Rossies ready for Last Dance in The Bronx

Fasten your seatbelts, it’s showtime.

Roscommon have rarely been in a better place heading into a Connacht Senior Football Championship campaign in recent years — that’s the impact Mark Dowd has made during his first few months at the helm.

The boon from having Division One League football to look forward to next season represents a solid launching pad for a tilt at a first Nestor Cup in seven years. All the talk has been about Mayo preventing Galway from completing five-in-a-row. It has been music to Roscommon’s ears.

That journey to becoming part of the conversation for provincial honours begins in Gaelic Park on Sunday evening (throw-in at 8 p.m. Irish time) when Roscommon tackle New York in the championship for the first time in ten years.

All the soundings suggest that it will be for the final time.

No one needs reminding how the colour drained from the faces of players, management and supporters alike in 2016 when New York came within a whisker of causing a seismic shock. Despite enjoying an excellent league campaign that ended in defeat against Kerry in the Division One semi-final in Croke Park, Roscommon rocked up to The Bronx and nearly got caught.

The abiding image from that game is Donie Smith, who was unavailable due to injury, emerging from the dugout with around five minutes remaining and looking up at the giant scoreboard, usually reserved for baseball, in Gaelic Park.

Like us all, he was wondering “is this really happening?” 

Luckily, Roscommon lived to tell the tale, but their campaign nosedived after that, and despite bringing Galway to a replay in the provincial final, that game in Castlebar made for painful viewing before Clare planted the dagger into the pit of the Rossies’ stomach in the qualifiers a week later.

But Roscommon have experienced the other side of the coin as well when, a week after losing a Division Four League final against Longford in Croke Park, they arrived in The Big Apple in 2011 and demolished their hosts by 17 points.

Mark Dowd was part of Fergal O’Donnell’s management that afternoon, so he’ll know exactly what frame of mind his team must be in when the game gets underway. Incidentally, only Diarmuid Murtagh remains the sole survivor from the players involved in 2016.

In the current climate, realistically, New York shouldn’t stand a chance. Devoid of meaningful games and the opportunity to roadtest Gaelic football’s new rules on their terms, there should only be one winner.

But, given Roscommon are likely to blood a host of fresh faces in the championship — the same players that took to Division One like a duck to water — there’s always a waft of uncertainty in terms of how they’ll react to a strange environment where the giddiness emanating from the socialising inside Gaelic Park is often a distraction.

There has been plenty of talk that this will be a Connacht team’s last trip Stateside, so that’s more ammunition for the home side to make it an occasion to remember, most notably adding a second championship win to the history books following the never-to-be-forgotten victory against Leitrim in 2023 after a penalty shootout.

Their unknown quantity will be dissected beforehand, but the reality is that they won’t have the hard yards travelled in competitive games like their opponents.

Ideally, the perfect weekend from a Roscommon perspective will be a solid performance, no injuries, and a comfortable victory to allow players and management to unwind with family and friends afterwards.

But strange things often happen in these games, especially on a tight astro-turf pitch. Remember Colm Compton in 2016 being forced off injured just 23 minutes into his championship debut.

It really is a case of being prepared for the unexpected, which Roscommon clearly weren’t ten years ago.

Since 2023, when New York overcame Leitrim, Mayo have won by 15 points. Last year, Galway emerged victorious by 17 points. That’s the yardstick Roscommon must be aiming for.

In an ideal world, Roscommon would prefer to be lying in the long grass for a Connacht semi-final against Mayo. But, as much of a headache as this weekend is in terms of travel and costs, the players must earn that right by letting their football do the talking.

The team’s experienced cohort will be expected to set the tone. The younger players, as they did in the league, must rise to the challenge, instead of being inhibited by it.

It’s time to make the “Last Dance” a memorable one.

Verdict: Roscommon