Two superb teams didn’t let us down

I was buzzing coming away from the Hyde last Sunday. I was buzzing because it was such a thrilling, fiercely competitive final, but also because of the sheer quality of football on display.

Can you remember a better Roscommon SFC final? I can’t. I reckon there can’t have been many, if any, county finals across the country this month which could beat Sunday’s enthralling spectacle in terms of the quality on offer from both teams.

Now, that’s not to say either side came close to perfection in terms of their own performances, but everywhere you looked this match was dripping with quality match-ups and superb individual moments.

Take the battle between Mark Richardson and Ben O’Carroll for example. I thought Richardson was, once again, excellent. He did a great job in limiting O’Carroll’s impact.

Yet, the fingerprints of O’Carroll’s class were crucial for Brigid’s all the same. There was no doubting the touch of class in everything he did (apart from forcing a couple of long-range frees). His handling and footwork were top-notch, leading to him winning and scoring frees, and setting up that brilliant goal from Robbie Dolan.

I wrote last week that this was a toss-up between the potential of Brigid’s and the strong form line of Pearses. Well, Brigid’s certainly showed up and gave their best performance of the championship. They looked slick from the off. Their handling was spot-on. Passes were on the money, and their eye was definitely in when it came to striking for points.

Brigid’s played better than Pearses in the first half but, looking back, will feel that their superiority wasn’t well enough illustrated on the scoreboard. It’s a huge positive for Pearses that in spite of not being at their best in that 30 minutes, they still managed to stay within touching distance. They smack of a team that don’t know how to lose.

Just like we’d seen from them earlier in the championship, Pearses made hay when the opposition had a black card for the first ten minutes of the second half. They eroded the half-time deficit from six points to one in the space of a few minutes. It’s no coincidence that this was the time Declan Kenny began to make his presence felt.

Kenny had a terrific second half. Seán Canning, too, began to make inroads and poke holes in the Brigid's defence that we hadn’t seen at all in the first half. There was a brief moment where one thought that Pearses could drive on and win the game with a bit to spare.

Brigid’s reaction was a perfect example of the slickness which epitomised much of their attacking play. Robbie Dolan’s goal helped them to wrestle back control of the game at that stage early in the second half.

Things settled a bit for the middle chunk of the second half before the pulsating finale. It was that spell from about the 40th to the 50th minute where I felt best exposed Pearses’ vulnerability in matching up with Brigid’s.

They were obviously worried about being able to compete well enough with Brigid’s on the long kickouts when they chose to bring Paul Carey and Hubert Darcy out into that area for most of those restarts. They were robbing Peter to pay Paul.

It was best illustrated by an attack around the three-quarter stage where Pearses probed and tried the pop-pass into the full-forward position as they often do.

This time though it was Conor Harley who had pushed forward from defence to fill that space as Carey was being utilised further out the field. Brian Stack was back there to marshal the threat and duly got out in front of Harley to win the ball and set up another Brigid’s counter-attack.

Pearses, at their best, have Carey in close to goal to offer that threat of a kickpass into the danger area to compliment the running of the likes of Jack Tumulty and Seán Canning from deep. If he is needed further out the field, as was the case on Sunday, then that’s a big plus for Brigids.

I expect they’ll try to keep Carey closer to goal this Saturday. They could release Caelim Keogh from centre-back on kickouts to give them a greater aerial presence while maintaining that more direct attacking option.

INDIVIDUAL BRILLIANCE

I’d say picking who to award the Man of the Match trophy to was a tough task on Sunday. No one player dominated from pillar to post, while both teams can point to strong overall team performances.

It has to be said that, once again, Brian Stack was brilliant, particularly in the second half. Ruadhrí Fallon had been Brigid’s top player in the first half, while not being as effective after the break.

Conor Ryan was Pearses’ leading light throughout, while Declan Kenny and Caelim Keogh also led the way for them.

You could mention any number of players who had big contributions. For instance, Davy Murray did some brilliant stuff for Pearses, not least when diving to win a great breaking ball when they badly needed it, trailing 0-7 to 0-1 down.

Ronan Daly was quiet enough but stepped up with a monstrous double when it was needed.

As I’m sure was the case in the build-up to the drawn game, kickouts will come in for much analysis in both camps this week. Pearses will surely be frustrated with the lack of numbers they were getting in to compete for breaking ball in the first half.

St. Brigid’s will be happy with much of what they did on kickouts, although they’ll feel a need to do something to curb Conor Ryan’s influence. That young lad is growing into a serious footballer with every big game he plays. On Sunday, again, he stood tallest in the middle third and was particularly impressive when fighting against the tide in the opening half.

Brigid’s got plenty of joy from their press on the Pearses kickout. You could see they had a lot of work put into denying Paul Whelan the space for his mid-range punts. In fact, they’ll feel they should have been more ruthless after turning over a short kickout in the first half and taking a point when there was a strong sniff of a goal chance.

They even turned the tables on Pearses in terms of being able to get those short to mid-range kickouts away effectively. That was one of Pearses’ biggest strengths coming into this game, but Brigid’s completely nullified it while, on their side, Conor Carroll reeled off a nice few pitching wedge kickouts to Ruadhrí Fallon in particular to get their attacks up and running.

If I was in the Brigid’s camp, I’d be hoping to get more of an attacking impact from the half-forward line the next day. I reckon an improved showing from Conor Hand could be the game-changer that’s required to separate these teams.

They need to get him coming deeper into the middle third to get on ball, so that his attacking runs are coming from further out the field into a stretched defence. That’s where we’ve seen him make huge impacts in the past.

As it is, these teams are evenly matched. Walking out from the Hyde on Sunday afternoon, some supporters were quick to suggest that perhaps Pearses had missed their chance. I disagreed. We knew it was a tight fixture to call beforehand and that has just been copper-fastened.

I’d have strong confidence that both teams will show up again this Saturday and, as such, I’m expecting another cracker.

Brigid’s will be buzzing after finally hitting top gear and will be rearing to go at it again. Pearses will be buzzing after dragging a performance out of themselves when they faced serious questions early on.

And we’ll all be buzzing at the opportunity to see two superb teams go head-to-head again.