Four Roads remain hurling's main men
Four Roads senior hurling captain, Cathal Dolan, receives the Mickey Cunniffe Cup from Roscommon Hurling Chairperson, Christy McDermott in October. Picture: Gerard O'Loughlin
Reigning champions Four Roads were the clear favourites to retain their senior hurling title before a sliothar was pucked in 2024, and a case could have been made for any of the other six teams to emerge at the top of the chasing pack when it was all said and done.
Athleague proved to be the side that earned the right to try and pull off an upset on county final day, but it never looked like happening for Gary Fallon’s team as Four Roads dominated the early exchanges, confirming their place on top of the pile domestically.
But what of the rest? It’s time for the end of season Roscommon Herald Club rankings…
Shane Curley raised the club’s expectations to the point that if you were to ask a lot of people in the Tisrara area for the summary of 2023, they’d say their failure to make any inroads on the gulf between themselves and Tooreen was a huge disappointment, possibly even overshadowing the retention of the Mickey Cunniffe Cup.
That’s a remarkable thing to say when only 24 months ago, these rankings were compiled when Four Roads had won just one title out of the previous six.
Take Micheál Kelly’s two dead ball goals in the second half out of it, both scored when the game was long gone, and they were every bit as far off Tooreen as they were in 2022, even though there was lots of optimism around that they might force the Mayo side into a tight finish and see how the chips fell from there. Losing the game, they could easily accept, but losing in that fashion didn’t sit well.
Overall, it was a peculiar year for the club at senior level, as they’ve ended the year without playing in a tight championship game of any sort. Their strength in depth is unparalleled and the impact of younger players like Liam Óg Coyle, Conor Kelly, James Dillon and, in particular, Tommy Morris was noticeable. It meant that while some of their more established county senior stars didn’t really catch fire at any stage, and they were without Cormac Coyle and Mikey Lohan with injury for effectively the full year, they were still very strong all over the pitch.
There’s plenty more top quality talent waiting in the wings to come into the set-up, but the first step will be to identify a new manager to guide matters, following Shane Curley’s decision to move to a coaching role with Belmont in Offaly.
The gap between Four Roads and the rest in Roscommon looks like it will take a couple of years to bridge at least, but the same could be said of the gap between them and Tooreen as well. Unless Tooreen have won the All-Ireland intermediate title and moved up to senior, winning Connacht still looks like a three to five-year project.
Not unlike Four Roads, losing their last game of the season wasn’t what will rankle — it was the way they lost it. Athleague knew what they were facing into, and still they were blown out of the water in the early stages of that county final.
It was a shame because whatever about their attack, defensively Gary Fallon and his selectors oversaw a real positive transformation this year. Eoghan Coyle was exceptional at centre-back, while Darragh Mullen, Mark Ward and Stephen Kilcommons also enjoyed an excellent season. However they were overrun in the first 15 minutes of the final, as Four Roads picked out islands of space to pop over nine points in a row and kill Athleague’s ambitions before they got out of the starting blocks.
For several years now, we’ve referred to how Athleague have a problem with age, and that a period of transition is coming. They’ve actually handled that very well, and now have a decent mix of youth and experience on the pitch most days they go out.
The issue now is that there is no cavalry riding over the hills to save them, so any further improvement is going to have to come almost exclusively from within their existing panel. They were unrepresented on the field when Roscommon played their All-Ireland U-20 final against Derry last May, so it’s the players just out of that bracket like Naoise Coyle, Tadhg Lyons and others that will have to drive further improvement, to a considerable degree.
There’s little or nothing to call between the teams ranked from three to five on this list, but because Oran came so agonisingly close to pulling off a famous victory over Athleague in the county semi-final, they get the next highest berth after the two county finalists, even though their group form was underwhelming at times.
They were not far off the mark in the 2021 semi-final either, but, on that occasion, it was the scoring brilliance of Paddy Fallon that pushed them to those heights. This year, Fallon didn’t bring his game to the next level, and instead it was his county U-20 colleague Micheál Hussey who was the team’s leading light, driving them forward from the half-back line. Hussey has got plenty of game time for the UL Freshers so far this year, even though he didn’t feature in the final, so he’s clearly in line to join Fallon in the county senior set-up next year.
There were others who went well too, particularly Declan Leonard, but the age-old issue of depth continues to snooker them. If a few players are absent, as happened in the group game against Four Roads, the wheels come off entirely so there is a real need for Kieran Farrell to try and find a couple more serviceable hurlers from somewhere, so that when a game is in the melting pot, he’ll have someone to turn to in his dugout as a potential game changer.
Tremane climb the rankings by one spot, though it would be a stretch to say that they improved this season. Injuries certainly didn’t help them but even allowing for the fact that no club really has to catch fire in the group stages in Roscommon, they still never looked like a team that was just a jolt of form away from going on a run.
There were flashes of good form in the first half of their opening round game against Athleague, while Michael Brennan’s brilliance ensured they came through what was effectively a knockout game against Pádraig Pearses. But their quarter-final clash with St. Dominic’s was a dour, low-quality affair and even though they were only two points behind at half time against Four Roads, the champions were able to find another gear with three goals in the final quarter.
In terms of raw talent, there’s plenty to give them cause for belief. Mossy Tiernan is one of the best young prospects in the county, Seán Mahony and Joe Brennan were probably the best midfield partnership out there, and if they got a fully fit Peter Kellehan and Niall Kilroy was in a position to commit to the cause for another year, they’d have a spine full of leaders around which to build a decent team.
Their path to real competitiveness with the champions is shorter than most.
The league offered hope that a bright summer was ahead, and winning two games out of four, after failing to win a match for the best part of a decade, certainly represented a huge step forward for the Gaels.
Ronan O’Meara has done a fantastic job with the group, because it’s not even as if a handful of players carried the team, or anything like it. Ryan Conlon, Eoin Kiernan, Finn Killion and Timmy Gilmore are the cornerstones around which this team will be built for the foreseeable future, but it’s not as if any one of the four played out of their skin this year.
Instead there were big games from different players at different times, and even strong contributions off the bench, which was something that Roscommon Gaels teams could only dream of in recent years.
The prospect of hurling for the Gaels hasn’t been as appealing for a long time, so the club needs to strike while the iron is hot and deepen their panel with players that had walked away, either to concentrate on football, or simply left the GAA entirely.
Finding one or two more that could make a big contribution would go a long way.
Take this line from our 2022 rankings article on St. Dominic’s:
“Put their best 15 on the field with a reasonable level of preparation, and they’ll test anyone, but past experience tells us that it’s a rare occasion when the stars align for them like that.” For as long as this continues, St. Dominic’s are going to find it incredibly difficult. This year Naos Connaughton and Connell Kennelly missed most of the year but came back in late, while Jack Lohan and Pauric Halpin were unavailable at that stage.
The club’s dependence on Mickey Joe Egan for scores is a huge issue too. Over the course of the five games this Summer, Egan shot 2-47 in total. The rest of the team? 2-16.
Inconsistency of selection and a noticeable dip in form from John Murray and Tommy Doyle (who missed early games) didn’t help, but it’s far too easy to stop a team that is so one-dimensional in how they gather their scores.
For all the club’s incredible strides on the football front, there’s nothing happening at underage level to suggest that things are likely to change significantly any time soon either.
Strokestown’s fall from county champions to relegation was a nationwide story in GAA circles after it happened, but if there was a tier below senior into which Pearses could fall, the 2021 county champions and 2022 finalists would have joined them this year after a campaign that was nothing short of dire.
The circling of the wagons has begun. Colum O’Meara has stepped away as manager and the Herald understands that a team of local club men has been installed, and already a number of players have committed to returning to the fold. The quality of Daniel Glynn will continue to be a significant loss to the group, but by the end of the year they were bringing a handful of subs to games, which was a far cry from the days of over 30 players togging out under Shane Sweeney.
It would be a huge shock if things don’t get a lot better, quickly. A very talented U-16 team has given the club a huge shot in the arm with their league and championship double and while we’re not going to see those players taking part in the senior hurling championship for a good while yet, the prospect of such talent coming down the pipeline makes it a lot easier for others to commit to the cause and believe that the good days aren’t that far away.
Add in one of the finds of the season in Dara Finn and the explosive, game-changing talent that is Seán Canning, and it would be a surprise if they don’t climb up a couple of rungs on this ladder at least over the next 12 months.
On 2023 form though? Finishing behind the other six protagonists was the only option on the table.
