New season brings cautious optimism

“I know nothing stays the same/But if you’re willing to play the game/It’s coming around again.” — Carly Simon.

The football season comes around again, and for all the brickbats thrown at last year’s championship, that familiar tingle of anticipation is rising in the football heartlands of Roscommon and all around the country. The game is afoot.

It’s seven months since Roscommon’s 2024 journey ended in defeat to the eventual All-Ireland champions Armagh in Croke Park on June 29th. It feels so long ago because it is — Taylor Swift was playing Dublin that weekend, Joe Biden was still the Democratic candidate for US president, and the Olympics hadn’t even got underway. Yet, after all the waiting, the new Allianz League campaign rolls around next Sunday when Down rock up to King and Moffatt Dr. Hyde Park.

The level of churn in players and management has been high, but that is par for the course across intercounty football. The biggest transformation has been in the sport itself. Jim Gavin’s Football Review Committee’s adroit political ability means a host of new rules will get a proper road-test in the Allianz Leagues.

Tackling the convoluted championship structure, which proved a turn-off last year, and yet remains in place, has been left for another day. For now, the spotlight is on making the sport more enjoyable and entertaining.

The hunch is that keeping the two-point arc and having to keep three forwards up the field should suit Roscommon, but this is a voyage into the unknown for players, coaches, supporters and, crucially, referees. Expect howls of consternation in Hyde Park next Sunday when an incidence of dissent from either a player or a coach leads to a 13-metre free. The reaction to the new-look jersey should also be intriguing.

After two years in Division One, Roscommon have fallen back into Division Two. All connected with Roscommon football bristle at the unwanted “yo-yo” tag which has attached itself to the team since John Evans masterminded the Rossies’ return to the top flight in 2015. But another relegation — the fourth in nine seasons — makes it difficult to argue with the critics.

Notably, this is a different Division Two to any Roscommon have encountered in the past. The trapdoor to the Tailteann Cup lurks for a county which finishes outside the top four. The “too good to go down” mantra has been disproved in many sports. It was trotted out about Kildare last year only for reality to intervene.

The Rossies’ first priority, then, is to steer clear of any “bottom four” dogfight. It’s the equivalent of making sure you qualify for the last two days of a golf major.

Roscommon are favourites for promotion but that will count for little when the ball is thrown in next Sunday. The lines between Divisions One and Two have become blurred as the condensed season has evolved. The last two All-Ireland champions have emerged from Division Two.

In such a cut-throat environment, any hint of weakness will be seized upon by opponents. Momentum will be decisive so Roscommon’s opening matches against Down and Louth — two teams whose graph is trending upwards — will set the mood for the rest of the campaign.

Intercounty GAA has become similar to American Football in the last two years. The NFL closes down from early February to September, it fills that gap with the draft of stellar new talent from college and speculation about how teams will manipulate the transfer market to upgrade their roster.

The chasm in the intercounty scene is filled by speculation about managerial changes. The identity of the manager is only part of this new phenomenon with as much attention falling on the wider coaching ticket.

After the clean sweep of football’s major prizes by Ulster teams last year, northern coaches are in vogue and Roscommon has followed the trend. Former Down football and Slaughneil manager Mark Doran was the big-name addition to the Roscommon management. Doran has previously coached in Clare, Wicklow and Down and his pedigree means he is viewed as the natural successor to Mark McHugh, who dropped a bombshell when he opted out at the end of 2023. The other newcomer is former Kildare footballer, Hugh Lynch, as a selector and coach. Lynch is from the same Confey club as team manager Davy Burke. Eddie Lohan and Leo Tierney remain.

The feedback from training is positive with tales of gruelling sessions while, according to the grapevine, the Rossies have played high-quality challenge matches against Dublin and Kerry.

Burke has told the Roscommon Herald this week that this is the strongest panel he’s had in his three years. The proof of the pudding will come over the next few months when the Roscommon football public expects Burke and his team to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

It is Burke’s third season in Roscommon and, most probably, the one that will decide his legacy. The Kildare native endured the fabled difficult second album in 2024. The one bright spot was a thrilling victory over Tyrone — probably the best win of Burke’s time in charge. The sheen was taken off the Omagh triumph when the Rossies couldn’t reproduce that form one week later against Armagh. Three defeats out of three to Mayo were more reflective of a season that never took off.

The turnover in players since last June has been significant. Tadgh O’Rourke deserves special mention. As was his way as a player, O’Rourke retired from intercounty football without fanfare. Nevertheless, the Tulsk player was a marvellous servant to Roscommon football whose contribution was more appreciated by team-mates and a succession of managers than by people on the terraces who attended a couple of matches a year.

It is disappointing to see younger players, including graduates of the 2021 U-20 team, leave the panel as they approach their peak years, but these are the type of decisions management stand or fall by. It’s also a reminder not to expect too much too soon from the most prominent talents from last year’s U-20 team. Patience is needed for them to bridge the chasm between to senior intercounty football.

The silver lining to the cloud of Padraig Pearses’ surprise defeat in the Connacht club final is the availability of their county contingent for the early phase of the season. Those Pearses players still had a long year in 2024 and hopefully lessons will be learned from how some St. Brigid’s players struggled for form in last year’s league.

A major positive is the return of Ciaráin Murtagh and Cian McKeon, while Ben O’Carroll’s appearances off the bench for UCD augur well for his recovery from the injury which derailed his season last year. The memory of O’Carroll’s electrifying performance in the 2024 All-Ireland club final still lingers 12 months later, but nobody will want him rushed back into the team.

It all begins again next Sunday. Cautious optimism is probably the best way to describe the mood in Roscommon. Hopefully, that is still the mood after the first phase of the league.