March can be a great time for players

Back in my day. Am I old enough now to be saying that? I guess so.

Anyway, back in my day, March was everything in the league. It’d make or break you. There’d be a couple of games in February, but it was March when you’d run into three or four games on the trot.

I loved it. Players always love more games and less training. Simple. Managers might have bemoaned the quick turnaround between rounds but, for players, it was fantastic — for the most part.

You see, the league was, and still is, all about momentum. In comparison to leagues in many other sports, it's a sprint. The Premier League in the soccer or the URC in the rugby — they’re marathons. But the National League, just like the 6 Nations, is a 100 metres dash.

Getting points on the board early on is massive. Luckily, most of my memories of league campaigns involve us competing for promotion. I played in all four divisions though so that does hint at the fact that we must have had at least a few bad league years.

March was always critical. If you got on a roll, you’d be improving game-on-game and you’d be proof of that old adage, “winning breeds winning”. But a few early losses and March would turn into Hell. Things can spiral downwards very quickly. Morale can disintegrate and you can find yourself regularly snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

If memory serves correctly, I think we lost two managers mid-season over the years, both coming in March on the back of a poor run in the league.

It was always the time of the year when you’d get a first real sense of how teams were fixed for that season. The pre-season work was done, everyone had dusted the cobwebs off early in the league, and now the men would separate from the boys in March.

For all the challenge matches and training in the world, you just can’t beat good competitive games for progressing a team. A few games in a row helps management settle on their best team. Tactical tweaks from game to game mean the team will gradually find what set-up suits them best.

We’ll see that borne out again this year with the provincial championships at minor and U-20 level. They’re played on a round-robin basis and, as we saw last year, teams can come on leaps and bounds from the beginning of the competition to the end.

So, why was March in my head? Well, the new split season has meant everything is crammed in a little earlier. It feels like, in old money, we’re near the end of March now.

This run of three games on the trot, culminating in next Saturday’s trip to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, was always going to be pivotal in this league.

You’d forgive a team one off-day during the league, and that’s what I think Sunday was for Roscommon. It has stalled our momentum. The key is to bounce back straight away and so this weekend’s fixture now has taken on an even greater than expected level of importance.

Looking at our opponents in Division Two, you’d have to say that Monaghan, Cork and Meath all look like good teams. Beating Monaghan put us in a very strong position and if we could have beaten Meath then we’d have had some breathing space.

As it is, Saturday looks like a must-win clash down south.

Our ladies are down there on the same day to play the Rebelettes. The Rossiettes are plying their trade in Division Two, just like the lads, but their aims will be different. Avoiding relegation will be a big success for Finbar Egan's side.

To that end, they’ve gained some valuable momentum in recent weeks. The win over Clare was massive. They played well in the defeat to Galway and almost pulled off a great win at the weekend versus Donegal, but were undone by some very controversial decisions and a late penalty goal.

Still, the point gained in that draw could be as good as a win come the end of the league.

Cork will be expected to dispose of their challenge with ease this weekend. The key for Roscommon will be to maintain their high performance level of late. Even if they don’t get a result, they need to keep some kind of momentum ahead of the crucial games to come against Westmeath and Tipperary.

Back to the men’s game, and there are plenty of talking points across the divisions at this stage.

After taking a lot of stick over their early-season form, Mayo are wrestling some momentum for themselves. They gained their first win a week ago and then battled back on Saturday to grab what looked like an unlikely draw in a super game against Armagh.

I thought Davitt Neary looked superb for them. His finish for the goal was top-class and he appears to be a really good prospect.

Galway continued their early-season promise with a big win over Donegal. The wind played a massive part, as it always does in Pearse Stadium. I wonder would they ever think of playing most of their league games in Tuam instead?

They won comfortably against a Donegal side who have no doubt taken their foot off the gas. That could be seen in the way they lined up at the weekend.

They have already got six points on the board and they’ll be happy that’s enough to stay up. As regards pushing on and getting to the final, well, unfortunately, they won’t be very motivated for that.

It’s a definite issue with the current fixtures layout. Teams who reach the league final are often out in the championship just a week later. Donegal are due to face Derry in the Ulster Championship the weekend after the league final, so it was no surprise when I saw their line-up for the Galway game had a few frontliners missing.

There’s a similar issue in Connacht, but I don’t think it will be looked upon in the same way, simply because the teams involved are playing opposition they can expect to beat comfortably. Galway and Roscommon could well contest league finals at the end of March and then both would be out the following weekend in the championship, against New York and London respectively.

Up in Pomeroy, David Clifford made his first appearance of the year. Like all the top forwards, he’s going to love this new game. He gave an exhibition in goal scoring, while leaving a couple of opportunities behind him. He got a sin-binning and still kicked 3-3. Not bad going.

On the other side of the field, Darragh Canavan was back looking really sharp. Con O’Callaghan was back for Dublin too on Saturday night. These guys are going to have great fun as the year progresses, just like Diarmuid Murtagh and company.

While it’s going to be an exciting year for top forwards, I also think the best defenders will relish it too. They’re back having to fight their corner now without a blanket of support in front of them. It means there are more man-on-man contests and the best markers will be very valuable to teams.

It’s why the emergence of Colm Neary and Pearse Frost is so welcome for this Roscommon team.

Donal Keoghan has deservedly received great praise for his performance at corner-back on Sunday. This weekend, hopefully, it’s the likes of Neary, Frost, McManus and Higgins who will be getting the plaudits for shutting down the Cork attack.