Minors back in the deep end against Mayo

With the games beginning to come thick and fast, it’s the Roscommon minor footballers’ turn to catapult themselves into provincial championship action when they travel to MacHale Park, Castlebar, this evening to meet Mayo in the opening round of this year’s competition (throw-in is at 7 p.m.).

As has been the case for the past few years, Roscommon have been thrown into the deep end, playing four weeks on the trot and having Mayo and Galway up first.

That sequence of games looked likely to take a significant toll 12 months ago when a heavy loss to Mayo in Dr. Hyde Park was followed by a 1-13 to 0-8 defeat against Galway in Tuam. But victories against Leitrim and Sligo allowed James Duignan’s side sneak into a semi-final against Mayo in Castlebar where they were unrecognisable from the side that were blitzed 2-17 to 0-11 by the same opposition six weeks earlier.

A heartbreaking 2-13 to 2-12 defeat showcased the strides Roscommon had made over the course of the competition. But with 16-year-old Seán McDonnell, who was immense in that game, only on the comeback trail from a long-term injury, the turnover of players has been significant, with players, apart from McDonnell, like Conor Murray, Martin Connaughton, Keelan Kelly, Eoin Collins, Stephen Tighe remaining from last year’s panel.

“We’re a very ambitious group. Our target is to be in the All-Ireland Series. To do that, you obviously have to reach a Connacht final. The minimum target is to try and get to the semi-final. If you do get knocked down, like we did last year, you just dust yourself down and remain clued into your target,” pointed out selector, Decie Hoare.

“Last year, you can imagine how this group would have developed if we got into an All-Ireland Series by getting over Mayo. It would have been immense. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen,” he continued.

Hoare is no stranger to Roscommon minor football set-ups, having been part of Fergal O’Donnell’s management team that directed traffic towards All-Ireland honours in 2006. But the absence of competitive games beforehand in the current climate is a hindrance, and Hoare admits that Roscommon are going in cold into this evening’s fixture.

“With the new championship, which is great, it’s hard to know where you are in the opening two games, particularly, in our case, when your first two games are against the might of Mayo and Galway. Our A v B games or challenges games don’t set you up like the Connacht Minor League would have done in the past,” he highlighted.

Alongside Hoare and manager James Duignan, the Roscommon management team includes Stephen Bohan and Shane Moran. Roscommon haven’t won a Connacht minor title since St. Stephen’s Day 2020 when Storm Bella roared during the height of Covid. It’s an itch that this group of players would dearly love to scratch.

“It’s always a huge lift for Roscommon when we win a Connacht title. But you have to get to the semi-final and then the final to be in with a chance of doing that. Once you get to the semi-final, it’s open season as we proved last year. But Leitrim and Sligo have that dream, as well as Mayo, Galway and ourselves, so it’s a very difficult thing to achieve.

“We’ve played enough challenge games to know what our strongest team is going into the first game. But, once again, challenges, compared to championship games against Mayo or Galway, aren’t a realistic gauge,” he noted.

Like all Mayo teams at this level, next Friday evening’s opponents will be very strong, and there has been plenty of talk out west about Koby McDonald, son of former Mayo player Ciarán, who lit up last year’s Mayo U-16 A final for Crossmolina with a 2-5 contribution from midfield. McDonald’s clubmate, Oisín Deane, will also take watching in the full-forward line.

“This Mayo team have the same management as the last four years. They have ambitions far loftier than a Connacht title. They’ve been setting that goal since these players were 13 or 14 to do that,” indicated Hoare.

But opening day games can be a lottery. A solid Roscommon performance that nourishes them for the rest of the campaign is a realistic goal. Do that, and it will be a decent evening’s work in Castlebar.