & lead to an overall general improvement, but as Rossfan sez there, it's probably back to firefighting with a defensive, possession-holding gameplan for the next few games.

Fair play to Cavan, good accurate forwards & a lively side with plenty of movement .

[Lar Naparka]

One thing I have noted about Ros under this management is that there seems to have been a total clearout of men in their late 20's ..... Surely there has to be some semi experienced older lads in a county the size of roscommon that are not wasters and would be interested in playing county football?

Problem is 10 or 15 years of very poor under age teams is coming home to roost.
We have damn all of Inter Co standard between 23 and 32.
On Sunday we scored 1-10  all but one point from the class of 06...Shine ,Paul Garvey and O'Gara. Donie and Paul are  U 21s this year.
There is only one serious midfielder over 22 in Ros ..Seamie O'Neill who I'm told is no longer interested. The 2 lads last Sunday are not inter co footballers and  neither are the 2 second choices ..James McDermott and Freeman.
Defence was over run due to total weakness in the middle third. After all 1-10 isnt a bad score in Div 3 in February .
Next Saturday in Enniskillen could be painful but I suspect we'll be going defensive in puke blanket style and hope Donie and co. can get enough scores to get something out of a terrible game of football.

I wonder why you didn't get more out of the minors of 2006.
I'd say you had a few minor and u21 sides in recent years that appeared to be half-decent – at least by Connacht standards.   Right now, you seem to be getting some results from the minors of 2006 but it will take another year or two before they will be able to play to their full potential.
Rossies take their football seriously; even meaningless league games will draw more supporters than any of the other Connacht sides. At least, that was the case up to 5 years ago or thereabouts when I last saw a Mayo/ Roscommon game.
What has gone wrong?

[rossie mad]

Its hard to put a finger on one specific problem without coming up with a load of conspiracy theories.
I know the experience is threadbare in terms of grinding out results but we have gary cox karol mannion and seanie mac and claffey in goals and the experience should be there with them guys.
Good footballers who have been around the block.
Even cregg and david keenan are there the last 3 or 4 years and they should be gainining experience.
The class of 06 as well as the years that follow have to play at some stage and the days of saying they are not able for it are fast running out.
The fact that we are very proud county with yearly high expectations probably doesnt help pressure wise and thats something we as supporters have to listen too but you dont want to be beat by ten points or more every 3/4 games either.

The system for nurturing talent in the county has only been in place the last 3/4 years and was as a direct result of what happened in 06 so the future looks bright but i read recently that three or four of last years minor team that should have beaten mayo and kerry are now playing with the irish u19 squad which doesnt help but thats the chioces the lads have to make for themselves and the best of luck to them which ever one they make.

I firmly believe we are not as bad as last sunday suggests but i also believe that we have alot of work to do before we start dreaming of connacht titles and runs in the championship.

The standard in the clubs isnt there in my eyes and bar a few games over the years ive been too it is fairly obvious to a neutral its not.
People are suggesting bring back the likes of grehan and dolan but whats the point.
They wouldnt bring anything to it now as they are past that standard and anyway i couldnt see them abiding by the strict regime so thats a no no.
If we can produce a performance on saturday its a start and we have a couple of home games to maybe pick up points and hopefully avoid the drop and maybe in the next year if we beat leitrim in the championship and get a good qualifier run it might bring lads on another bit and its an extra years experience but its a long road ahead

[mattockranger]

I have to say i haven't enjoyed a thread as much in a long time....

I think there is a lot of similarities with roscommon in connacht with laois in Leinster.

Excellent nurturing of underage talent....gaining success and then either by players disinterest..and fans expected pressure they fail
to kick on and have the same success at senior level....limerick underage hurling is another example

The main point to take away is positive, you guys are doing good things but not following up on them i think the county is learning curve and as soon as they figure out...by taking these beatings now....will stand to you in the future

lord knows coming from louth its a nice complaint to have

[Tatler Jack]

I think there is a lot of similarities with roscommon in connacht with laois in Leinster.

Too early to draw any parallels. Ros won a minor AI in 2006 and before that had not won a Connacht minor title since 1992. So our under age progress is very recent and even if all was on track we would not expect any senior success yet given most of the 06 minors are still around 21. Havig said that we need to learn from the Laois and Limerick experience to ensure that the progress made at under age is not wasted.

A major factor though is the fact that young players are coming in to a team with few quality experienced players. Kerry can introduce 3 or 4 young players any year and  slot them alongside vastly experienced players and they can settle and develop. This is our  biggest problem and there is a huge risk that young players will not develop or else just drift away.

[Denn Forever]

Don't know about other Cavan posters but I'm hoping last Sunday wasn't a false dawn.  Roscomon scored 1 10 which lets face it could win a game. 

A trueish reflection will be the Antrim game and I say trueish as the team should be out for payback after last year's defeat in Clones and so their intensity should be up.

We'll see.

[AZOffaly]

Our trip to Wexford Park will be very interesting next weekend. We have an abysmal record down there, in both hurling and football. If we have aspirations of getting promoted, we must get something down there, and pick up our record away from home. I think BnM highlighted Offaly's good record in Tullamore in the league, but our away record has been poor apart from in Division 4. A good sign for Offaly last weekend was we managed to squeak by Fermanagh with Niall McNamee being poor. Hopefully we'll have a bigger showing from him on Sunday.

Wexford will be mad for road after losing up in Louth, but they are the games you want and want to be winning. We shall see.

[rossie mad]

Two days to go to see whether last sunday was just a freak accident or to face up to the fact we really are that bad.

No team named as yet and i would hope fergie will rejig the forwards with heneghan and kenny dropped with maybe young higgins in around the middle third and gary cox given some sort of a supporting role to shine and ogara two man full forward line.
Thats just me though and im sure fergie will do what is best.

Cant see us winning this but would be pleased with a good performance to build on for our home games.

I hear fermanagh is missing a few of their big names like owens and mcgrath which is a help but i still think  that with the experience of the rest of their squad and their ability to grind out results at home will give them the points.

In the other matchs in the group i expect offaly to just pip wexford but could easily be a draw.

If cavan bring the same level of enthuasism as last sunday into their game against antrim i expect them to come out on top.

I expect sligo to be just too strong for louth and will win with 3 or four points to spare.

All games i can envisage being very tight (bar the rossie game) and the table will probably have cavan as outright leaders come sunday evening and four teams in a dog fight for the second place.

[mattockranger]

Louth will have the same line up as last week with darren Clarke coming on to the bench instead of one of the U21's
who incidently will be playin sligoU21s over the weekend aswell.....(what are they like sligonian? we reckon we've a good team this year)

Its good to have a settled team...especially this time of the year lads beginning to know their role and be confident of their place ...

We will travel well the players will travel in high spirits but the county and supporters will be wary of sligo especially at home and on the back of a tight loss....

should be tight and very interesting....

But it will be our first outing this season against a solid and competitive side....it will be a real test of character for our lads...if our full back line gets protection it desperately needs...against Coen sweeney and Kelly and if our strengths the half back line and midfield  play up to par with Ronan Carroll showing some consistency after last weeks excellent performance we could sneak a win....

Elsewhere I expect antrim defence to squeeze Cavan without seanie in brefini and get a second win without the galls players to establish themselves as promotion favourites

Offaly in Wexford depends on wexfords forward line.....whether lyng starts or not he is worth at least 6 points to wexford...and i also seen Banville last week being put through his paces so he could figure also...abit similar to louth, offaly on the back of a win will face a test of character away from home..i reckon they will get the win.

Roscommon might have a show in pride after last week and shock fermanagh at home without some influential stars..could be bet of the weekend...