My 2026 hopes for Roscommon teams
BIG GAMES LOOMING: It promises to be a huge 2026 for Brian Stack, seen here in action against Kerry's David Clifford, in both the Roscommon and St. Brigid's colours. Picture: INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
’Tis the season for wish lists. With my Roscommon football supporter’s hat on, here are my hopes for the Primrose and Blue in 2026.
I hope St. Brigid’s and Strokestown go on to win All-Ireland titles in early 2026. Wishful thinking, I know, but it’s fair to say both teams have a decent chance.
Shouting for Brigid’s has never come easily to me. It’s a quirk of the club championships. Once a team win their county title, the rest of their county generally rows in to support them. It makes sense. They are going on to represent not just their own club, but all of Roscommon.
It makes sense, but it doesn’t either. We’re all year trying to beat these guys, and now we’ve to support them? It’s a conflicting emotion. Because they’re representing Roscommon, you want them to win, but you wouldn’t be all that disappointed if they lost either.
I chatted with a former Roscommon team-mate about this a couple of weeks ago. We both agreed that we’d love to hate St Brigid’s. It’s the most natural thing in sport — to hate your closest rivals. And this team-mate was from Clann na nGael!
Whatever about my own club, Dominic’s, rivalry with Brigid’s, Clann have a deep-rooted hostility towards them. Still, we agreed, when you look at them in the cold light of day, it’s very hard to dislike the current Roscommon and Connacht club champions.
You can’t deny that St. Brigid's has done great work in the club, as evidenced by their superb facilities. The people are really decent football folk. To top it off, they play brilliant football. They’re the ones that every other club in Roscommon is trying to emulate.
Roscommon people in general seem quite quick to row in behind whatever club it is which goes on to represent us in Connacht and beyond. Brigid’s and Strokestown will deservedly get plenty of support. While it hurts a bit, I too will be shouting for both of them.
A similiar situation often arises in the intercounty game whenever Galway or Mayo reach an All-Ireland. Plenty of Rossies row in and support their fellow Connacht Gaels. I draw the line here though. Consider all those finals Mayo lost in the last 20 years. You’d have locals saying wouldn’t it be great to see them finally get over the line.
No, it wouldn’t.
Within Roscommon though, supporting our clubs as they advance towards the All-Ireland series, I can get on board with that.
My second wish is for Mark Dowd to get off to a good start as Roscommon manager.
What will that look like? It’s hard to say. Results in Division One of the league won’t be the be-all and end-all. The expectation level is low enough, which is a help. We’ll be odds-on to be relegated.
Still, I think they’ll put a big effort into staying up. There’s always a bounce associated with the introduction of a new manager, but the postitive effects of that can be swallowed up by a string of bad results. I’m sure Dowd will feel that if he could get three or more wins in the league, it would set them up nicely for the championship.
That’s what I’d be hoping for him. Getting those few early wins will also help with the buy-in amongst the group. For all the endless hours focussed on improving in training, you can’t beat winning for the way it progresses a team.
Roscommon will have to target the first two home games against Monaghan and Armagh. Looking through the fixture list, those are must-win games. If they manage that, then once they are competitive in the other games I’d say Dowd and his players would emerge from the league with some momentum.
I’ve formed the opinion over the last 12 or 18 months that for Roscommon to take the next step forward, we need some of our top players to bring their games to new levels.
I believe we currently have a large amount of quality footballers in the county. I feel we have bucket-loads of players who can hold their own at Division One level. Looking at the panel last year, there’s very little between players from, say, number 20-35 on our panel.
Even outside of the panel, I think there’s another 30 or so footballers in Roscommon who could do a job at county level. So, strength-in-depth isn’t a problem. That’s very impressive for a county of our size.
The key, as I see it — to us moving on to be a top six team — lies in the levels our top players can reach. We need more players who are not only at home at Division One level, but who can give us a clear edge.
In recent years, Enda Smith and Brian Stack have been the two who have reached that standard, in my opinion. Can we push another five or six players on to All-Star level? I’m thinking of players like Ben O’Carroll, Daire Cregg and Ruaidhrí Fallon. Diarmuid Murtagh has been close to it.
Imagine if Ben O’Carroll became the most prolific inside forward in Connacht, and Ruaidhrí Fallon turned into the finest full-back around (I think he has all the attributes to fill that position).
The rising tide that that would create would lift all the players. Maybe we’d then see someone like Colm Neary or Conor Hand explode into a top-tier performer. Top class players help create an environment where more top-class players are likely to emerge.
I wish for the Rossiettes to bounce back into form after a disappointing campaign in 2025.
They’re back in Division Three, which is probably the right level for where this panel are right now. If they could get a few wins early in the league it should help rebuild some confidence.
That’s easier said than done and we’ll need to see some of the team’s key players really stepping up to the mark. There have been quite a few losses in terms of key personnel in recent seasons and I’m not sure if we’ve managed to replace them yet.
You’d be looking to players like Helena Cummins, Ellen Irwin, Kate Nolan, Aisling Feely and Aisling Hanly to drive the standards in that group. Do we have enough talent coming through to support those players and get back up to Division Two?
Hopefully, but I’m not sure.
I’m wishing for a more exciting men’s championship this year.
A championship for the ages would put the tin hat on the incredible success of the new playing rules. We didn’t quite get that last year, although it was still very good.
The new championship format at All-Ireland level removes the round-robin structure and brings us back closer to knockout football at all stages. Okay, teams could afford to lose a game in either of the first two rounds and still get in the back door, but I reckon it’ll feel like there’s a lot more riding on these games.
There’s an understandable worry that Kerry have streaked ahead of the rest but I believe it’ll be a super competition this year. Donegal, Dublin, Galway, Tyrone and Armagh will have solidly realistic ambitions of winning Sam too. Then there’s the next group, including teams like Mayo and Meath, who’ll fancy their chances of taking out one of the big guns.
Mark Dowd and all of us will be hoping that’s a group Roscommon can break into.
