Time to take the handbrake off

Croker this evening. Lots of talk from people saying we should be targeting the Mayo and Cavan games.

No. I’m not having that. We have to head to Dublin and go all out to win.

The die has been cast. The fixtures lie as they do. Of course, they could have come better for us. Ideally, we’d have had a two-week gap in between each game. But that’s not the case.

We play the Dubs and then a week later Mayo come to the Hyde. Mayo, having played and won relatively easily against Cavan, will have a two-week lead-in to the Ros’ game. That’s ideal for them.

I do see the logic in the argument for focussing on our second and third games. They are clearly our best chances at getting the one win that should be enough to see us out of this group, particularly the Cavan game.

Hold back a bit against Dublin and make sure you’re ready to fire on all cylinders a week later. Completely logical.

Championship football doesn’t follow that sort of logic though. Very, very few teams can afford to switch it on when they please. The Dubs are the one I’d be sure of that have that ability, and probably Kerry too. That’s it.

I’ve had this scenario multiple times in managing intercounty ladies’ teams. The LGFA have had this round-robin format for the All-Ireland Series in place for years. We would always get at least one strong opponent in our group, sometimes two. The temptation would be to hold something back against the lesser teams or focus all your efforts on peaking for the toughest game and hope you can get through the others.

But that’s fluting around. At this stage of the season, you’ve got to let the handbrake off and play hard, and play to your best and strongest all the time.

If we have anything in our psyche about keeping a bit in the tank for next week when heading up to Croke Park, we’ll get a hiding. And for all the benefits of maybe not expending as much energy, or resting players, they’ll all be undone by the negative psychological effect of a poor performance.

We simply can’t afford to take a risk like that. As I’ve written before, this Roscommon team have to find their form quickly. I feel it has to come this weekend. Win, lose or draw, the momentum from a strong performance at GAA Headquarters would see us through to a big showing on home turf a week later. We’d then have a nice two-week lead-in to the Cavan game.

Sitting in that Roscommon dressing room now, it can’t be hard to build up the confidence to go and have a right cut at Dublin. All our players have shown on multiple occasions that they’re comfortable mixing it with the top teams. They just have to look at this exact same fixture last year for a reminder.

When I say have a cut at Dublin, I mean we have to go to win, we have to go and be happy to take risks. That means leaving at least two forwards up, as much as possible. People will argue that even looking at Dublin’s most recent game, Louth’s tactic of having 15 behind the ball for long stages helped keep them in the game. 

This is true to an extent, but it also masks the fact that I think it meant they were never going to hurt Dublin enough to actually get a result.

Leaving at least two forwards up top gives more potency to our counter-attacks when we turn Dublin over in our defence. The last thing we want to be watching is the likes of Ben O’Carroll and Donie Smith back in our half-back line. That’s playing into a good team’s hands.

Efficiency up front was one of the big areas for improvement coming out of the loss to Mayo in Connacht. Another was intensity in tackling. This is key for Roscommon this week.

We need to see savage intensity, in the right places, in our defending. Patience will be required as I don’t see us pressing up and turning their kickout over regularly, so I’d imagine we’ll be aiming to get most of our turnovers around our own 45-metre line.

That’s when the benefit of leaving two lads up top kicks in, provided we’re brave enough to kick it forward quickly.

Now, I hear you say sure logically speaking, based on all the form lines thus far this season, the Dubs will win with a bit to spare. But remember what I said earlier about logic and championship football.

I think we’re due a big upset. Here’s hoping it’s this evening in Croke Park.