Freshness the key to a successful season

Roscommon senior football manager, Davy Burke, tells IAN COONEY that he's relishing the prospect of another Division One campaign where he feels that his players will be able to cope much better with the demands of the upcoming season...

IC: Looking at the fixtures with only three home games, will it be a more difficult league for Roscommon?

DB: It’s probably a tougher campaign. When you look back at the results from last year, across the board, home advantage tends to count for a bit. There were plenty of wins on the road for teams as well, so it’s not impossible. But the teams with three home games will have harder work on her hands.

Having said that, it’s a very interesting national league this year. The quality is all there — you probably have the eight best teams, or very close to it anyway. It’s very hard to know, with the way the provincial championships are, how many teams will be trying to win it.

I think the league will be split into two — the first four rounds are going to be absolutely helter skelter. Everybody is going to be looking for points. After that, teams might make a decision based on where they are.

IC: Will you approach this season any differently?

DB: When you’re in Connacht or you’re in Ulster, it’s very difficult to be ready for everything. Whereas in Leinster and Munster, it tends to be a bit more straightforward for the Dublins and the Kerrys.

We have to find a level of consistency because we’re playing in Division One and we want to stay in Division One. But I’m very conscious of not mentally draining the lads either.

I have to find a balance between us being ready to go, compete and win games in Division One, and get points on the board. But, on the other hand, I have to make sure that, by May or June, my key men are fresh — physically and mentally. That’s my biggest challenge for the next six months.

We need to win games and we need to get points on the board, we need to progress in Connacht but, ultimately, we have to be ready, mentally, in the middle of May once the All-Ireland Series starts.

I’m working through that as regards how much pressure or responsibility I can put on certain key players, so that when I got to that well in May, they’re receptive as opposed to not being any more left to give.

IC: Did the effort to stay in Division One ultimately take its toll on the performances against Kildare and Cork in the All-Ireland Series?

DB: Maybe that was a factor — that we had to put a major emphasis on the league and it cost us a bit in the championship. But we were new to the job, so everything had to be gung-ho.

I’d like to think that we’re a little bit more comfortable in our skins now — players and management. We know each other, we’re more comfortable with each other, we’ve built relationships. It doesn’t take as much out of us to train or prepare for a game. 

A lot of it was new last year, so I’m hoping that we can still prepare to a very high level but that it mightn’t take as much out of us physically and mentally. Ultimately, it’s about having freshness for the summer-time because that’s when you’re proven.

IC: With that mind, what would constitute a good league campaign for Roscommon?

DB: Points on the board. If you look at last year, we were very competitive in seven games. The most we lost by was three points. So that’s on the agenda again, that every single game comes down to a score game, whether we’re on top or coming out the wrong side.

I think everyone in Division One will win and lose games. For me, the one goal in Division One is to be absolutely knocking on the door every single day. If we do that, we’ll be fine and secure enough points to be there in 2025.

IC: You couldn’t ask for a tougher start than Tyrone in Omagh?

DB: It’s a fairly daunting task, but we’re relishing it. We’ve a young enough squad. A good few lads still have knocks and niggles and it will be probably be too much of an ask for the Brigid’s lads that early.

But we’re really looking forward to going up to Omagh and testing ourselves. Personally, I feel as if we’re developing a massively exciting squad. I think that the FBD games have showed that. If you look at the lads we’ve put out, the amount of debuts we’ve given — personally I think that they’re flying it. Their energy is infectious around the place. We’re building a great squad, so where better to test them than against Tyrone.

We’ll have a good balance to the team. We’ll get as many senior players as we can out there, and we’ll get a good crop of young bucks out with them. So for me, after 60 minutes, this should be a draw game and it’s a case of who goes left and who goes right from there.

IC: What’s the team news for Sunday?

DB: Enda (Smith) isn’t available due to the red card against Cork last summer.

Tadhg O’Rourke returned to full training last week. That’s a massive boost. He was our vice-captain last year. He’s a top fella, a really good man and a brilliant player. He has a huge profile around the middle that we need more of. He brings his own niche to the team. But he has a couple of weeks of work to do, he’s not going to land back in and play 70 minutes. We’re delighted to have him back ahead of schedule, and that’s purely down to his diligence.

Ultan Harney won’t be featuring for another while. He’s definitely another month away. But again, he’s come back from his travels in serious shape. I’m delighted with his attitude and, particularly, his condition. You know yourself, you go travelling for a year, but Ultan has come back and there’s not a pick on him. Once we get his knock cleared up, I don’t think it will take him long to get up to speed.

IC: As a young manager, you must relish testing yourself in Division One which is such a great competition?

DB: Definitely, but I do think that the new All-Ireland Series is beginning to rival the league in that it’s more of what we want — three top class games, which hopefully leads to more games.

We’re going to be playing Tyrone and Galway, before we have a little break and we play Dublin, Monaghan, Mayo, and then it’s Kerry and Derry — isn’t that class? We’ll be layering a young squad week by week where I’d hope we’d be introducing or reintroducing another more senior player back into the fold.

That wasn’t the case last year. In one way, we were lucky because we nearly had our full compliment from day one, or very close to it. This year, that’s not going to be the case, so we’re going to be layering  the team week on week, which is a really good thing. That will help being fresh later in the season. It keeps the opposition guessing as well because you’re strengthening every week.

It’s very exciting. We’re looking forward to getting out there against Tyrone, and then Galway, and assessing where we are after that.