‘I think there’s very little between us’ — Burke

In Davy Burke’s mind, Sunday’s Connacht semi-final against Galway isn’t “season-defining”, although he vows that his team are going to Salthill to win.

Not that it bothers him, but the jury continues to deliberate on whether Roscommon can turn a corner and make something out of a season that has already delivered promotion to Division One, albeit in a scruffy manner.

But the manager is intent on defending his side’s performances this term, highlighting that injuries, and other factors, have necessitated a fair bit of chopping and changing to the team during the spring.

“Brian Stack missed most of the national league. Daire Cregg missed a lot of games. Eddie Nolan was in and out. Colm Neary and Pearse Frost didn’t feature in some games. Donie Smith missed four weeks.

“I didn’t mention any of that during the league because if I did, you’re the worst in the world — a whinger. I never once opened my mouth about any of that sort of stuff.

“Looking at it from the aerial view now, if Jerome Henry blows the whistle in the 70th minute when he should have done in Mullingar, we’d have topped Division Two. The outside noise doesn’t bother me. I have a fair idea of where we are. I’ll leave the other stuff up to you guys,” he quipped.

Needless to day, a win in Salthill would be a huge boost, something Burke feels is imminently achievable.

“It’s a knockout championship game, a Connacht semi-final in Salthill. It’s a big game but there’s an All-Ireland Series to come regardless of what happens on Sunday. We’d be conscious of that.

“I wouldn’t look at it as season-defining. If you look at both teams’ form, it’s very similar. Both teams were top of their divisions in the league before tailing off a little bit at the end. A lot of teams in the country had the same sort of form.

“But it is a huge game. The rivalry is massive between the teams. I hear that from the lads, which is great.

“We’ve a good record in Salthill. We won there in the league in my first year, we drew with them last year in the Hyde. Two years ago in the Connacht semi-final in the Hyde, we were well in that game until they got a lucky goal when a ball came back off the post. To cut a long story short, we’ll be going down there to win the game.” 

So, have Roscommon been planning their season to be primed to spring an ambush by the seaside?

“It’s a combination of everything. You have to take your opportunities to train, and train hard to get that block of work in because there is no other window to do it prior to these games.

“Galway have been in two out of the last three All-Ireland finals. They’ve one of the deepest squads in the competition. Obviously, we’re going into their back garden.

“But we’re relishing the opportunity. We’ll be seriously motivated and ready to go. There are a lot of Galway connections in our squad — between the Pearses boys, Conor Carroll and a couple of lads living in Galway.

“It’s one of those games why you get involved in this level of sport. We’ll prepare them and we’ll be ready to go. I think there’s very little between us, judging on the games while I have been here. Both teams haven’t been in a brilliant vein of form for the last month.

“They were very professional in New York, we were very professional in London. So that leaves an element of unknown going into this game. Usually, you’d have an idea who is going well for the opposition based on their previous championship games. But I don’t think either team have that to go off here because you really don’t take much out of those away days in New York and London,” he explained.

Captain Brian Stack and joint vice-captain Daire Cregg are likely to see some minutes against the Tribesmen, although Burke admits that both players “haven’t a lot done” since picking up their injuries against Monaghan and Westmeath respectively.

However, defender, Niall Daly, is unlikely to be involved as a result of a foot injury.

The Pádraig Pearses lynchpin struggled with a plantar fasciitis issue last season, and a reoccurrence of that problem following his cameo against Cork in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh last month has kept him sidelined from the match-day 26 since then.

Burke has insisted that Daly is close a return, but the Galway game will come too soon for him.

Overall, the Roscommon manager feels that a combination of factors have led to Roscommon not being able to unearth the consistency they crave.

“I would look at the rule changes where in one national league, they changed the rules twice. We all knew that was coming but it does have an impact. If you look at some of the teams we were playing late on, they didn’t really use their goalkeeper. If you look at Cavan, they never really brought Gary O’Rourke up in any game. The 11 v 11 didn’t impact them at all. So there was an adjustment, especially from our perspective.

“It's Colm Neary’s debut season. Eddie (Nolan), Ciaráin (Murtagh), Ben (O’Carroll) have missed at least a year of intercounty football. You just don’t walk back in at this level and be ready to go. It takes time, and it’s great to see them finding their feet and looking sharp, which we knew would happen.

“Ben is a top man, one of the top forwards in Ireland. Senan Lambe is really pushing hard, full of pace and energy. If you look at it, we had nine U-23s on the field at full time against Westmeath. That gets forgotten a small bit. Once people see a couple of Smiths and Murtaghs on the field, they think it’s an ageing team. That’s not the case.

“That’s what we’re dealing with and, consequently, it’s a hugely exciting panel. We’ll make loads of mistakes as we go along, but we’ll learn from them,” he concluded.