Relegation isn’t a life sentence
Dylan Ruane shows his disappointment after Roscommon's relegation to Division Two is confirmed following last Sunday week's loss against Derry in Celtic Park. Picture: INPHO/Lorcan Doherty
Every year, six teams get promoted and relegated between all four divisions of the National Football League.
From a Roscommon perspective, dropping down to Division Two for 2025 isn’t a shock, and it certainly isn’t a disaster. The Primrose and Blue have always found a way of bouncing straight back up to the top flight of league football.
Indeed, since 2016, Cork are the only team that have failed to make a return to the top flight after relegation. This season, Armagh and Donegal made an immediate return to Division One for next season after coasting through a very average Division Two.
Over the past three seasons, Kildare have taken two tumbles. The Lilywhites find themselves in Division Three for 2025. Unless they reach a Leinster final, there will be no Sam Maguire football for Glenn Ryan’s men this season.
Kerry were the only side in this season’s Division One who have never tasted relegation over the past decade. Monaghan were in the same boat, until their brave resistance snapped this spring.
If you walk into any bookies tomorrow morning, the favourites to be promoted from Division Two in 2025 will be — you’ve guessed it — Roscommon and Monaghan.
During a bleak period at the start of the last decade, Roscommon found themselves in no-man’s land, plying their trade in the bottom two divisions.
In 2010, Roscommon lost a Division Four League final to Longford. Yet Fergal O'Donnell masterminded an incredible Connacht championship success against the odds later that summer, even though Roscommon didn’t beat either Galway or Mayo to win the Nestor Cup.
It wasn’t until John Evans arrived in 2013 that Roscommon started to win league matches consistently, and successive promotions from Divisions Three to Two to One in 2014 and 2015 under the Kerryman catapulted Roscommon back in the spotlight with a place in the top division for the first time in 13 years.
Since then, over the past nine league seasons, Roscommon have suffered four relegations to Division Two but bounced back each time in 2018, 2020 and 2022 under the guidance of Kevin McStay and Anthony Cunningham (twice).
Both Kevin McStay (and Fergal O’Donnell) and Davy Burke kept Roscommon in Division One for two seasons. Both enjoyed their best league displays in the first year of their reign.
Twelve months ago under Davy Burke, Roscommon were the fittest team in the country. But they had run out of juice in June and were clipped by Kildare and Cork, which is worrying as neither of those teams have progressed since then. Between them, they only won three league games in Division Two. Kildare picked up the wooden spoon as Cork huffed and puffed through their seven games.
In Roscommon’s last nine competitive games, they have only won once (against Monaghan) with seven defeats. Failing to win matches creates a negative feeling.
This year, it’s obvious that the manager has gambled on reverse psychology. Roscommon have been way off the pace in February and March in the hope that they will be flying fit come the group stages of the All-Ireland championship in late May.
In nearly all of Roscommon’s league matches since January, they were competitive for 50 minutes before faltering badly in the closing 20 minutes as the opposition pulled away. On Sunday week last, Derry outscored the Primrose and Blue by 1-11 to 0-1 in the final quarter. That capitulation followed on from previous second-half collapses against Tyrone, Dublin and Mayo.
Based on current form, Roscommon will not beat Mayo in the Connacht championship semi-final, leaving Davy Burke’s men in the open season of the All-Ireland group stages.
Over the next four weeks, Roscommon have massive ground to make up in the fitness stakes. They have to find a way to stop conceding scores and somehow get a forward line to click whose scoring rate in the league will not win many championship games.
Roscommon are struggling to find a settled number six, a consistent midfield partnership, and a player who can play at number 11. The players looks pedestrian, sluggish and error-ridden.
If Roscommon can crack the glass ceiling and get themselves to an All-Ireland quarter-final, however, then relegation to Division Two will be quickly forgotten. If the tide doesn’t turn and Roscommon bow meekly out of the championship, then the management will have some tough questions to answer.
For the Roscommon and Clare intermediate ladies’ footballers, it’s a bit like going to the shop for ice cream in the knowledge that they have the dessert at home on the table after both teams were promoted from Division Three of the LGFA National League.
Both teams achieved objective number one by gaining entry into Division Two for 2025. The ice cream treat will be putting silverware on the table.
Two years ago, Roscommon beat Wexford in the Division Three final. Only the winner went up, but a different scenario exists ahead of next Saturday’s league final in Birr as both teams are guaranteed pastures new next season.
The group game between the sides in Ennis finished level after Clare produced a storming second-half revival to reel in Roscommon’s half-time advantage. If we take the league series as a barometre, there will be little to separate these two teams.
Oliver Lennon’s team are playing with confidence. Winning games has injected a feel-good factor into a group that has made serious progress over the past few months.
The management have created a tightly-knit environment where there’s a healthy competitive streak among the panel. They have also introduced some exciting young players and have all the clubs on board the ship.
Clare are an experienced side at this level and will provide a serious test for the Primrose and Blue ladies. But Roscommon won’t want to let the opportunity pass to grab some league silverware.
During a week when variety was the spice of life with all the different shapes and sizes of Easter Eggs, I wanted to see who had the sweetest tooth.
Can you name the last county to score six goals in an All-Ireland senior final and still ended up losing the final? It was Waterford in the 1963 All-Ireland SHC final against Kilkenny.
Martin Walshe from Carrowbehy unwrapped his tasty treat first, with QPR, Frenchpark; Murt Hunt, Ballyhaunis; Michael Scally, Ballaghaderreen; Liam Dooley, Ballyhaunis; Eamon Campion, Castlerea; Pat Deane, Williamstown; Fr John MacManus, PP Castlerea; Paddy Conlon, Taughmaconnell; Mary Gilfillan, Kilmore; John Wynne, Kilteevan; Frank Coyne, Ballygar; David Callaghan, Castlerea; Mick Fetherston, Dublin; Jimmy Fallon, Corbally, Elphin; Tom Mullaney, Boyle; John McQuaid, Maynooth; Luigi, Ballyhaunis; Pat, Sligo; Paddy Boland, Youghal; Kevin Flanagan, Dartford; Seán Toolan, Heston; Mary McCarthy, Holloway, and Michael Kearns, Clapham, also ending their Lenten fast in style.
This week’s Teaser: Can you name the first Connacht player to win football and hurling Railway Cups?
Answers by e-mail to willieefc@gmail.com or by text to 086 8356227. This week’s teaser comes from London.
Star pupil: Seán Canning — the Pádraig Pearses sharpshooter posted 1-8 from play during Roscommon’s All-Ireland U-20 B hurling quarter-final success over Sligo.
Crucial win for: Westmeath’s footballers who claimed Division Three League honours against Down in Croke Park on Saturday evening.
Much do better: Leitrim must rise from the ashes following a tough Croke Park defeat to Laois and be ready for Sligo in the Connacht championship on Sunday.
Spot of bother: Leicester City have fallen off a cliff at the top of the Championship in England. After only one win in six games, they have slipped outside the two automatic promotion places.
Weekend highlight: Who said that the league finals didn’t matter?
The footballers of Derry and Dublin produced a Division One League decider to savour and have only whetted the appetite for this year’s championship.
What a cracker: All roads lead to Carrick-on-Shannon on Sunday for a game that has the potential to be a good old-fashioned championship encounter as Leitrim and Sligo go flat out in the Connacht SFC quarter-final.
“To be happy you must let go of what’s gone. Be grateful for what remains. Look forward to what is coming next.”
This year’s NFL saw Cavan end eight consecutive years of promotions and relegations.
After both clubs secured brilliant away wins last weekend, the scene is set for an eagerly-awaited League of Ireland Premier Division Connacht derby clash between Sligo Rovers and Galway United at the Showgrounds on Saturday evening.
