Third time lucky for county U-20 hurlers?

The Roscommon U-20 hurlers will be hoping that a third All-Ireland final appearance in as many years will finally end with silverware when they tackle Down in Saturday’s B championship final for the Richie McEliggot Cup in Croke Park at 3 p.m..

With the senior footballers playing Dublin in their opening game of the All-Ireland Series afterwards, manager Kevin Sammon is thrilled at the prospect of his players getting to play on the famous hallowed turf of GAA headquarters, backed by what he hopes with be a sizeable Roscommon support.

“It’s absolutely brilliant. We’re delighted that the game is in Croke Park. It’s great for everyone involved — the players, the management, the backroom team and the county. Hopefully, there will be extra support there for us,” he said.

Roscommon have developed a healthy rivalry with Saturday’s opponents. Down won the competition two years ago, beating the Rossies in the final at Kingspan Breffni. But Roscommon turned the tables in Darver last year with a superb 3-17 to 0-20 triumph before falling short against an excellent and physically stronger Derry team in the final.

“I can’t see more than a puck of a ball between the teams. Last year’s game swung over and back a few times. Usually, the two best teams get to the final, so I would be expecting nothing between us,” continued the manager.

With victories against Sligo and Mayo under their belt, Sammon is hopeful that the clinical nature of his side’s display against Mayo in the semi-final will be replicated on Saturday.

“We had a couple of tricky moments against Sligo, but we got out of there with a win. Everything just seemed to click right against Mayo the last day. The lads were on form, so hopefully they can maintain that for another hour on Saturday.” 

With the likes of Seán Canning, Paddy Fallon, James Dillon, Micheál Hussey and Liam Óg Coyle very much mainstays in the county senior set-up, there’s plenty of experience within the squad. In terms of bringing players through to senior level, the competition has been very beneficial to Roscommon, according to Sammon.

“It’s great to see some of the U-20s make the step up to senior hurling. We’ve 12 U-20s in with the seniors. Hopefully, next year we’ll see even more of them coming through. As a management team, we see it as a stepping stone towards senior hurling. It’s not easy, but that’s the plan and that’s what we’re trying to do.

“No one likes to get to a final and get beaten. It would be a killer for some lads to lose three finals. But Down won’t have any sympathy for those players. They won’t hand us the title. It’s about working hard on the day to get the right result,” concluded Sammon.