Dunning admits young Rossies are 'probably a little undercooked' ahead of meeting with Mayo

Roscommon U-20 football manager, Noel Dunning, has admitted that his side are “probably a little undercooked” heading into their first game of this season’s Connacht championship round robin series against Mayo at Dr. Hyde Park this evening (Wednesday). Throw-in is at 5.30 p.m..

Dunning, who is in his second season at the helm, has been left frustrated by weather-related disruptions in recent weeks, which have made preparations for the upcoming four games less than ideal.

“Having to change venues at the last minute if you can get a venue, losing out on games because there are no pitches available — it’s an issue across the country. I was speaking to the Dublin management and they’ve used 26 different pitches this year.

“Last Friday (week), I had to try 17 different venues for a pitch. I couldn’t get a pitch anywhere, so we had to cancel training. That’s nothing out of the ordinary, it’s the same for every county, I’m sure. Maybe other counties are fortunate enough to have better facilities than us. But you can only play with the hand you're dealt,” he remarked.

While a Centre of Excellence in the county might have alleviated some of those problems, Dunning pointed out that the amount of rain in recent weeks has made it impossible for clubs to make their facilities available for intercounty training.

“A Centre of Excellence is grand but the same rain will fall in Roscommon Town, where the Centre of Excellence will probably be, as in the rest of the county. The weather has been so bad that I don’t know how any pitch is playable, even well-drained ones.

“It would be nice to have everything there (at the Centre of Excellence) and have everything on your doorstep. We’re pleading with clubs for their facilities. In fairness to clubs, they have been very generous and very good to us.

“But once the club leagues start, and prior to that training, clubs want their facilities for themselves. That’s not clubs being selfish, that’s just being realistic. If county teams are training, their pitches aren’t going to be in tip-top shape for themselves. You can’t blame the clubs, it’s just a fact of life,” he explained.

On Wednesday, Roscommon will be without injured duo, Colm Neary and Ethan O’Reilly, with Neary likely to miss the whole campaign. But with 22 of last year’s squad still eligible this season, Dunning is excited by the nucleus in the side provided by players like Senan Lambe, Daniel Casey, Conor Harley, Conor Ryan, Shane Walsh, Robert Heneghan, Rory Carthy, Shane McGinley and Bobby Nugent, who is the team captain.

“Others have got their chance and quite a few have put their hands up for selection. We’ve nice headaches in that regard but, in other ways, we’re probably a little undercooked going into a Connacht championship. But that’s just the way it is — you just get on with it,” he maintained.

After being knocked out by Sligo last season, Dunning was very public in his criticism of the knockout format used in the province. He’s far more satisfied that Roscommon will have at least four games, although he’d prefer the matches to be played on Fridays instead of Wednesdays.

“In a one-off game, you either show up on the day or you don’t. It’s win or bust. This way, it’s the same as the minor format which, in my opinion, is far better.

“U-20 is a development age group, the next step up is senior. You’re not going to develop those players to the level you’d like if you only have one game. At least we have four games, and anything after that is a bonus. At least the players are being given an opportunity to play at a high level against their peers.

“The only slight criticism I’d have would be playing midweek. It doesn’t make much sense. Our first two games have 5.30 p.m. throw-ins on a Wednesday evening. That presents logistical problems and issues for students in college. They’re basically going to have to take the whole day, and maybe the next day, out of college to play a county U-20 game. You may not have some players because of that.

“College comes first and football is second — I can’t argue with that. Fellas are in college to further their chosen careers, so I would question why these games aren’t on Friday evenings and the minor switches to midweek.

“All the minors are at home, none of them are away in college. To me, logistically, it would make more sense to play the minor midweek and the U-20 on Friday evenings. It didn’t concern me too much last year because, potentially, it was a one-off game. Now we have four games, which is potentially at least four more days out of college for players.

“They’re not long in college, so I wouldn’t be surprised if parents weren’t impressed with their sons taking days off college to play football. They don’t send and pay for them to go to college to play football,” he highlighted.

Dunning, his selectors Frankie Dolan and David Neary, alongside coach Evan Talty will hope to reach at least a semi-final but with Sligo, who are chasing a hat-trick of titles, and Mayo — with Peadar Gardiner and James Horan on their management ticket — and Galway for company, it won’t be easy.

“Sligo are deservedly going for three-in-a-row at this level. They have serious momentum behind them. They will have learned a lot from their journey to the All-Ireland final last year. They’ll be looking to go one step further.

“Before that, we have Mayo. Those games are neighbourly affairs, but there’s nothing neighbourly about them in terms of each team’s approach to them. I’m sure it will be feisty. It’s in Hyde Park, which might be to our advantage, but we’ve only played one challenge game there. It will be as strange to some of our lads as it will be to some of the Mayo lads,” he concluded.