Standard of club grounds around County Roscommon is superb

I first played football in Orchard Park nearly 30 years ago. It was also the first time I donned the Primrose and Blue.

I was in sixth class in Ballymurray NS at the time. There had been trials for a county primary school team. I can still vividly remember the day the letter arrived at the school from the county board and Ms Naughton informed us that myself and Gerard — my best buddy with whom I grew up playing ball every day — had been selected.

Those were special times and magical memories. We played a Sligo primary schools’ team in a full game, which took place before a National League encounter between Roscommon and Down in Orchard Park, Elphin.

The memories of the game itself are shady enough at this stage. I played midfield and can remember a number of the team-mates of the day, some of whom I played with in later years for Roscommon.

The strongest memory of the day was the atmosphere generated by the large crowd. You can imagine the buzz I felt as a 12-year-old playing in front of a few thousand spectators.

This all came to mind in recent weeks as I was back in Orchard Park as Oran and Boyle faced off in the county quarter-final. The result didn’t go as I wanted and Boyle deservedly marched on. They’ll be hard to beat.

Elphin GAA Club deserves huge praise for how well The Orchard looks now. Serious work has been done there to modernise the grounds. It’s a great venue.

It would have been great to see one of the county semi-finals take place there. Imagine the atmosphere there for Boyle v Pearses. I know the Hyde is the premier ground in the county, but a crowd of a few thousand even can get lost in the vast expanses of our flagship venue.

I had a good chat after the Boyle v Oran game with Joe Sweeney. Joe is a mighty GAA man. He was in with Fergie (Fergal O’Donnell) as goalkeeping coach with Roscommon back in the 2010 era, and he’s back with him now in Boyle. We both agreed on how well Orchard Park looked on the day.

Joe was quick to point out that there are plenty of grounds around the county which are finished to a high standard. We were equally as positive about the standard of football locally too. Take a look around our county championships and the sheer quality on display will be a match for anywhere else.

I give a lot of credit to St Brigid’s in all of this. Their rising tide has lifted all boats. Their team of the 2000s — culminating as it did with the All-Ireland victory in 2013 — was responsible for driving standards in our club game. They were relentless, year after year, in pushing to win county titles and more. They weren’t going to ease off, and so everyone else had to raise their game just to compete.

Pádraig Pearses — of all in the chasing pack — have done the best. They’re consistently competing at the highest levels now and regularly bringing through excellent young players.

Of all teams in the county, I’m most impressed by them in terms of their tactical know-how as players, and of the strength and conditioning work going on in the club. Every 18 or 19-year-old they bring through seems ready-made for the tough physical demands of senior club football.

St. Brigid’s remain the kingpins though. They should be strong favourites to win another Fahey Cup, in spite of their injury woes.

Off the pitch, the club’s facilities are top class. They’ve always been progressive in terms of fundraising and developing their venue, as seen most recently with their fabulous new gym and renovation of the old dressing rooms.

As I said to Joe, their drive for improvement has prompted all the other clubs to want to improve their lot. Keeping up with the Joneses! The result is we are spoilt for choice when looking for good venues around the county, with Orchard Park in Elphin as good as any of them.

For all that positive talk about St. Brigid’s last week, I then saw the controversy regarding them forfeiting the club’s Junior A quarter-final against St. Aidan's, which gained national media attention.

I read the club’s statement on the issue and initially had some sympathy for them. I presumed the two games had been fixed for the same time.

It was a few days later when it was pointed out to me that the games had been scheduled three hours apart in Johnstown and in Woodmount. That changed things completely in my mind.

I think it’s very bad form for a team to pull out of a competition in such circumstances. We also had a situation earlier in the Junior A championship when Roscommon Gaels failed to field against St. Brigid’s. It’s not a great look for the competition.

I doubt St. Aidan’s, who progressed straight through to next weekend’s semi-final against Clann na nGael, were too happy after St. Brigid’s decided not to field.

Brigid’s were very much the underdogs for the game, but they still should have been able to put out a team, irrespective of what grievances they had over the fixture.

Boyle’s second team fielded against Kilglass Gaels immediately after the club’s senior team had beaten Oran in their county quarter-final, albeit both games were in the same venue.

As you go down the grades, particularly in Junior B football, there are often occasions where teams simply don’t have the numbers to field a team on a given occasion. That’s understandable, but I don’t think it was the case here.

Every club has had their share of disappointment with unfair scheduling over the years, but fulfilling fixtures, where at all possible, is fundamental to maintaining the integrity of our competitions.

MICHAEL FAHEY, RIP

Michael Fahey passed away a couple of weeks ago.

I had the pleasure of knowing Mick through football and education. He had a very positive influence on countless young lads who attended Roscommon CBS, including myself.

He was synonymous with Gaelic football in the school for years, through the good times and the bad.

Mick was also involved in the county board during most of my playing career, serving as chairperson from 2011 to 2015. His funeral was awash with many familiar faces of those involved in football in Roscommon and also many, many past-pupils and colleagues from Roscommon CBS.

As I said to his heartbroken wife Eileen and daughter Bríana, his is a wonderful legacy of having positively impacted so many lives.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílís.