Liam Horan

WHERE to now for a county like Roscommon?

There was a time, there was a time. I grew up believing my native Mayo would never beat Roscommon (late 1970s, early 1980s.) They remained a regular force in Connacht until ten years ago. In fact, on a different tack, Connacht should not be viewed as the closed shop some see it as – in this decade alone, four different counties (Mayo, Galway, Sligo and Roscommon) have all won the Connacht title.

Fergie O’Donnell has a mountain to climb now. I can’t see him turning it around for the Qualifiers – with the best will in the world, players will surely lose interest now. They may go through the motions, but they won’t go the extra mile.

Soon enough, it will be down to planning for next season. Saturday finally kills the prospect of the 2006 minors propelling the county at senior level – and that might be no harm, because minors generally come through in very small numbers.

The main reason the Roscommon minors commanded so much attention was because they stood alone as a successful Roscommon under-age team of the last few seasons: very little was made last week about Mayo having an All-Ireland U21 title under the belt in the exact same time-span.

The un-nerving reality for Roscommon is that they just don’t have the players right now. Fergie and his management team have to go back to the start and look at the whole scene afresh. The rebuild will take a few seasons, and, indeed, the benefits – if any – may well fall the way of Fergie’s successor.

And what of Mayo? I have been too long watching Mayo football to take the slightest bit of notice of anything I saw on Saturday. Players who starred on Saturday could flop in the Connacht final.

Hopefully management will take a collective decision to expunge Saturday from the memory bank. It was far too easy to allow proper judgements be made. However, they are probably now tied into starting the exact same team for the Connacht final.

A Connacht final is an advanced stage to be learning about your team, but, given the paltry resistance offered by Roscommon and New York, Mayo go in there unsure of their real worth.