CONNACHT FINAL ROS v SLIGO 18th July 2010

[Tatler Jack]

There were Finnerans, O'Garas and Keegans on both the 1980 team and the team that won yesterday. Are any of them related?

David O'Gara is a son of John who was on the 1980 team. Michael Finneran is no relation of his namesake from 1980 and there was no Keegan playing yesterday - maybe you are mixing him up with Keenan. Donie Shine's father played with Ros in th 70s but was not around for the glory days of late 70s. Ger Heneghan is a nephew of Tom who was manager of the 1980 team.

[seafoid]

There were Finnerans, O'Garas and Keegans on both the 1980 team and the team that won yesterday. Are any of them related?

David O'Gara is a son of John who was on the 1980 team. Michael Finneran is no relation of his namesake from 1980 and there was no Keegan playing yesterday - maybe you are mixing him up with Keenan. Donie Shine's father played with Ros in th 70s but was not around for the glory days of late 70s. Ger Heneghan is a nephew of Tom who was manager of the 1980 team.

Thanks for that. That sort of link back to previous success has to be worth at least a point in a tight match with Sligo who don't have it. Even if Ros got pasted by 20 points last  year there is still a lot of success in the bank that can be retrieved later. the whole ros story is very encouraging and I hope they can go on a build from this in the next few years. Judging by the state of the big 2 there should be a few Nestor cups available. 

[Rossie11]

A special day and a sweet victory.
Not as emotional as 2001 but great to finally win a big game in Castlebar.
It was a day when everything came right for us..
Totally written off.. Getting Casey back from injury.. Donie getting points from play..
Cregg having the game we all knew was in him and the likes of Finneran playing better than
he has ever played for Ross.
Fair play to Fergie for sticking with it. He looked a broken man last June after the Mayo massacre and he deserves all the credit for giving them the belief yesterday that they could win it.
Roll on the quarters in Croker..

Best of luck to Sligo next weekend.
They will be back as underdogs again and that will suit them.
Ye have a great record V northern teams so keep the chins up
Its there for ye

[Lar Naparka]

Firstly the best of congrats to Roscommon - best team on the day, fully deserving winners of the match and rightly proud Connacnt champions.

On the way out of McHale Pk today there was a lad on the phone telling someone that "they were technically the best team on paper". He was wearing a white shirt so I'm taking it he's from Sligo. Sadly for us, football is played in grass - that must be where we went wrong!!.

Seriously though, while I'm disappointed, I'm not overly suprised. I don't agree with the view expressed here by some and indeed I believe on TV this afternoon that Sligo were complacent and thought they only had to turn up.  That is a lazy view expressed by people who were probably themselves the ones saying that but who don't know the first thing about what Sligo were thinking or feeling... or indeed what many, or indeed any, team(s) might be thinking.

The starting point for Sligo today was in their heads alright but it wasn't cockiness - it was the fear of failure; the "what if we f*** it up now" thought that gets into the back of the head and once there can't be gotten out. Remember that no Sligo team ever in the history of senior intercounty football has been the favourites in a senior championship decider.  Think about that for a second - that's a lot of waiting history to be afraid to screw up on, and it only needs that fear be in a few spots in a team to create the critical weaknesses. Whereas Sligo today had to deal with the fear of losing Roscommon had no concern other than to go for it and so they did.   

In terms of what happened next, Sligo got hosed in the middle of the park.  Early in the championship, the two midfielders had the better of things but we had problems with breaks. I would say that as the championship progressed the midfielders were finding it tougher but we improved on the breaks. Today both midfielders were poor and we couldn't bribe a break.

Behind that we did what we didn't do in any game of recent times - gave away a lot of frees. Add these two together - the failure to win primary or secondary possesion in the middle third and giving away eight odd scorable frees (even if they weren't all converted) and, well you had to be in trouble.

All that said when Sligo got level at 12 - 12 the force was with them and they could have been expected to kick on. They both missed chances and turned over ball. Having hauled themselves back into it, they lacked the necessary composure and 'snatched' at everything instead of keeping the ball, working the openings or drawing the frees. Credit Roscommon with forcing themselves back on Sligo to prevent them pushing on but Sligo had the opportunity and didn't take it.

While it was a good loud hard fought championship match, I think some of the reactions on here to both the match and the "emergence of a new force" are well over cooked. It was indeed close and exciting and a real contest throughout but it was no classic.  There were some fine individual scores and a small number of outstanding performances, but there were long periods of aimless play, a lot of mistakes, a lot of bunching and going round in circles and no real shape to a lot of what either side did. Both teams will look at quite a number of individuals and wonder what were they doing?

This morning we did not know how good Sligo could be and all we found out is that they cannot consistently play to the level that we have seen since April and that a number of the weaknesses that we might have feared still do require attention  or in some cases time to mature. The fact that Roscommon beat them doesn't make them a super team and a cold analysis will conclude that victory was down to some exceptional individual performances, some that might have been anticipated and hoped for, others not.

Make no mistake though, they were fully deserving of the win today and even though Sligo 'could have' pushed on and won, it would have been illl deserved. I don't think though that their victory is a sign of greater strenght in depth in Connacht and I would fear greatly for both sides in their next encounters, for very different reasons - hopefully I'm wrong on that so we'll leave the in depth analyses until the season is over.

That came from the heart without a doubt, Paddy. I know you are feeling the pain and disappointment right now but you and your team aren't finished yet. You are probably very irritated already by the amount of people who've approached you and said more or less what I'm saying now.
Expressions of sympathy are no use to you and the rest of the Sligo brigade right now, I suppose but keep this in mind;
Platitudes can be facts at times and this one of them.
Kevin Walsh remains a great manager and his team hasn't disintegrated because of one unexpected setback.
I had honestly expected this game to be a close, hard-fought affair; maybe a point or two either way.
If the margin was greater than that, I felt the winner would be Roscommon.
Fergie has been plugging away for a long time now and has been able to put together a team of his choosing with little or no notice from anyone or anywhere and that includes the Rossie fans.
With the AI champions of '06 and this year's u21 title winners to draw on, he was always going to meet you head on with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Good luck to the sheepstealers; btw, they'll give anyone they meet from here on a hell of a game.
I thought the final was the best I've seen in years. It's no harm at all that Mayo and Galway now have real opposition in Connacht. They will need to smarten up if they don't want to see future Connacht finals without either or both of them involved.

[southsidejohnny]

From Sligonian "Im immensely proud of Costello on our side, was outstanding,", Firstly he's a Mayo man, secondly hes still not good enough to get on a rubbish Mayo side. I suppose you could describe the Sligo team as made in Galway with spare parts from Mayo. With both Wexford and Longford (rated 31) beating Galway and Mayo we can assume that Connacht football is in the pits. Sligo bet pale imitations of those once great counties but could not beat a Ros side that sank v an average Mayo 12 mths ago and whose conquests include Leitrim and London since. So Sligo fade back to whence they came from and Ros confirm themselves as the only Connacht team capable of dining with the big two of Galway and Mayo. Black jerseys or white, if you aint got the players they might as well green and gold.

[sligoman2]

congratulations to Roscommon I think ye deserved it based on your first half performance.

Very disappointing for Sligo but hopefully we can pick it back up for Saturday.
Not looking for excuses here but I was very surprised that there was only 2 mins of extra time and that for more than half of it play was stopped.

[mckieran]

From Sligonian "Im immensely proud of Costello on our side, was outstanding,", Firstly he's a Mayo man, secondly hes still not good enough to get on a rubbish Mayo side. I suppose you could describe the Sligo team as made in Galway with spare parts from Mayo.

So your point is that he shouldnt be proud of Costelloe 

Given Costelloes performances this year, He is good enough to be on the Mayo side.

[ross4life]

The young rossies came of age yesterday a performance that rolled back the years, It was a classic Connacht championship game that had even the neutral fan's on the edge of there seats

the midfield dominance cemented the win for us, FB line was superb i think Marren's 2 points from play is all they got D Casey(playing through the pain) C Cregg, D Keenan, D O'Gara played out of the skin's & a special praise for Dineen at number 6 he more than held his own

What more can be said about Donie Shine he must be one the best place kickers in Ireland now? he's so much more that just a free taker anyone that was at the March 17th Mayo v Roscommon under 21 game will tell you that.... he was our star man when we had the minor success, under 21 & now Senior

huge credit to Sligo the fight back from 10-4 down to draw level with the point scoring by the magpies was unreal i think Sean Davey's point was the best

Would be nice if we could win in Croke park but I'm happy enough after a nine year wait to be kings of Connacht again

[Peter Solan the Great]

whats all this talk of fighting in the ground after the match. It was on tv3 news apparently

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

whats all this talk of fighting in the ground after the match. It was on tv3 news apparently

Sounds like horeshite to me, it was like one big Connacht love-in at the match between all 4 sets of fans. Coming out of the match was very hospitable and a great mix of Rossies, Sligo, Mayo, Galway, local townies and quite a few hen nights last night. Great night, saw no trouble, but lots of hopping pubs.

The only think I saw was that looper that ran onto McHale Park pitch and got escorted off by the Gardai, he really is an eejit, I saw him belting divets on the back pitches with a spade another time, he seems wired to the moon.

[seafoid]

Would be nice if we could win in Croke park but I'm happy enough after a nine year wait to be kings of Connacht again

Isn't that a bit on the low side of expectations? All the Rossies going on about 2001 . Who won the all-Ireland that year? Surely to god Ros should be able to set the sights a bit higher than getting out of connacht. Those minors in 2006 didn't shut up shop once they had the Connacht Final out of the way. How else are you going to add to the haul from the 40s? Imagine winning Sam before Mayo. Jesus, that would be something. 

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

Would be nice if we could win in Croke park but I'm happy enough after a nine year wait to be kings of Connacht again

Isn't that a bit on the low side of expectations? All the Rossies going on about 2001 . Who won the all-Ireland that year? Surely to god Ros should be able to set the sights a bit higher than getting out of connacht. Those minors in 2006 didn't shut up shop once they had the Connacht Final out of the way. How else are you going to add to the haul from the 40s? Imagine winning Sam before Mayo. Jesus, that would be something.

Your right Seafoid, both Roscommon and Sligo should go for it, I reckon they are both as good as anyone other than Cork and Kerry perhaps. You might get beaten, you might get hammered but then again you might just win. If Roscommon and Sligo can play to their best I would not begrudge either taking Sam home to Connacht even before Mayo. I might give us the kick up the arse to win Sam ourselves.

[Lar Naparka]

I'd say most Mayo fans would feel the same way.
I certainly do.

[ross4life]

Would be nice if we could win in Croke park but I'm happy enough after a nine year wait to be kings of Connacht again

Isn't that a bit on the low side of expectations? All the Rossies going on about 2001 . Who won the all-Ireland that year? Surely to god Ros should be able to set the sights a bit higher than getting out of connacht. Those minors in 2006 didn't shut up shop once they had the Connacht Final out of the way. How else are you going to add to the haul from the 40s? Imagine winning Sam before Mayo. Jesus, that would be something.

Fergal & his team will take it one step at a time just like with the 2006 Minor's, but again nothing will be expected of our lot 100/1 odds with the bookies tell us that

Tyrone,Kerry,Cork are well ahead of the pack the longer we avoid those.. the further we will get IMO

[mayogodhelpus@gmail.com]

TG4 now lads.